Was it a mistake for Nintendo not to make a 3DS Player for the Wii U?

[Mr. Pointy]

An add-on with 3DS hardware built in that plugged into the Wii U and let you play 3DS and/or DS games on a TV and Wii U Gamepad. Like the old GBA Player for Gamecube or the Super Gameboy. The Wii U could support all the control schemes.

We got DS on the VC, but it feels like a missed opportunity on Nintendo's part to not get more 3DS connectivity on the Wii U. It looked like they were trying to unify the software of the two systems, but didn't go all the way. You could look up 3DS games on the Wii U eShop but you couldn't buy them. Your wallet carried over to both systems. And then... nothing.

I think a 3DS Player would have been a great value add-on to the Wii U. It may have given me an excuse to keep the console.

 

[Stopdoor]

Of course. Just because being able to output to TV is a killer feature for any console. But alas, all we can do is dream.

 

[Alvis]

Do you have any idea how fucking annoying was it to tilt your head one million degrees to look at the other screen

3DS games are designed with the idea that you can look at the second screen by just moving your eyes. Wii U doesn't work like that, which is why the whole gamepad idea sucked

 

[Brazil]

They'd probably already given up on the Wii U internally when it came to that.

 

[Deleted member 59109]

It wouldn't have made a difference to me because no 3DS games interested me anyway besides Link Between Worlds. I was fine with the Wii U library

 

[GamerJM]

I don't know if such a thing would be possible in the way it was for the GBA Player, which iirc were basically the GBA internals placed into its own device. Something like this probably would have ended up being expensive. The alternative would be to develop a 3DS emulator for the Wii U, which would have been resource intensive and run the risk of not having 100% compatability.

A better question is if it was a mistake to not have any way to output the 3DS to an external screen, to which I'd say absolutely. Especially in the age of streaming, it was kind of ridiculous that the New 3DS line didn't incorporate this when by that point Twitch had long taken off.

 

[Hieroph]

I don't know if such a thing would be possible in the way it was for the GBA Player, which iirc were basically the GBA internals placed into its own device. Something like this probably would have ended up being expensive.

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They were selling the OG 2DS for $80 with a digital game.

They absolutely could have applied that tech to make an add-on like this if they needed to do it with hardware.

 

[Glimlocker]

Yes!
I think of this quite often after playing the GB Player in GameCube.

They already had a DS Virtual Console with lots of display options, so I don't see why they couldn't have had something similar for the 3DS.

Huge missed opportunity to add some value to the Wii U.

 

[HotHamBoy]

It was a mistake to make the Wii U.

 

[RainbowIslands]

Stretching a 240p image to a TV would be something... Older games work better because it's pixel art. 3D graphics don't scale as well. That being said, Kid Icarus on a big screen would be interesting to play. Not sure how bad it'll look though.

 

[Efejota]

I think I'd only be interested if they bumped the resolution or framerate a bit. I remember there was a Crystal Chronicles DS game released for the Wii and it didn't seem terribly exciting to me.

What Nintendo really missed was on Virtual Boy re-releases on the 3ds. They could have used any colours in the spectrum to avoid the reds now, of even recreating them from the ground up like the 3D Classics series which a full colour scheme.

 

[Hieroph]

It was a mistake to make the Wii U.

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But once you've made a mistake, you should make the most of it.

Stretching a 240p image to a TV would be something... Older games work better because it's pixel art. 3D graphics don't scale as well. That being said, Kid Icarus on a big screen would be interesting to play. Not sure how bad it'll look though.

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You've heard of Virtual Console and PS Classics right? With lots of 3D games too, not just 2D. And that's some really old 3D, compared to the really modern and stylish design in 3DS games.

 

[HotHamBoy]

But once you've made a mistake, you should make the most of it.

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Sunk cost fallacy. Why continue to invest in hardware development that wasn't going to become profitable?

the ability to play 3DS games was not going to move many additional units. Wii U's problems were more systemic to the hardware itself. Plus, an add-on like that would have been, what, probably at least $100? It would basically be a 3DS hardware box with Wii U acting as pass through.

moving the internal focus to the next generation of hardware was the right move, even if it stung for Wii U owners (like me!).

