Games Inbox: Crysis pirates, 3DS hardware sales, and more Street Fighter IV
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
Unknown quantity
When you consider the price of a 3DS launch title will cost the consumer between £35 and £40 on the High Street I’m not that shocked game sales have failed to dominate the sales charts. I do however find poor hardware sales quite astonishing considering in my opinion as to what I have played, this could be the most impressive piece of gaming kit ever released. I’ve only played the gob-smacking Face Raiders so far and have Ghost Recon and the AR cards to look forward to.
Ste C
GC: There is no confirmation that 3DS hardware has been selling poorly, merely industry rumours. Which makes it all the more frustrating that official sales figures are never released in Europe.
Marketing nightmare
I know it’s very early days but I was not shocked to read the 3DS underperforming sales wise. I work with five other people in the office, most are not what you would regard as gamers. All of them have a DS or regularly use their iPhone as a gaming device with the likes of Brain Training and Bejeweled being preferred, although I have managed to convince some of them to be adventurous and give Plants Vs Zombies a go.
When I mentioned the 3DS coming out on Friday not one of them knew what the 3DS was, all of them simply thought It was yet another tweak of the DS this time with a 3D gimmick.
I think the whole marketing is wrong, the adverts on TV are vague and show nothing. Matters aren’t helped by it looking at first glance near identical to its predecessor, the game boxes look identical and even the name 3DS suggests yet another DS update.
Still, like I said its very early days and word of mouth should help but Nintendo really need to get the message out this is a new console and not a DS rehash.
I also think the games are far too expensive; £35 for Pilotwings Resort is way overpriced when I can buy Infinity Blade for the iPhone at £3.49 and Speedball 2 for 59p (seems to be on permanent sale at this price now).
PE
GC: To be fair to Nintendo they can’t show off anything of the 3D effect unless you see the console in the flesh. There’s not really anyway around that problem in terms of a TV advert.
Less than direct
I just have to share my exasperation at Tesco Direct. I went for the 3DS pre-order with £10 game deal, they said they’d send me an email with a voucher with the game… they didn’t send me one. When I chased it up they assured me it would arrive in my inbox by Friday… it didn’t. An hour I spent in store trying to get them to sort it out on Friday, 3DS in hand, they said they’d sort it out ASAP and someone would ring to double check… they didn’t.
I sent an angry email on Friday night to customer services, complaining about my useless 3DS. They rang me on Saturday and left a sarcastic voicemail saying I’d used a different email to that on my account so I’d obviously checked they wrong one… I hadn’t, I’d checked them all and spam galore.
Finally they gave up and gave me a discount code, so today (Monday) I gleefully rode two miles to Tesco to pick up my copy of Street Fighter… I paid, put out my hands with a big grin on my face. ‘Come in anytime after Wednesday 4pm to pick it up.’ I’d checked twice on Friday that they held stock of the games. ‘Yeah, yeah we’ve got the games in’… they don’t.
Jokeb (gamertag)
Dimensional controls
Many people are probably confused like me about the 3D slider on the 3DS, I know each game is different and each person’s eyes are different but what should we be putting the 3D slider on? Is putting it on maximum just for rare uses or should it be on that most of the time? I don’t want to be missing out if I have it on a lower setting and I also don’t want to keep fiddling about with it.
I’ve also found when I’ve gone to read your glorious pages after playing the 3DS that I can’t concentrate on the words properly, almost like they’re in half 3D which is odd, I just have a feeling we shouldn’t be frying our brains to much with this thing, we probably should be taking breaks from it more often.
Bobbleheaddy
GC: Think of it like a volume control. There is no right or wrong setting, you just set the strength of the 3D effect to whatever seems appropriate at the time. You should certainly be taking breaks from long lengths of play, many games remind you of this while you’re playing them.
Just one more mint
As much as I love 2D fighters if Capcom think I’m going to pay for Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition they can go do one… I really do want it though.
DlSPOSABLE HERO (gamertag)
GC: It does look like it’s going to happen, despite Capcom’s promises to the contrary. However there’s nothing to say the, fairly minimal, extras won’t be available as a download as well.
Late to the party
Just wanted to say, even though it’s a bit late, that A Shadow’s Tale on Wii is an absolute gem of a game. Fairly low key and unfairly overlooked, it’s full of lots of clever ideas, bags of character and moments of wonder. It has issues for sure, but anyone who wants something a little different that’s very relaxing to play, could do themselves a favour and pick this up.
Stuart Wheeler
Inbox also-rans
Has anyone else had the idea of taking a pic of the face of David Walliams’ character Anne from Little Britain, to use in Face Raiders on their 3DS? EH-EH-EHHHH!
Xooberon 1160-9713-4410 (3DS) Add me!
I know it’s nothing to do with video games but wouldn’t the film The Ring be great in 3D?
bumplummer (gamertag/PSN ID)
Is it wrong to be waiting for a game so bad (or good) that Nigel Humdrum reviews it?
half_empty80 (PSN ID)
Anybody know of any good yakuza films? I bet there must be loads.
Ginty
This week’s Hot Topic
Given the launch of the Nintendo 3DS last Friday there’s only one obvious topic of conversation for this week’s debate.
Feel free to keep sending in your first impressions and questions to the normal weekday Inbox, but for the Hot Topic itself we want to hear your considered reactions to the 3DS – now that it’s actually out. What do you think of the 3D effect? What are you favourite games? And what do you make of the hardware?
Do you think the 3DS will be as successful as the DS and how do you predict it will fare against the PSP2/NGP and the rise of the smartphones? What kind of games or existing franchises do you want on the 3DS and if you don’t have one what would need to happen for you to buy one?
E-mail your comments to:
gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk
The small print
New Inbox updates appear twice daily, every weekday morning and afternoon. Letters are used on merit and may be edited for length.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word 4Player viewer features at any time, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
If you wish to vote in the Readers’ Top of 2010 simply send us an e-mail with a list of your three favourite games of the year so far. Please vote only for games released in the UK during 2010.
Please wait while we file your abuse report.
Report Abuse
Obscenity/VulgarityHate SpeechPersonal AttackAdvertising/SpamCopyright/PlagiarismOther Cancel
Please wait while we send the email.
Email This
You may send this to 5 e-mail addresses. Please separate each address with a space.
Email 
Delicious 
Digg 
Facebook 
LinkedIn 
Messenger Connect 
MySpace 
Copy to Clipboard 
Reddit 
Slashdot 
StumbleUpon 
Tumblr 
Twitter 
Yahoo! Buzz
Score
vote upvotes up
vote downvotes down
Article source: http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/859426-games-inbox-crysis-pirates-3ds-hardware-sales-and-more-street-fighter-iv