Geek Cutlure, Extra Culture: Response to 3DS.

Recently Nintendo announced the followup to the mega-selling DS, the 3D capable 3DS. It will be released sometime between April 2010 and March 2011, it will be able to display 3D graphics without the need of glasses and it will probably have the capabilities of an underpowered Gamecube.
This news actually annoys me a bit. Why? Because if you recently bought a DSi or a DS XL, you now have roughly a year to enjoy your handheld before it’s officially old technology.
I realize this is how Nintendo does things. They release a lousy handheld and then screw over the early adopters with a better model not too long after release, and repeat the process until it’s time to release a new handheld and start all over again.
Hell, in an a way, that’s just how technology works. The first iPhone was a bit of laggy joke compared to the 3G, and that’s now showing it’s age next to the 3GS.
But regardless of that, it still feels too soon for a new DS, even when you consider that it was released in 2004.
The DSi and it’s online store has just recently managed to produce some great content. Give it another 2-3 years, and it could grow into something great, maybe even finally delivering the downloadable Gameboy and Advance games often rumored about.
This isn’t even mentioning the DSi exclusive games we have heard about. What have we seen so far, one game? A little more time would give developers an opportunity to really experiment with those two cameras, Nintendo.
There’s also the fact that this really doesn’t make much sense from a business standpoint when you consider the DSi XL. The newer handheld is only a year away. Couple that with the fact that, according to Kotaku, you will not be able to transfer DSi Ware games, do you really think anyone will seriously put down money on the XL when they could just wait for the newer model?
You could argue that casual gamers who don’t this kind of news probably would. Which is a fair point. But don’t you think those casual users would be pissed to find out that they need to buy a new system just to enjoy some Avatar like effects?
Nintendo isn’t exactly hurting for money at the moment. They could probably push back the new DS and give their hardware some more time to mature, and keep this nerd from nuking his savings account for a little while longer.