SpentAllMyTokens

@argus Can't agree with you more. People won't buy digital when they can get the physical cart for cheaper.

@3DSLuigi And what happens when you lose your cart or it breaks? You're even more SOL than if you had a downloadable version. At least with a downloadable version, you can send your 3DS into Ninty for repairs if it breaks or transfer your profile to a new console and just redownload the game for free. Something happens to the cart and all you can do is buy a new one.

I've also never heard of anyone having a downloaded game get corrupted. The only way I could see that happening is if you mod your system - but even then it seems like the whole console just gets bricked. Ninty's QA on downloadable titles seems to be just as strong as retail.

What I find obnoxious is that instead of being likely to find the best price on the eshop, I'd be better off going to a store, buying a card for a bit less than the boxed version, then downloading it. That's not convenient at all. NSMB2 will probably not drop in price for a while, but what about less well known franchises that hit the bargain bin in 6 months?

A straight download from the eshop is the cheapest way to sell a game. Nintendo could split the difference with the customer and have it be a win-win, but it looks like retailers win this round.

I'm going to download. Here's why:

I don't really sell/trade-in my games. Nintendo only maintains backwards compatibility for one generation. If I buy the physical copy of the game, I know I'd be able to play it on the 4DS, but I probably wouldn't want to for the nostalgia hit until the 5DS (or whatever).

Software emulation is generally possible for games 2 systems behind. Theoretically, I could be able to transfer the digital game indefinitely into the future. This is by no means confirmed - but I know for sure the physical copy will be useless once backwards compatibility for the 3DS dies.

With the Nintendo Network coming, hopefully getting my 3DS lost or stolen won't be an issue anymore. However, there are lots of reports of people getting their games back with a police report and everything registered to Club NIntendo, so I'm not worried.

I don't think we should take anyone seriously as a professional who uses the word "suck" to describe anything. That hasn't been a valid argument since kids were fighting over Sega vs. Nintendo.

That being said, while I think his point that the WiiU is unlikely to see the popularity, he really ruins his credibility by pulling out sourceless claims. The Wii had a classic controller at, or very near to, launch, and the classic controller pro has been around for years . It seems very unlikely to me that Nintendo WOULDN'T have a traditional controller available.

It's been a great run James! Have an awesome time at Nintendo!

Hopefully, some of these games will be NEW, and they just needed some more time before they were ready to be shown.

This must be for little kids with Angry Birds plushes but no idevice/cell phone yet and parents who don't understand what the internet is.

What I want to know is when we'll see the inevitable Saturday morning cartoon. It's no worse a premise than any other 80's half-hour long animated toy ad.

Definitely going to be picking up mighty switch force. Talk about a sweet deal.

Congratulations James! It's wonderful to see that all of your hard work has finally landed you a paying gig - and at Nintendo no less. This has definitely been well-deserved for a while. Best of luck in Germany - you're going to have so much fun. However, it's truly the end of an era.

Congrats to Damien as well. This site is lucky to have such a wonderful team all around.

Not interested in vvvvvv, but it's sweet to see some sales finally. Yay for nintendo!

I think i'm going to have more than my fill of 2D mario in the near future. This one will definitely be the one I pick up though, since I spend so much more time playing portable games.

Europeans - buy tons of games and convince Ninty that sales are profitable!

I'd buy SML here in the US, but I already got it.

Not surprising at all after the DSiXL, though I must say, I prefer the smaller version for portability.

I'm glad they didn't add a second circle pad for this model, since it can't really replace the many 3DS's on the market (portability is key). They'd need to release a regular sized 3DS "pro" model or something, so anyone could upgrade.

It's not anything against shooters, just like movies different audiences need different things. Pixar movies are "kids" movies, but everyone can find them enjoyable. Same with Nintendo games. Graphic action movies can certainly be good, but they're not for everyone. He just has a different focus than the M rated game developers do.

The problem is that there are still a lot of technologically inept and neglectful parents who don't understand how different the libraries are between an Xbox360 and the "Nintendo-box" that babysat them as a kid.

$250-$300 would be the sweet spot for me. I can hold out for a bit given my Wii backlog otherwise (though if I can play some Wii games on the tablet only, that would be a nice feature that would help me power through my backlog).

I'm not too worried about it. I was worried about the 3DS's battery life, but I've found it to last much closer to the 5 hour than the 3 hour mark for me when playing - and much longer if I'm playing a DS game. It can sit in sleep mode for pretty much forever as well. Nintendo does give pretty accurate/conservative battery life assessments, unlike some other companies I use (I'm looking at you Apple).

I've already got Kirby's Adventure, Kirby's Dreamland, and Kirby Super Star on the VC, so it'll be cheaper to just get the rest of the games I want that way too at this point. I like Kirby, but I skipped the Mario collection for the same reason, and no regrets (well, maybe a little bit of regret, since I played the All Stars version more as a kid than the NES versions).

