3DS Not Blowing as Many People’s Minds as Nintendo Hoped

The 3DS broke records with its launch and has gone on to ship 3.61 million units worldwide. Nintendo, however, wanted 4 million by this point. At a recent investors meeting a few explanations were offered.

Company president Satoru Iwata noted that “the great earthquake largely affected the sales” and whilst a reasonable explanation for Japan, there has also been a drop in interest in Europe and the U.S.

Iwata offered a different reasoning saying: “We originally expected that the value of 3D images without the need for special glasses would be automatically spread to some extent by many consumers experiencing the device by themselves and … together with people around them.”

According to Iwata, Nintendo “recognizes that we are in a situation where we need to step up our efforts to further promote the spread of Nintendo 3DS”. This roughly translates to ‘we hope you love marketing’.

It seems to me that Nintendo are perhaps blaming the wrong thing. Personally, I’ve found people are interested in the 3D aspect but put off by, well, everything else really. If Nintendo are going to push forward with more advertising then at least get rid of smarmy, I-want-to-punch-you-in-the-face people who do everything but have sex with the 3DS in the adverts.