Nintendo of America 3DS event live blog

Courtesy of IGN. I’m sure Joystiq, Kotaku, et al will also do something similar. Maybe Engadget, too.

Takes place in New York. 9 AM EST, 6 AM PST.

Confirmed topics of discussion include the specific launch date (some time in March) for both the US and Europe, as well as pricing.

Questions that will hopefully be answered:

• Launch lineup: Japan’s kind of sucks.
• Standard pricing: 3DS games might cost $10 more than DS games.
• Friend codes: are they coming back?
• Region locking: yes or no?
• Color variants: rumors say that colors will vary by region.

 

Kotaku has a live blog up here.

Launch games confirmed so far include Pilotwings, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Kid Icarus, Street Fighter IV, Zelda: OoT, Resident Evil The Mercenaries. Easier access to the Virtual Console.

Retail price: $250. Launch date: March 27.

Only one universal friend code, instead of one for every damn game. Finally.

 

Definitely leaning that way.

 

Preordering now open on Amazon. Kotaku has a bunch of game demo videos, but I’m not going to link them because I’m feeling pretty lethargic about the 3DS right now.

 

Wait until the PSP is unveiled. If the rumored specs are correct, then $300 would be about right.

 

I caved. Preordered a black 3DS. I figure the combo of my PSP 2000 and 3DS will keep me happier than, say, a PSP2 and my DS Lite.

 

My bet is that the next gen will play out similarly to this gen; the Nintendo product will take the lead, the Sony product will catch up. The PSP is having a late life resurgence because it’s cheap for Japanese developers to release games on. The PSP2 won’t have that advantage.

 

Confirmed: 3DS game will cost $10-20 more than DS games.

Looks like $40 is the standard MSRP, up from $30, with some games daring to go higher. I’m going to hold off on Dead or Alive Dimensions until it drops in price. The rest looks alright.

Sony might be able to peel off some mindshare if they can drop PSP2 games’ MSRP below $40. If they’re sticking with digital distribution as the main method of selling games, then they could probably justify an MSRP of $35 or so: after all, publishers wouldn’t incur the costs of manufacturing UMDs, cases, designing box art, printing up instruction manuals, shipping to retailers, etc.

 

Same. I’m most highly interested in Dead or Alive Dimensions, but not at $50. I’ll wait for a price cut. The rest don’t inspire me, and I’m noticing that a lot of the tech and game press feels the same way, which is a change. Normally these people can’t wait to get their hands on Latest Nintendo IP Sequel XLV.

And to be fair, the DS had one of the worst launch lineups ever.

 

3DS’ eShop (nice ripoff of Apple’s iThing terminology there, Nintendo; as if putting a lower-case i in DSi wasn’t obvious enough) launches in May. Also, Pokemon Typing (yes, you use a Bluetooth keyboard attached to your 3DS…) and a new Kirby game.

Weird how the eShop isn’t launching day one with the 3DS.

 

I did. Playing Ghost Trick (DS game) on it right now. Not sure there are any 3DS games worth buying right now. Maybe Dead or Alive when that comes out, but it’s $10 overpriced.

Hardware’s alright. The 3D effect is more of a depth of field than a pop-up effect. I find that the 3D slider set at about 25% is plenty. The handheld itself is pretty light and thin. Initial setup is a bit of a joke, Nintendo still wants us to manually enter the date and time. Why not set up an internet connection first, then automatically get the date and time, Nintendo?

 

Just play DS games. I’m already halfway through Ghost Trick, with Dragon Quest VI and Lufia up next.

 

No, they don’t.

What happens is that, by default, the top screen on the 3DS is stretched out to fill the entire available space. It looks fine. But if you prefer the original resolution, you just hold Start and Select on the 3DS menu before loading the game. It’ll boot up with the original resolution. Easy.

 

I don’t blame you for waiting. They’ll probably come up with a better battery. Surprisingly, no one’s unleashing PSP-level venom at the 3DS’ battery. I guess that’s the nature of bias.

 

Sorry, can’t help you there. I have yet to play a single “real” 3DS game. I’ve been catching up my DS backlog. Finished Ghost Trick, currently near the end of Dragon Quest VI. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is next.

The first 3DS game I might try out is Dead or Alive Dimensions. Should be better than SF4.

Let us know how that works. I’m curious about it. Doesn’t look like it adds much bulk or weight, and the additional battery life would be welcome.

 

I recall reading that the Nyko charge cradle comes separately. Is that true? I’ve already gotten used to the stock charge cradle.

 

No wonder the battery is $20. The accessory costs 50% more!

The cradle just charges. But it’s there for convenience, since the stock battery requires so much recharging. Nintendo decided to make it easier to begin the charging process by just dropping the 3DS into a cradle rather than force you to find your charge cable, find an outlet, plug both ends in, etc. But convenience isn’t worth $30. What a ripoff.

 

It’s $30 for the bundle? I thought you were saying it was $20 for the battery by itself and $30 for the charge cradle separate.

$30 total for both is fine. I’ll order a battery just before the release of a 3DS game I actually want to play.