 

[.exe]

Would it have been neat? Sure. Was it a mistake not to have it? Absolutely not. It wouldn't have moved the needle in any way.

 

[learning]

It was a mistake to make the Wii U.

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Yes.

 

[HighFive]

It was a mistake to make the Wii U.

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Sad thing, i still think that some first party games on Wii U got an edge over Switch releases. Woolly World is the better game vs Crafted World, 3D World got an edge over Odyssey ( personal preference here ), if 3DS was a thing on Wii U, Animal Crossing New Leaf so far feel like a more finished product than NH, and still think that Splatoon 1 play better with the dual screen than Sp2.Cannot comment on Kirby, Mario Tennis, havent play those, and two of their big games Mario Kart and BoTW were Wii U games. Im not saying here that Crafted World, Odyssey, SP2 and NH are bad games, just feel previous entries made a better impression for me. It just suck that the Wii U didnt work as intended.

 

[julian]

But how would it have hooked up to the system? It only had USB ports, are they good enough to handle this sort of add-on?

 

[King Kingo]

It was a mistake to make the Wii U.

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No it wasn't, the failure of the Wii U was critical to the success of the Nintendo Switch.

 

[AgeEighty]

I don't think such a thing would really work. DS/3DS games are meant to be played where you can see both screens at the same time. Wii U you really have to be looking at one or the other screen, unless you awkwardly hold the gamepad up.

 

[bounchfx]

It wouldn't have made a difference to me because no 3DS games interested me anyway besides Link Between Worlds. I was fine with the Wii U library

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wow this blows my mind! did you know of any other games on 3ds other than zelda? it has one of the best libraries of any console, especially when you consider it had ds backwards compatibility.

but the icing on the cake is that no 3ds games interested you, and somehow the wii u library was fine. I mean, it was a solid library considering the system, but still. dang dude!

 

[RainbowIslands]

But once you've made a mistake, you should make the most of it.



You've heard of Virtual Console and PS Classics right? With lots of 3D games too, not just 2D. And that's some really old 3D, compared to the really modern and stylish design in 3DS games.

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But those are made for TVs. 3DS games are made for a tiny screen, so for full 3D games (when blown up) will probably show a lot of cut corners.
That being said, I just saw a video of New Super Mario Bros (DS) on a wii u; the pixel art backgrounds hold up pretty well, the 3d models though... I guess it's pretty good considering the image was 192p.

But how would it have hooked up to the system? It only had USB ports, are they good enough to handle this sort of add-on?

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USB (2.0) ports probably won't be fast enough for cartridge read/write access. The system could potentially rip the whole thing into internal memory though, and write saves back after it's done.

 

[Darkstar0155]

The real thing that mayyyy have made a difference (an add on wouldnt have made a difference) was if they would have incorporated a 3ds cart port in the controller to begin with and charged a little more for the base unit like $350 vs the $300

 

[Deleted member 59109]

wow this blows my mind! did you know of any other games on 3ds other than zelda? it has one of the best libraries of any console, especially when you consider it had ds backwards compatibility.

but the icing on the cake is that no 3ds games interested you, and somehow the wii u library was fine. I mean, it was a solid library considering the system, but still. dang dude!

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The Wii U had DKTF which is tied for my favorite game of the gen, 3D World which is tied for my favorite Mario game, Mario Kart 8 which was a lot of fun, and Smash 4 which at the time was the best Smash game. The 3DS just doesn't have any answers to these. 3D Land<3D World, Mario Kart 7<Mario Kart 8, Smash 3DS<Smash Wii U, and there's just no answer to DKTF. Even for LBW the Wii U had a better alternative, BotW. Not to mention the HD Zelda remasters the Wii U got either.

 

[Eoin]

They were selling the OG 2DS for $80 with a digital game.

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By the time the 2DS reached that price point, the fate of the Wii U had long since been sealed.

