Various Nintendo executives have acknowledged that the company made some mistakes with the launch of the 3DS. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was once again asked to share the lessons that the Big N has been learned when the system made its debut.
Fils-Aime told Brazilian gaming site “UOL Jogos”:
“The launch of the 3DS was very interesting: the portable earned great impressions at E3 2010, had excellent pre-order sales, and sold more than any portable system in its first week. So, we had many successes with the 3DS.
“But in terms of lessons learned, we need to ensure that we have a strong lineup of games when we release hardware – especially titles from Nintendo. And, looking back, we may not have offered the best lineup of games that we could have brought to the 3DS. It is also important that the digital resources of the hardware are available right away. With 3DS, this came later.
“And that’s why sales weren’t so great, which forced us to make some drastic decisions and reduce the price. Since we did this, and with the release of ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D’ and the digital resources, our sales have been very good. And we have very high expectations for the 3DS this Christmas.”
Looking towards Wii U, the console’s launch should be much improved. After all, Satoru Iwata has said that Nintendo “learned a bitter lesson with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS”. Hopefully we’ll see a few top-notch first/third-party titles, along with the digital download elements on day one.
Thanks to Tim for the tip/translation!
