Nintendo president Satoru Iwata suggested the company is looking into automatically pushing demos to 3DS and Wii U systems -- with the owners' prior consent -- in order to expose those players to new experiences.
As part of a wide-ranging Q&A session with investors recently, Iwata acknowledged the power of the free-to-play model in attracting new users to mobile and social games, and suggested a twist on the model might work for Nintendo consoles.
"When Nintendo would like to ask users to try a specific new game, we should deliver it to their Nintendo 3DS, and possibly Wii U, with their prior consent and recommend that they just try it and, if they like it, they can pay for it," Iwata said. "In this way, we need to introduce users to unknown products."
The Nintendo president suggested such an auto-download feature would be most useful for exposing players to new IP, which they might be reluctant to spend money on sight unseen.
"Consumers are likely to be convinced to pay about 5,000 yen [about $61.50] for a well-established franchise product, but not all the people are willing to pay a certain amount of money for an innovative but unknown product," he said. "Now is the time to prepare for these situations."
In a previous investor Q&A last October, Iwata suggested the 3DS might be able to automatically obtain system updates over the Internet through the Spot Pass system.
A June 15 system update for the portable added an option to automatically download future system updates when in range of a wireless signal, though users still have to manually start the installation process after downloading.
Nintendo has only offered demos for a limited, rotating selection of WiiWare titles since first experimenting with demo downloads in late 2009, in stark contrast to more robust downloadable demo offerings from Sony and Microsoft.
It may just be because I'm not familiar with the 3DS system, but why "automatic"? Why not just a demo download system like already exists on PSN and XBox Live? With limited space on your 3DS you wouldn't want every demo being downloaded, especially if you were only interested in trying out particular games. If they're trying to get people to think about titles they normally wouldn't look at, why not just a notification system to say "Hey, listen. There's a new demo available."?
As a general rule, people are more likely to engage in what is already there as opposed to what they have to pursue.
For instance, their was an update for my 3DS that I was notified about. Did I update it then and there? No, I didn't want to take the time to download it (something that can be a huge factor depending upon network speed). Since then I got the aforementioned June 15th update, and when I was prompted about the next one that had ALREADY downloaded I let it go ahead and install because that would take mere seconds.
It's all about convenience.
Call it laziness or whatever you like, but I don't go out seeking demos for things I'm notified about unless it's an IP I'm familiar with. Now if that was already on my system . . . heck, why not?
I'm pretty sure there is a eShop notification function on the 3DS right now that will place a item on your main menu stating that a new item has appeard in the eShop.. this would just be a extension of that....
One thing i think Nintendo needs to do is provide an ability for indie developers to develop for their console like sony and microsoft has. It could pull in a lot of revenue for Nintendo and create a third party library for them.
For instance, their was an update for my 3DS that I was notified about. Did I update it then and there? No, I didn't want to take the time to download it (something that can be a huge factor depending upon network speed). Since then I got the aforementioned June 15th update, and when I was prompted about the next one that had ALREADY downloaded I let it go ahead and install because that would take mere seconds.
It's all about convenience.
Call it laziness or whatever you like, but I don't go out seeking demos for things I'm notified about unless it's an IP I'm familiar with. Now if that was already on my system . . . heck, why not?