After his launch experience, Nick shares some of his thoughts and predictions about the system's performance at market.
Just yesterday, the 3DS launched in the American market, with the European launch preceding it by two days. Obviously, the entire Internet is in a tizzy over its launch, as is to be expected; however, how was the system really received at market? Based on my launch experience, it's clear it didn't reach the levels Nintendo saw with the Wii.
As a matter of fact, it almost seems like the DS will have sold better on launch day than the 3DS. Yes, I'm being somewhat facetious, but really, next to no one was at the Walmart midnight 3DS launch. There were exactly two other people there and between the three of us customers, a grand total of three games and three systems were purchased.
After going to bed around 2AM, I woke back up at about 7:30AM and made my way over to Toys R Us for their 10AM opening. Absolutely no one was there when I arrived and while perusing for some things for my son with Chessa, I saw no one else come in looking for 3DS stuff. We grabbed Steel Diver and Pilotwings Resort and left, but it didn't seem like there was much interest, even among the staff on shift.
I did notice that Toys R Us and Walmart both had pretty light stock on the system, with each having somewhere around 20 units available. That's not much at all, especially when I know that the Walmart I bought my Wii from had well over 100, and many people were turned away because of short stock.
Jason Ross had a similar experience to my own, with there being seemingly little interest around his town. Reading up on message boards around the web, this appears true elsewhere as well.
So, what does it all mean? Probably nothing, really, but I'm guessing that the sell through on launch day was not too impressive and it doesn't seem that stock of the system was very high for launch either.
My DS launch experience was pretty similar, though there was even less interest in that when it was released. As a matter of fact, Walmart didn't even realize they were releasing some sort of new product and couldn't find me a system at midnight, forcing me to come back in the morning. Even then, they couldn't find their shipment of games.
Much like the DS, I think the 3DS will have a slow burn before it explodes in popularity. Unlike the DS, the 3DS launch line up actually has some stuff worth buying and playing.
After talking with Jason Ross yesterday, we both agree it's likely that people will need to play the system and see the 3D effect before they can really grasp why it's worth owning.
By the holidays, I predict that enough kids will have seen the system that they'll be requesting one from their parents. At this point, I think we'll see a full phasing out of the DS and full-fledged movement to the 3DS.
I'll be anxiously awaiting some sort of figures from Nintendo, but I won't be surprised if it didn't perform spectacularly this weekend. Other than that, I'll say that the system is spectacular and a huge improvement from the DS, just as I expected it to be.
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