At a recent shareholders' Q&A session, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke about introducing new releases to unfamiliar gamers through automatically downloaded demos. Just like agreeing to StreetPass or SpotPass, players would confirm their interest in receiving the content, which would later show up automatically. Speaking to shareholders, Iwata explained:
At a past shareholders' meeting, we received the opinion that Nintendo should improve the design of its digital software distribution shop, and I think that we made measurable progress with Nintendo eShop. Additionally, when Nintendo would like to ask users to try a specific new game, we should deliver it to their Nintendo 3DS, and possibly Wii U, with their prior consent and recommend that they just try it and, if they like it, they can pay for it. In this way, we need to introduce users to unknown products. Consumers are likely to be convinced to pay about 5,000 yen for a well-established franchise product, but not all the people are willing to pay a certain amount of money for an innovative but unknown product. Now is the time to prepare for these situations.
How would you like the "New software has been added to the HOME Menu" message to surprise you when you open your 3DS?
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments 39
Ick, I turned automatic downloads off on my PS3 cause it gave me stuff I'd never play anyways. If you want to add something actually helpful, Nintendo, allow us to download stuff in the background while we play something else.
I think it's a great idea. With the dsishop, I didn't know which games to buy whenever I bought a dsipoint card but with this, my problem shall be solved. Make it possible NIntendo! Fans of Nintendo 3DS won't be dissapointed.
@MechaPhoenix:
This is Nintendo we are talking about. I think most Nintendo products are worth trying out so I don't think you'll be disappointed. You can delete them if you don't want them anyways.
As long as I could delete if I didnt like it that would be cool. I just wouldnt want the memory getting full of junk demos.
But I wouldn't want to download it, just to delete it again.
Background download, that's all I want.
I hate demos
I hope Nintendo's not onkly talking about 3DSWare games but of course full retail games(imagine officially demo from Super Mario a month or so before the launch, that would be great!).
What's the big deal about background downloads? Anything I've ever downloaded from the eShop has taken all of 60 seconds to complete. It's not like on PS3, where a single demo takes 10 minutes.
I agree with Aviator, It could be a good idea as long as it happens in the background
I think it's good, I download all the demos anyway.
Personally i'd like that.
But considering how many people here don't want to download certain demos i think there could be another solution.
How about just having sent a message to your 3DS that you can download a new demo. You "click" on it and land directly in the eShop where with another touch you can download the demo. Maybe there could be a button for background download too.
I am in agreement about the background downloads. I would also like to see demos for all games just like on Xbox Live, not just select titles.
That would be great, as long as it doesn't kill the mb allowance for my modem.
Great idea.
f*ck yes! hopefully they do better with the demo system than they provided for wiiware lol!
Giving players random suprises is a big part of 3DS's functionality, no? I always enjoyed it when my Wii began to shine blue... Of course a lot of times it just meant I had received messages to my message board, but after turning them off most messages have been of importance!
Good idea, but I prefer a chat for the friends system. If they are looking for ways of improving the online experience, I think a chat is essential.
sounds like a good idea to me. you never know you make get a demo from a game you would have never gaved a second look at and then decide to purchase it in the long run. and plus not all people agree with certain reviews of a game, so if you take a look at a game a month from purchase it sounds like a win win to me.
DONT JUST TEASE ME, NINTENDO!!!
the 3DS is already out since march and there is so little to do other than playing old ds games
Of course the demos would download in the background! A similar thing happened with the latest system update. I went to sleep with my system in sleep mode, an woke up with the update on my system (all I needed to do was install the update).
It's going to be fun to try and download the Mario Kart demo before spotpass takes effect.
i want to download them manually. thanks
i mean, what would happen if my sd card is full ? theyll annoy me to make some room everyday ? no way.
Yeah I like to manage my content. Please give us the choice: automatically download demos, or select to download demos.
I think the bottom line here is to improve demo content nintendo.
Iwata says:
"and recommend that they just try it and, if they like it, they can pay for it. "
I don't think he is talking about retail "demos" per say, but Wiiware games that people might not want to try, but they try them anyway b/c it's there, and if they like it they buy it. Maybe it's semantics on my part, and yes they'll play like demos, but not demos of full games where this is a part, demos of complete games so you can just click on "BUY IT" without downloading anything else. This will probably get them some extra sales but many people will just turn "auto" off.
Just give us demos to begin with.
"Consumers are likely to be convinced to pay about 5,000 yen for a well-established franchise product, but not all the people are willing to pay a certain amount of money for an innovative but unknown product."
Kof Solatorobo Kof
@Mully
The idea of background downloads isn't just for the wait time for long downloads... it's the idea of browsing the shop for the next thing to download. I tend to want it to download in the background while I look around the shop.
Multiple downloads would just be sweet for me, as I often don't just buy one thing at a time on virtual products.
awesome! Bring it on.
This is the kind of marketing that Nintendo needs and sorely lacks. If you don't like it, delete it. If you don't even know where to find it, you'll never know it exists. Most consumers (at least here) are dumb or lazy or both, this will show them content that most of them would never bother looking up.
Probably half of console/ portable owners NEVER go to these shops at all, so if a cute game pops up on your menu and you like it, then you'll buy it, end of story. Thats waaaay fool proof marketing for some of the mass market they're trying to reach.
That's good news. It will save me from buying games that really sucked ... ugh ... Ghostslayers, Magic Obelisk ... money wasted.
"Just like agreeing to StreetPass or SpotPass, players would confirm their interest in receiving the content, which would later show up automatically."
for those that seemed to have missed it, it would be a choice. I would turn it on.
would be great to have video conference and voice chat and ofc chat with friends.
For those of you not aware of it, iphone/ipad have lots of free "Lite" versions of games as they call them. They are in fact demos which you can play before you buy, and get a good idea about the game, first hand. It doesn't shove it down your throat.Bad idea! It gives you a freebie and a choice! Not every game has a "Lite" version but most decent games do!
that is how it should be!
I don't want auto demos that are dictated to me by Nintendo.
I want be able to see all the demos and choose the ones I want to play and when I want to play them.
Why does Nintendo always have to make things awkward!
Um... No. I don't like downloading random demos.
If I understand correctly, the idea is that you show your interest in certain games, and then Nintendo automatically sends you demo's for it. Well, that's not bad, I guess. Though I would prefer the demo's to be still available in the shop, Because Nintendo doesn't need to know in wich games I am interested. Besides, if the demo's are so scarce (look at Wiiware) I'll download them all even if the game doesn't interest me. And I will never use spotpass or Streetpass.
^Nintendo would love to know what games you purchase, as whatever/whoever makes them enough money(as they see fit), they will cater to.
they should do it itll help make gaems better posibbly b4 the get released
Kinda interesting, it would give exposure to games with gamers otherwise would be unnoticed.
I imagine it will probably work as it did with the PokeDex...
It will download an icon to your home menu and when you click it, it will prompt you to download.
3DSware and Dsiware demos will be great but if they want to push a retail game mabey they would be able to make a small enough demo for the system, I know 3DS games have much larger capacity carts but I think some parts of some of the retail games without the video clips and suchlike may be able to get stripped down for a demo.
Mario Kart with one or two courses and a generic driver just like the DS download play shouldnt be too large and the Street Fighter demo that is included on the retail version that you send to your friends should be small enough for a retail demo.
I hope something like this happens around the next E3
I'd like it so I wouldn't have to waste time downloading stuff when it automatically gives you it.
Tap here to load 39 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...