2D or Not 2D

Oh, Nintendo. What are you doing?

Day after day, year after year, I defend you. I stand up for you. I say, “Nintendo is an innovator, watching out for gamers of all ages.” I argue that Nintendo is still at the top of its game.

And then you go and do this to me.

3DS – 3D = 2DS…wait, what?

That, in case you haven’t heard, is the Nintendo 2DS. It’s a competitively priced handheld gaming system which plays both DS and 3DS games. Except it had no 3D capabilities. So it’s a DS. That plays 3DS games. Sort of.

I actually already have one of these. It’s called “Nintendo 3DS XL with 3D Slider Turned All the Way Down.” Okay, I confess, Nintendo 2DS has a better ring to it than that I guess.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not the concept that I have a problem with. I think it’s great that Nintendo is introducing a reasonably priced handheld gaming system capable of playing all its newest games. That’s not my problem.

Nor do I have a problem with the lack of 3D capabilities. I’ve seen it argued that this defeats the purpose of the whole ’3DS’ name, but they took care of that by changing the name.

Oh, and honestly, I don’t even have a problem with the design. I mean, it’s terrible and hideous, obviously, but since I won’t be getting one I don’t really care what it looks like.

No, my biggest problem is with the name. I understand the idea behind it. It’s better than a DS, but not quite a 3DS, but it will play both types of games. It’s a 3DS without the 3D. It’s 2D…so, 2DS. It does make sense. But my fear is the same one I had with the release of the Wii U. Will people who do not visit gaming news sites every day really understand what this is?

I kind of thought that Wii U just sounded like the educational version of the Wii. Of course, since I do visit game news sites every day, I knew what it actually was. But I also heard that the Wii U reveal at E3 last year confused a lot of people into thinking that the Wii U was just a simple upgrade to the Wii, not an entirely new system. Might these same people see the 2DS sitting next to the 3DS and assume it’s an older system?

I know, ultimately this won’t affect me directly, and I’m sure the confusion will blow over eventually. But I fear these kinds of decisions coming out of Nintendo. They are already looked at as the company “behind the times” since they don’t seem overly interested in competing directly with Microsoft or Sony. It was bad enough when Microsoft entered the gaming arena with the Xbox and hijacked the gamer image from Nintendo, painting them as a company that only made games for little girls and grandmas. The last thing I want is Nintendo itself confusing potential customers.

In any case, I hope the system is a success. I hope it draws in more gamers. But I also hope that when it’s time for another new system reveal, Nintendo does something that says, “we may be different, but we’re still relevant.”