Sony’s Yoshida was shocked by 3DS Circle Pad accessory, comments on price drop
Dual analog controls were something that fans would have been interested in seeing with the PSP. Responding to those requests, Sony made it a point to include two sticks for Vita. Nintendo also had the opportunity to include dual analog controls with their new portable, the 3DS, but opted for one Circle Pad instead.
As we saw just recently, however, Nintendo wasn’t satisified with one analog nub. That’s why they introduced the 3DS Circle Pad accesorry that numerous high-profile titles will take advantage of.
The additional Circle Pad attachment caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first revealed. Even some third-party developers aren’t pleased with the news.
You might be wondering what Sony thinks about the 3DS Circle Pad attachment. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s worldwide studios, actually said in a recent interview that “It was a bit shocking to see what they came up with.”
Here’s his full remarks:
“Well it’s not like they looked at PS Vita and said ‘we need to do that as well.’ I don’t know. It’s clear that they didn’t believe a second analog was necessary when they designed the 3DS, so I can only guess it was requested by Capcom’s side. Maybe a Capcom producer told Nintendo that to play Monster Hunter we need [two] analog sticks. That I don’t know, so I can only guesstimate. It was a bit shocking to see what they came up with.”
Yoshida also commented on a second controversial 3DS happening: the price drop. He was asked if it is exciting to see Nintendo seemingly react to Vita’s hype. While responding to this, Yoshida added that “I like to see healthy competition between Nintendo’s system and ours because it helps innovation.”
Yoshida said:
“I don’t personally believe that they dropped the price of the 3DS to respond to our pricing. We didn’t price PS Vita to their price, either. We had that plan since the last couple years. My personal guesstimate is that they have their business plan and goals to sell a certain amount of 3DS units, and they realized post-launch was that the pricing was not helping them to achieve the goal that they set. That’s my estimate. As far as if I’m excited, I’m not sure. If the 3DS sells like crazy and no one is interested in PS Vita, that’s a problem. There are lots of analysts talking about, ‘well, you know there are smart phones, there’s no need for dedicated portable game machines.’ I don’t believe it. But if they point to certain performance of the 3DS and say the smartphone is here, it doesn’t help us either. I like to see healthy competition between Nintendo’s system and ours because it helps innovation. It’s always a good thing to have.”
