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Thread: 3DS Selling Below Expectations

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    Default 3DS Selling Below Expectations

    Pretty interesting, but not unexpected at all.


    Admitting that sales of Nintendo's new 3DS portable have slowed down worldwide after a successful launch, company president Satoru Iwata committed to turning that situation around with a renewed marketing campaign.

    The 3DS sold nearly 400,000 units in its first week of American sales, along with 371,000 Japanese sales in its first two days and 303,000 European sales in its opening weekend there.

    But in a recent investor presentation, Iwata acknowledged that those brisk sales have dropped off considerably in the weeks following launch, confirming analyst reports that such a slowdown was occurring.

    The company announced yesterday the 3DS had shipped 3.61 million units worldwide through the end of March, below internal projections that the system would sell 4 million units in that time.

    In Japan, Iwata suggested that "the great earthquake largely affected the sales," but acknowledged that March's natural disaster could not explain sales that dropped off significantly in the U.S. and Europe after a few weeks on the shelf.

    In launching the 3DS, Iwata said the company overestimated the ability of the system's glasses-free 3D screen to drive sales virally.

    "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," he said.

    Iwata said the company "recognize[s] that we are in a situation where we need to step up our efforts to further promote the spread of Nintendo 3DS" and that "it has become clear that we need to do a lot more to convey the value to consumers."

    To that end, the company plans an educational campaign designed to stress the importance of using the 3D slider to perfect the 3D effect for each individual user, and to explain the value of connectivity features like StreetPass and SpotPass.

    The company also plans heavy promotion around the late-May launch of the 3DS eShop and expanded 3D video content, focused on encouraging 3DS owners to connect to the Internet and download the system update necessary for the new features. Nintendo will be giving eShop users a free download of a 3D update to NES classic Excitebike to help in this process, Iwata said.

    Despite the slow sales so far, Iwata said he was encouraged by market research that showed many consumers interested in the system are taking a "wait-and-see" approach to actually making a purchase. He said that upcoming software releases would help push these consumers to become 3DS owners.

    "There is no easy road to making people understand the attraction of glassless 3D images and making Nintendo 3DS widespread," he said. "We would like to adhere to these patient efforts."

    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3...asutra+News%29
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    Price point for both games and system and a lack of must-have games are the two reasons for the slow-down, not a lack of marketing. It might be nice for Nintendo to actually have a failure or at least a less successful product as hopefully it will push them to create some innovative new IPs rather than simply continuing to rehash the same set of characters and games every generation. I own a 3DS, but I have played it maybe a total of a couple of hours since purchase. I don't regret the purchase, but the lack of compelling games is a major issue right now.

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    A system with no games on it doesn't sell like hot cakes? Color me shocked.

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    Quote Originally Posted by portnoyd View Post
    A system with no games on it doesn't sell like hot cakes? Color me shocked.
    Other systems have sold well without the support of games worth playing. PS2 is a great example. It's the first and only then-new system I purchased without any games.
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    The launch titles suck! I expect to the 3DS to sell better when stuff like the new Mario Kart 3DS title, Ocarina of Time Remake, and Kid Icarus all come out and the VC kicks in.

    Come on Nintendo, I'm not going to shellack $350 on something I'm not going to play.

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    Quote Originally Posted by portnoyd View Post
    A system with no games on it doesn't sell like hot cakes? Color me shocked.

    Not that it doesn't have games... its the lack of additional games since launch thats hurt the system. You know that only 2 games have dropped since launch weekend? Rayman and Splinter Cell haven't carried any waves of additional sales nor would I expect them to. The 40 buck price point is a bit of a hard pill to swallow as well. I'd have picked up a few more titles (Ridge Racer, Asphalt and PES Soccer and Splinter Cell) if they wern't 40 bucks a pop, and i've already bought 9 3DS titles.
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    I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I just know that Nintendo is going to release a 3dsxl, 3dsxl lite, 3dsi xl lite, etc. I wonder how many people who bought the dsi are sick of getting fooled by nintendo.
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    I honestly just think it's cause all the games are dick on it. There's jack crap worth shelling out for, and they didn't advertise it well at ALL.
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    Pretty much what everyone else said. The launch games suck, there are no must haves at the moment (no Mario, no Zelda, no Metroid, etc). I think another issue that might be hurting sales are that the 3D effect doesn't appeal to everyone, in fact it actually makes some people sick. Sure you can turn it off, but the 3D effect is sort of the main selling point of the system. This is the reason I'm not getting one.