What Nintendo really missed was on Virtual Boy re-releases on the 3ds.

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I would say that of all the opportunities Nintendo missed with the Virtual Console on 3DS and Wii U, that was somewhere near the bottom of the list. The Virtual Boy is a historical curio, nothing more, and would have resulted in a small number of people buying a single game while the vast majority of 3DS owners ignored them.

I think their biggest missed opportunity with old games on 3DS was that they started a range of 3D Classics and then, having done 6 games, left that concept entirely to Sega. With M2 on development, many of those Sega 3D Classics were excellent versions of older games, with new features and using the system's 3D. Until the SNES games (which were limited to New 3DS only), that left Sega as the headliner for retro games on a Nintendo console.

The real thing that mayyyy have made a difference (an add on wouldnt have made a difference) was if they would have incorporated a 3ds cart port in the controller to begin with and charged a little more for the base unit like $350 vs the $300

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Usually this kind of idea would just bog the system down with added costs, but I guess in the Wii U's case, it'd be difficult for sales to be all that much lower. So maybe this wouldn't have actively damaged Wii U sales to any noticeable extent. It sure wouldn't have helped though.

 

[//ARCANUM]

Do you have any idea how fucking annoying was it to tilt your head one million degrees to look at the other screen

3DS games are designed with the idea that you can look at the second screen by just moving your eyes. Wii U doesn't work like that, which is why the whole gamepad idea sucked

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avatar checks out. user has indeed titled their head ONE MILLION degrees.

 

[Darkstar0155]

Usually this kind of idea would just bog the system down with added costs, but I guess in the Wii U's case, it'd be difficult for sales to be all that much lower. So maybe this wouldn't have actively damaged Wii U sales to any noticeable extent. It sure wouldn't have helped though.

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Yeah I'm not saying it would have worked, but it's the only possible thing when it comes to the idea of anything "3ds" helping. At least if it wouldnt have added too much extra hardware costs as i would think they could do software emulation, and then some people would have seen it as "both libraries at once". Def worth the effort more than TVii ever was lol.

 

[HotHamBoy]

No it wasn't, the failure of the Wii U was critical to the success of the Nintendo Switch.

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While failure can lead to innovation and success, i don't think Nintendo requires failure as a prerequisite of either

if the Wii U had been better executed we may not have seen the Switch as it is, but it's also likely that development of the Switch began before Nintendo was even certain the Wii U was a failure. Likewise, had the Wii U been a success we still would have gotten a successor. It might have been the Switch as we know it, it might have been something different and just as successful.

the fact that Switch is also the 3DS successor is a factor here too

 

[Hieroph]

Sunk cost fallacy. Why continue to invest in hardware development that wasn't going to become profitable?

the ability to play 3DS games was not going to move many additional units. Wii U's problems were more systemic to the hardware itself. Plus, an add-on like that would have been, what, probably at least $100? It would basically be a 3DS hardware box with Wii U acting as pass through.

moving the internal focus to the next generation of hardware was the right move, even if it stung for Wii U owners (like me!).

Click to shrink...

Nintendo were already invested and they were already going to sink in more costs just to keep their home console going, or at least limping.

You know what the 3DS player will move more units of? 3DS games. That's a big profit maker for Nintendo and it also boosts the 3DS ecosystem. And it also gives them something more to sell to Wii U owners and keep them happier.

Let's say that Nintendo released this thing in 2014 for $60, when 3DS is having lots of games released and upcoming, like Majora 3D, Monster Hunter 4U, Persona Q, Fantasy Life, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and so much more. Maybe Nintendo could even work in some extra functionality for Smash. Would you really say no that? Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a Majora's Mask remake and so much more on your Wii U, and at 3DS game prices too?

At that point 3DS was still under 50 million, so Nintendo adding a few more million to the install base through a Wii U peripheral sure wouldn't have hurt. At that point Nintendo had to keep Wii U going, and 3DS was going all on its own, so combining the two is basically some free money in what was a tough situation for them. And it's something that's great for everyone. 3DS owners get something, Wii U owners get something, everyone's happy.

