Designers Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann have painstakingly re-created a range of retro devices with meticulously sliced paper — including a Game Boy, a Polaroid camera and a Walkman.

Wired Top Stories

When I wrote a year ago that the 3DS could be in trouble, I learned a couple of things:

1. Nintendo fans are passionate. Really, really passionate.

2. Saying any forthcoming product from a company with a 10-million-man army of fans could be in trouble will result in people calling you lots of names. Lots and lots of names.

Still, I’m glad I wrote it, because I tend to think that, with this week’s news of the device’s price dropping from 9 to 9, I was largely right. My thinking went as follows: The 3DS was built with the same business model that the DS and the Game Boy employed before them, centered on dedicated hardware and the sales of expensive game titles. It’s a model that, with the arrival of smartphones, tablets, app marketplaces and multiscreen gaming, has become a bit antiquated.

Now, don’t get me wrong: There are tens of millions of people who will buy the 3DS. There are probably that many core Nintendo fans. But what we’re seeing more and more of is that the casual fan — who drove the DS into the 150 million unit territory — is increasingly spending his or her discretionary dollars on other devices.

The biggest vulnerability is with young kids, who are increasingly putting tablets, smartphones and other multitouch, multipurpose devices on their shopping lists. While it’s too early to say how many have tablets, smartphone ownership is already at 33 percent for the 15–24 age group in the U.S. That number will only grow.

But it’s not just kids. The gaming industry itself sees a tablet-filled future. EA, which just acquired multiscreen casual-gaming giant PopCap, has said its biggest growth is coming from the iPad and that tablets are where it sees the future.

Is the 3DS the device to lead Nintendo into another decade of growth and profitability?  As I said before, probably not. What will? It’s unclear, but if Nintendo wants to repeat the success of the DS, it will need to once again completely reinvent handheld gaming, offering a leap forward as big as it did with its dual-screen, touchscreen gaming device. It will also need to acknowedge the new reality where tablets and smartphones are evolving at rates faster than anticipated even a few years ago. Gaming on these devices will only grow.

I’m looking forward to whatever that new innovation or breakthrough is beyond the 3DS, because Nintendo has reinvented itself many times in its life and will almost certainly at some point lead the gaming innovation cycle once again.

For more on the future of handheld gaming, see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Image courtesy of flickr user redoxcun

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• The last generation? Why the 3DS may be the last of its kind
• 5 Connected Consumer Companies That Ruled 2010
• Connected Consumer 2011: Rise of the Virtual Video Operator

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A brief history of one man’s gaming life from the early 90s to the present day. The first person to successfully list of all the game titles in this video will win a CD copy of Dan Bull’s debut album Safe. Send your answers as a video response. Download the Generation Gaming mp3 from www.zshare.net Buy or download Dan Bull’s debut album Safe from www.myspace.com/danbull Follow Dan on Twitter: www.twitter.com Connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com Lyrics: Monopoly was not for me; chess made me stressed out – so the only way I could get down was with pocket electronics and bleeps. Ever since my Game Boy made toys obsolete I’ve been a well behaved boy that played inside and stayed off the street. Yes, I got my electric shocks from Tetris blocks and Mario Land. Though there wasn’t much room for much but mushrooms I was the man, man. With a pad in my hand, hammering at it while eating my breakfast, being the best – that was the plan, beating the rest and leaving them breathless. Please believe me, nobody could beat me at Tetris, I fucking rock, dropping blocks like heads off chopping blocks, I was on some next shit. And I’ve still got a flame for puzzle games like HD Hexic, but when the PC came my gaming tastes became eclectic. This day’s grim. It’s raining, what wonderful weather for gaming. The sun’s blazing so let’s stay in, it’s wonderful weather for gaming. I was the geeky one, I really wanted a PC CD-ROM, then got it. Eight meg of RAM, a CRT screen, she was some top kit …

Nintendo’s new series of Game & Watch rereleases on DSiWare took this author back in time to the days before Game Boy…1983.

It’s one of those mods just for modding’s sake, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome. Can you imagine rocking this thing in Math class? I mean, I got by with Drug War, Cave, and racing game that was pretty much Cave: Vertical Edition. If I’d had Link’s Awakening or Pokemon up in there… well, I would have played a lot less cards.

As a side note, I love that hackers like this guy are capable of complicated hardware transplants, but can’t seem to build a tripod.

[via The Daily What and Technabob]

The Game Boy might be one of the most popular gaming platforms ever released, but it’s added another honor to its resume: a Toy Hall-of-Famer.

Originally posted at The Digital Home