Nintendo president talks 3DS launch problems

Nintendo’s 3DS console, whilst wowing with its glasses-free 3D visuals, has had a slower start than many expected, missing its launch-month sales targets by 100,000 units.

That’s not to say it isn’t doing respectably well, selling over 3.6 million units as of April, but Nintendo of America President has humbly admitted that there were at least two problems with the 3DS launch. They were a lack of robust network support and the absence of a strong first-party title.

“When we launched, we had a fantastic day one and a very strong week one… But when we started talking to consumers who were aware or interested, but hadn’t yet bought, they told us two things,” Fils-Aime stated.

“First, I need a big Nintendo franchise… the second thing was I need the network to be up. I need the connected experiences to be there.”

These two problems have pretty much been fixed however; 3DS owners now have the delights of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D remake to enjoy, with Starfox 64 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2, Kid Icarus and a new Mario title all planned before the end of the year.

Network issues have been fixed too, with the eShop finally online, launching with a free Excitebike 3D remake and 3D Pokemon Pokedex, as well as a web browser.

So was it a case of the handheld just launching a little too soon? Fils-Aime disagrees:

“The system did not launch earlier than planned. We thought there would have been a tighter gap between launch and the first network update.”

Via: Kotaku