One Sunday morning my friend and I were eating breakfast at the dining hall of our college campus. We were talking about video games mostly, and the subject came to the new Pokemon and Phoenix Wright games that we couldn’t play because of our lack of 3DS consoles. We talked about how the two of us were both thinking about buying a 2DS, since it was a bit more affordable. She said something very interesting at this point—”Let’s be honest here, the 2DS was made for college kids”.
College kids have a reputation for being broke. I’ve not experienced this yet, but I know a good amount of older students who are running low on money at the moment. The 2DS is running at about $130, a good $40 less than the 3DS and $70 less than the 3DS XL. That is a pretty fair price, especially for those of us trying to save our money for the rest of the year. I asked the students of the the school’s Gamers Guild if they would buy them because it was a bit less money. While a lot of people already went and bought a 3DS, a good amount of people were also saying they were going to buy the 2DS because it was less expensive.
So far in my first semester as a college student, I have learned:
- Books are expensive (even used books are really expensive sometimes, and that’s annoying as all hell)
- Random things are tempting to buy (I bought a sketchbook for absolutely no reason at all and haven’t used it in weeks)
- College kids are experimenting with drugs. I’ve not done the third, nor do I plan on it, but apparently drugs are expensive. I know of someone who has spent a lot of money on them, leaving a very small amount of money in their account.
So far, that $40 difference doesn’t look as small as someone (with a lot of money) might think. That’s $40 you could be spending on all two games you’ll be able to afford.
So why not buy the 2DS? It has all of the capabilities of a 3DS, just not the 3D. It’s a bargain for people who need the money, but want to be in on playing the games everyone else is playing. With the slew of new games, it’s hard not to be jealous of the people who are able to play them. Unfortunately, the new games all cost quite a bit of money. The lowest I’ve seen for the physical games (the ones you can buy at GameStop and Target) is about $15, which isn’t too bad. The highest, however, is about $40. The norm is about $20-$30. Remember that money you might have saved? Yeah, you’re going to lose it buying the games. However, you can play most DS games… I don’t know what they mean by most, but it could still be lighter on your wallet to buy a 2DS and wait out a semester for the games to (hopefully) drop in price and you (might) have more money to spend.
I don’t think I can agree fully with my friend’s statement, but it does seem like college kids were one of the targets when Nintendo thought this up. Might as well make some money off of the kids who want to play all of these awesome games but can’t afford the console. It makes sense, when you buy a console you might as well buy the games that come with it even if they are pricey. In closing, here’s a song about college kids by Relient K.
I do have to wonder if the college market was really predicted, or if it was an unexpected audience? I mean obviously they probably thought about it, but no more than any other group who might need something cheap. But something about this just really seems to appeal to the college demographic above any other demographic I’ve seen. It’s a little funny to say the least.
When they say “most” DS games, they are basically saying that any games which require a peripheral (like the guitar grip, for example) won’t work on the 3DS because there is no GameBoy Advance port to slot it into, and the game won’t work without it.
Oh, ok. Thank you, that was a little confusing to me.