Iwata talks more about the 3DS’ price and release date
“We progressed with actual development, and we’re currently getting ready for mass production, but we determined that it would be difficult to ready suitable numbers for a release within the year. Additionally, regarding the level of polish for the product, we thought that by setting the release date to what was announced today we’d be able to deliver it at levels that we found satisfactory.”
“We decided that it would be preferred to simultaneously deliver a highly polished product and to ready satisfactory quantities in order to not cause confusion in the market. It is true that this caused negative effects on this year’s earnings forecasts.”
“The price ratio between consoles and portables has been x until now, so it should remain the same for 3DS.”
“Of course, the lower the price the better. However, considering a number of factors such as materials cost, the health of the platform business, and the reaction post E3 as to how much value would be felt from the hardware once the functionality was understood, we felt that this price would be understood.”
