The disconnect that Nintendo of America has done a very poor job of marketing is that you don't need to be bored in public to play a 3DS. Sure, it could be a ni

The disconnect that Nintendo of America has done a very poor job of marketing is that you don't need to be bored in public to play a 3DS. Sure, it could be a nice thing to have if you lived in the city and spent 30 minutes or more a day in public transportation, but among adult users (at least in America, where public transportation is uncommon outside of a few major cities), they're much more likely to play it while unwinding at home, while their SO is watching TV or surfing the web on a lazy sunday, while they're on the can, etc. Yet people, even those that love games, don't always realize this, and say things like "I already have a smartphone" or "I don't want to be seen "gaming" in public." The closest functional analogue to a portable game console is not a smartphone, but a tablet. And while it's very fun to browse the web or watch videos on the couch with a tablet, even the best tablet games are no where near as engaging as the average portable console game. Nintendo of Japan did a series of commercials to demonstrate this, showing Japanese celebrities relaxing at home, curled up on their couches, playing 3DS by themselves while thinking out loud to the audience. Another featuring the branding of a big pop star, and I'm sure there's many more that I never saw. AFAIK, Nintendo of America hasn't tried to market the 3DS to adults at all, and it's really not doing justice to the cross-generational appeal of many of their products.