Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has admitted to investors that the 3DS is off to a slow start. It’s true that initial sales of the handheld were encouraging, though they’ve tailed off considerably since then.
Iwata believes that delaying development of certain software was to blame, as was the lack of online features. The Nintendo eShop launched just a few days ago.
Iwata explained that as more online features are readied and more significant titles are released, sales of the 3DS should pick up.
“So, first I think it’s fair to say that while Nintendo 3DS had a strong launch day, the results since then have not met our expectations.
By which I mean to say that although pre-orders for this system were very strong and initial impressions of this system were very positive, those early indicators stand in conflict with where the system is at today. So, I can’t say there are no issues at present.
So, what we have analyzed up to this point is that the initial move by the early adopters has not translated into broader movement by the broader market in the ways that we had expected.
The current situation resulted from the fact that the delay of developing Nintendo 3DS software and launching online services, like Nintendo eShop, 3D video services and so forth, occurred simultaneously, so we could not meet people’s high expectations that they had before its launch, and we did not see momentum after the launch.
I think that we’ll be able to show you that as Nintendo eShop and 3D video services come online, and a number of key software titles become available, we’ll be able to regain momentum for this hardware.”
