Fils-Aime points to lack of eShop, game drought in 3DS sales dive
Nintendo of America thinks it knows how to rectify the 3DS's alarming sales stall beyond tomorrow's price cut.
"First, making sure we have great games," president Reggie Fils-Aime told told MTV Multiplayer when asked how Nintendo expected to correct the 3DS's downswing.
"Because, in the end, a platform is driven by the quality and quantity of content to be enjoyed on the platform."
The executive said Starfox, Mario, and Kid Icarus on the heels of Ocarina of Time represented a shift to a "steady pace" of "very strong content".
However, he also singled out the console's initial lack of a "robust digital environment".
"With the launch of the eShop and now with the launch of Nintendo Video and the launch of Netflix, we believe we've addressed that issue as well," he said.
Fil-Aime admitted Nintendo had banked on stronger sales post-launch despite these issues, thanks to record-breaking pre-orders and day one sales. The imminent price cut, he said, doesn't suggest the 3DS isn't worth the initial asking price.
"This is a momentum business. We know we have to have strong momentum going into the holiday timeframe. In order to address that, we've taken this dramatic step of reducing the price, doing it fairly early in the platform's life, to address the value equation and to reset that value equation beginning this Friday," he said.
Nintendo will of course take lessons from the 3DS's launch into its Wii U busines splans.
"Every platform we launch, every title we launch, we do a deep dive of understanding what worked, what didn't work. How do we take the learning and apply it to future initiatives," Fils-Aime explained.
"Certainly we will take learning from 3DS, both positive and opportunities and apply all of those to the launch next year of Wii U. Things like the importance of digital. Certainly the importance of strong first-party support right at the launch. Those are things that we will look to strongly reapply as we prepare for Wii U."
Thanks, Shack.