    The down economy may also be hurting it somewhat, but I think the DSi sold pretty well back when it was released and the economy wasn't much better.

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    That's what I find so annoying and alarming about Nintendo's current design mindset. All of its systems now are designed around some sort of gimmick. And these gimmicks are becoming increasingly unnecessary. That's not to say I don't own a 3DS - but that's more because I like buying new game systems. I've barely touched it in weeks.

    And they're scratching their heads because by his own admission they basically expected the gimmick of 3D to drive sales. Not games. Just the goofy gimmick. At least the Wii gimmick was originally actually cool. Hopefully this lesson comes not too late. When Nintendo launches it's new console - which sounds like half gimmick, half Franken-console - all the tacked on screens and whatever bullshit they slap on it is useless without software to warrant its creation. And that software needs to launch with the system.

    I think it's more annoying reading this stuff from Nintendo because they think of themselves as being on a higher level. Like the gaming world would fall apart without its injections of "freshness". But they really haven't done a great job backing that up lately.

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    DS looked like crap for about the first year... If anyone remembers. Same reason, poor initial soft support.


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    Quote Originally Posted by pixelsnpolygons View Post
    And they're scratching their heads because by his own admission they basically expected the gimmick of 3D to drive sales. Not games. Just the goofy gimmick. At least the Wii gimmick was originally actually cool.
    The Wii also launched with games that made pretty good use of the controller. Especially Wii Sports but also Rayman, Red Steel, Excite Truck, Monkey Ball, etc. The launch lineup had us using the controller in several different ways, and to great effect.

    Nothing on the 3DS exactly screams "this is why we need 3D".

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    Quote Originally Posted by Icarus Moonsight View Post
    DS looked like crap for about the first year... If anyone remembers. Same reason, poor initial soft support.
    I was just gonna post this. I remember a thread about this same topic 6 years ago about 4-5 months after the ds launched.

    What's troubling about this is that nintendos "big plan" for fixing all this is to market the fuck out of it. You can polish the turd all you want, but if theres no games, nobodys gonna buy it.

    How about some games? I have the 3ds, and it's a good, powerful little portable, regardless of the 3d. Theres just no games

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    Quote Originally Posted by Icarus Moonsight View Post
    DS looked like crap for about the first year... If anyone remembers. Same reason, poor initial soft support.
    Exactly, there isn't much of a reason for consumers to buy into the platform at the moment. The just don't have a killer app to entice early adopters. Even Star Fox and LoZ: Ocarina of Time will have limited appeal, mainly to those who enjoyed the original. It is going to take a new Mario game, Kid Icarus, Resident Evil or a new Pokemon (Pokemon AR Battle anyone?) to get people to take notice to the hardware. That and a price drop.
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    I think that the system costs too much. $250 is just too much for a portable. Like others have said combine a high price with not-that-great software, which is about $10 higher than DS software. Nintendo gambled that people would rush out and get a new system and games, and will hopefully learn from this. I feel that Nintendo has always been pretty value conscious, and I think that this time they screwed up big time.
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    They said they were going to let third party developers get a head start on releasing games first and that was probably the biggest mistake. Most people I know only buy Nintendo stuff for first party releases and limited third party exclusives. Nintendo doesn't print money, Mario prints money alone. He's the one who's really collecting all those coins.
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    I said it in an earlier thread...

    Calling it the "3DS" was idiotic. Parents and Grandparents will dismiss it as a DS that now does 3D. Also, as mentioned above...no games.
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    I went to Best Buy and tried the 3DS out and the 3D is just not that neat. I'll just stick with my DSi XL and see what Sony's PSP2 looks like later this year.

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    +1 for the bad price point on both the hardware and software.

    Many people would balk at those prices in normal times. When times are this tough, Nintendo nearly priced themselves out of the market.

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    Quote Originally Posted by heybtbm View Post
    I said it in an earlier thread...

    Calling it the "3DS" was idiotic. Parents and Grandparents will dismiss it as a DS that now does 3D. Also, as mentioned above...no games.
    this unfortunatley, ive been to acouple gamestops where moms inquire about it and have been told its like the old one, it just does 3d. also, the packaging on the games doesnt do enough to diferentiate itself from the old ones, ive even seen 3ds games mixed in with ds games, or in the ds section.

    also, no games.

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