“What’s with the Nintendo 2DS?” That’s what a lot of gaming and tech blog readers were up in arms about yesterday. Following the announcement, I couldn’t look at Twitter without being blasted by people yelling about how dumb the system’s design was.
Well, sure, the Nintendo 2DS looks silly. But, as I pointed out in the reaction article that ran a few hours following the news, its design means that it’s simply not meant for folks like us. Nintendo isn’t building the 2DS for young adult and adult consumers, they’re making it for kids.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed as much with CNBC. In fact, Fils-Aime named the rough ages that Nintendo is targeting with the 2DS.
“By taking out the [3D] feature, it allows us to effectively target very young kids; five, six, seven years old. So, for us, we think it’s a great market opportunity.”
Fils-Aime skipped over the reason for the slate-like form factor for the Nintendo 2DS. With the five, six, seven year old demographic in mind, removing the hinge on the gaming system means that there’s no hinge to break. Kids break these things all the time, and that problem is eliminated with the 2DS.
I said it before, I’ll say it again, the Nintendo 2DS is not for us. We can buy it, by all means, but Nintendo designed it with our children and little siblings in mind.