I don't have a problem with them offering this option to third parties. I'd rather not see ads everywhere though - I'd rather pay a bit of $$$ than have ads everywhere. Once you start putting ads places, it's a slippery slope and then they're everywhere, because people start expecting them (see - cable TV, Xbox).

This could actually save Nintendo a lot of money/time/effort in Miiverse moderation. Just block consoles that play COD and you probably won't have any problems.

Nintendo did win the "Cutest Gaming Executives" award at E3, no doubt. That picture with the Pikmin is absolutely adorable.

Meh, it's not like they'll have much to moderate anyway. It's not like many people actually connect their nintendo systems to the internet.

As long as I can see friends' posts instantly, that's fine with me. I would prefer a heavily moderated Miiverse. I don't want to be spammed with 12 year olds with neglectful parents' XBL chat.

Also, since your home screen will show games you don't have (I think this is a great way to promote EShop games which is desperately needed), hopefully, it will be possible to choose to remove certain games you're not interested in at all. Probably 90% of the bad stuff you could be exposed to could be taken care of by deleting any COD game from your home screen.

When Ubisoft wins E3, you know there's a problem. I think Ninty could have easily had a better showing, if they had squeezed more into the main presentation. The Nintendo direct on Sunday at least could have fit in there, and most of the announcements I was interested in happened outside the presentation, which is fine. It was just crazy to me how they said that the main presentation would be about the games...and then...there just weren't that many games.

I'll tell you though, now that I know the shop channel is transferring, if I can play Wii games on the tablet only (at least VC games and Wii games you play with the classic controller/wiimote on it's side), I will pick it up day one. With a shared TV, it can be difficult to get through the backlog.

I think Ninty really screwed up in splitting their presentation up. A lot of their best announcements were outside the main e3 presentation. There was a lot of fat to be trimmed from the E3 presentation script. People don't have time to follow 3 presentations and a developer roundtable.

That being said, they did not convince me that they had a "killer app" for their new console. They should have seen this coming.

True user accounts and a Wii->WiiU transfer system. THIS is what I was hyped to hear about at E3. Offer Gamecube, Sega CD, and Dreamcast games on the VC and I will be super psyched.

Anyone else wish Nintendo would make a real theme park? How sweet would that be?!

That is pretty good - I don't really notice the difference between 60 fps and 30 fps. If you have to go from 30 to 15 though, that would probably be icky. I'm sure updates and later games will improve though - this may not be a permanent limitation.

Why was this not shown? They could have easily split off some of the half hour allotted mini game collection time from NintendoLand.

They shouldn't have broken their E3 up into 3 presentations. There was more than enough time for everything they had in that hour and a half. So much wasted space.

Really? Nintendoland....Worst E3 ever.

Hopefully they'll have an awesome closer...maybe a 3rd 2-d Mario game. Because there aren't enough of those releasing this year!

....zzzzzz

Whatever. They want to sell consoles, they just need to use the miiverse to create a pokemon mmo. Done.

Yeah, def. looks like the pack-in (at least if they want people to own it). I guess, at least it's not an angry birds kinect clone.

Needs a name change.

ugh. Show, don't say!

The Ubisoft conference did a better job of showing off WiiU than the Nintendo one has so far. Hopefully things will start looking up!

You could detail the slate, if the presentation writers had trimmed the fat from Reggie's script.

OMG you guys! There are going to be gold coins in Mario!

Microsoft at least got Usher to spice the show up, and Dance Central is a GOOD game.

Nope.

Vitality Sensor?

A little less conversation; a little more action, please!

Yeah, what happens when the Xbots get one of these for Xmas?

Sick day today - but don't worry. My body is ready.

I'm not going to pay more than $300 for it. Usually the Yen price matches the dollar price, though given that the Yen has been strong for a while, we'll see if they continue that trend.

Meh, good for those who prefer bigger screens - but if it's just a 3DS XL, I'm not interested - I carry mine around and play it mostly on the train. If they have a regular sized 3DS with a second circle pad, I could see having to cave and buy one when a game comes out that I want that forces me to use dual analog control.

I've questioned about moderating this on another thread, but I think this is interesting that everyone has usernames....

I don't see this being used that much in games. Nintendo's going to have such strict moderating policies and some of that won't be able to be moderated with simple algorithms because of handwriting (seriously, how do you police for every spoiler and penis drawing). Or are they just going to rely on parental controls for the obscene and...I don't know for the spoilers.

Stupid work - why can't the presentation be at like 3 pm Pacific time (6 pm ET)?Then I could watch it afterwards. Can't decide if I want to have the live blog open, or just do a media blackout and catch it when I get home.

No. I don't think this is a good idea. I am having trouble finding the time to finish skyward sword, but I'd have trouble doing it in episodes too - and an episode model would be more expensive. I just want deeper characterization, a more open/non linear world to explore, and a smaller overworld. I spend too much time flying between islands in Skyward Sword.