So yesterday I was looking to spend the money left on my 3ds account and came across xenoblade chronicle 3d and it seemed pretty good so I went to the store to find out it was only playable on the new 3ds?

this may not be news but it was to me, I dont think its fair to call the system the new 3ds and it being a completely different one, instead of a new sku. I get that it has an extra "stick" but it has the same name ish. The ds and dsi shared library didnt they% the 3ds and 3ds xl too. I get that it's a little diferent but I find it ridiculous.

this may be more of a rant than a forum thread but I wanted to know your opinions on this, am I overreacting? Are they asking devs to make two versions of their game or to just forget the 3ds altogether?

Yeah, that's pretty much my opinion on it, although it's more of a "half-step" towards a new handheld, rather than a whole new one. Thus far, I think Xenoblade Chronicles is the only game that's exclusive to the New 3DS, but if I'm not mistaken, some recently released games are supposed to run better on the new 3DS.

Yea the only game I wanted to play...Then again I shouldn't be surprised coming from the company who named the successor to the wii the wiiU

No. Its just a new hardware addition that will be pointless in 6 months as no one supports it.

See: Gameboy Color, N64D, DSi, Wii Motion Plus, etc.

Between WiiU and New 3DS , Nintendo needs an overall at their advertising department.

@billsk8: The biggest difference that makes Xenoblade exclusive to the new one is that it has a more powerful CPU. It's still a bullshit half-assed new system, but its still a new system.

If there could ever be an expansion pack for a console I think this would be it.

It's not really a whole new handheld. This is the DSi to the DS, essentially. Across-the-board improvements with some exclusive functionality that a developer can choose to use if they so please.

I think Xenoblade Chronicles will be one of the only of its kind, personally. Most games aren't going to want to limit their user base like that. I think what we'll mostly see is games like Monster Hunter 4 that have slightly better graphics and load times on the N3DS, but will still be totally compatible with the old model.

@billsk8: I'm curious how long you've been into Nintendo handhelds, because they've been doing this for years. The Game Boy Color & the DSi are prime examples.

I'm pretty sure the DSi had some games that wouldn't play on the original DS too. This is by no means a new thing.

Yeah it is a bit of a weird one, not sure they made it clear enough really. I don't think many games will be released exclusive to it though, so personally I probably wont be getting one.

God knows why they thought New 3ds was a good name.

@creepingdeath0 said:

Something like 1-3 DSi-only games existed that used the built-in cameras in some weird AR ways (which the regular DS didn't have), but I don't believe any games ever came out that made use of the slightly better CPU on the DSi. The CPU increases seemed to exist solely to facilitate better firmware, internet connectivity, the bad Opera-based browser, etc. Didn't seem to ever help out any games.

The Game Boy Color and New 3DS seem to have more in common, in that even when all the branding of new games switched over to Game Boy Color packaging, a good number of those games worked on either hardware.