 

[OtterX]

Of all the things Nintendo could have done differently to support the Wii U, a 3DS player is pretty far down the list.

 

[justiceiro]

Lol, imagine how ironic: hey guys, remember when game cube failed and we tried to make a gba player to savage? Let's do it again!

What Wii u need was outstanding games, and and Mario maker came too late...

 

[Deleted member 59109]

Lol, imagine how ironic: hey guys, remember when game cube failed and we tried to make a gba player to savage? Let's do it again!

What Wii u need was outstanding games, and and Mario maker came too late...

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Good thing its most outstanding games came before Mario Maker.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Nintendo were already invested and they were already going to sink in more costs just to keep their home console going, or at least limping.

You know what the 3DS player will move more units of? 3DS games. That's a big profit maker for Nintendo and it also boosts the 3DS ecosystem. And it also gives them something more to sell to Wii U owners and keep them happier.

Let's say that Nintendo released this thing in 2014 for $60, when 3DS is having lots of games released and upcoming, like Majora 3D, Monster Hunter 4U, Persona Q, Fantasy Life, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and so much more. Maybe Nintendo could even work in some extra functionality for Smash. Would you really say no that? Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a Majora's Mask remake and so much more on your Wii U, and at 3DS game prices too?

At that point 3DS was still under 50 million, so Nintendo adding a few more million to the install base through a Wii U peripheral sure wouldn't have hurt. At that point Nintendo had to keep Wii U going, and 3DS was going all on its own, so combining the two is basically some free money in what was a tough situation for them. And it's something that's great for everyone. 3DS owners get something, Wii U owners get something, everyone's happy.

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First of all, no way in hell it would have been $60. It wasn't a $99 GBA without a screen like the GBA player, it was the $200 3DS hardware. The PS TV launched at $140! It didn't require a separate $300 console and still ended up in the bargain bin selling for as low as thirty dollars.

Second, you know what 3DS games sell? $200 3DS consoles.

it is not "free money" to develop a 3DS hardware box for Wii U pass through, that costs additional hardware and OS development plus marketing.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

No? Would have been nice but imo I can't imagine it would sell enough to justify its R&D.

a 3DS/DS player vertical grip that connects to the Switch's USBC tho, that be Very profitable at like $59.99 today

 

[ShiningBash]

The biggest mistake Nintendo made with the Wii U was failing to recognize the implications of Wii sales falling off a cliff. Instead of pivoting to a new direction with their successor console, they gambled on asychronous play via an ugly tablet being the next big thing after motion controls.

A 3DS player, better marketing, better naming, and better software release schedule might've doubled the Wii U's sales. Is 26m better than 13m? Sure, but no amount of peripherals was going to change the overall value proposition: a home console incapable of receiving current-gen ports that offered users an unappealing control mechanism.

 

[Hieroph]

First of all, no way in hell it would have been $60. It wasn't a $99 GBA without a screen like the GBA player, it was the $200 3DS hardware. The PS TV launched at $140! It didn't require a separate $300 console and still ended up in the bargain bin selling for as low as thirty dollars.

Second, you know what 3DS games sell? $200 3DS consoles.

it is not "free money" to develop a 3DS hardware box for Wii U pass through, that costs additional hardware and OS development plus marketing.

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You're forgetting the 2DS. It showed that the basic internals of 3/2DS were fairly priced, and one of the most costly parts was actually the 3D screen. No need for that in a "3DS player" for Wii U.

Nintendo isn't in the business of selling $200 hardware, they're in the business of selling games. Why do you think they were pushing the $80 2DS for so long? It's to sell more games.

Also you know what the PSTV is also known as? The PS Vita TV. That might have had something to do with how it did.

And sure, nothing actually is free money. You see a quarter on the street and you stop to pick it up, is that actually worth your time? That's "free money" but you still have to "work" to get it. It's the same for Nintendo and the 3DS player. Sure they would have to invest some work and money into it, but looking at the miserable state their home console business was in, that's as close to free money as they were going to get.