I haven’t played any of the games yet, nor have I seen the stereoscopic 3D screen in action, but to me the “killer app” that will get this device into a lot of hands—young and old—is a 3D screen (sans glasses) coupled with the ability to take and make 3D content (via the cameras).
Oh, and the games, of course, but that’s related to the above: The games have the potential to become entirely new beasts once developers figure out how to perfectly couple the augmented reality-friendly hardware features mentioned above with their software. It will be gimmicky at first, always is (Ubisoft loves making the easy launch day bucks!), but it will get perfected over time, especially if the intense anticipation over this portable continues into 2012.
Oh, and I was totally wrong about the $189 price point, huh? Shoot. I can live with that. I can also live with the fact that the pessimistic $300 price did not come to be either. $250 is certainly expensive, sure, but the PSP arrived at that price and actually outsold the DS for a time before ultimately settling into a permanent 2nd place position.
But unlike the PSP (or PSP 2), developers and the public actually seem hungry for the 3DS. As such we won’t really see the waning effect that plagued the $250 PSP after its launch.
Speaking of the PSP 2, if it doesn’t have a stereoscopic 3D screen and a $250 price point, no one’s going to give a hoot if it’s “as powerful as the PS3.”
Powerful overpriced portables. That’s so 2005, right?
Last prediction: 3D console gaming won’t take off until glasses-free TVs are as ubiquitous as HDTVs are today. So, yeah, not for a long long while–if ever!