3DS isn’t selling well, says Nintendo

The Nintendo 3DS has sold 3.61 million units in the U.S. and Europe since March 27, but Nintendo was hoping to sell 4 million. Though the Kyoto company claimed that the first month of sales was a “smooth start” a couple days ago, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata is now expressing public disappointment over the slower than expected sales, reports CVG.

“Nintendo 3DS was launched in late March,” said Iwata. “The sales were high in the initial week, but sales fell below our expectations after the second week. Nintendo 3DS has not been selling as expected since the second week, and this is not just in the Japanese market but also in the United States and Europe, where no direct impact from the great earthquake has occurred. Therefore, we recognize that we are in a situation where we need to step up our efforts to further promote the spread of Nintendo 3DS.”

Iwata’s statement comes after Nintendo announced its financial earnings, which are down about 30 percent for the year ending March 31, 2011. A slow down in Wii sales as it nears the end of its life cycle and the transition from the Nintendo DS to 3DS were partially blamed for the downturn.

The fix? Nintendo needs to make sure people are using the 3DS correctly and are trying it themselves. “The value of 3D images without the need for special glasses is hard to be understood through the existing media,” added Iwata. “However, we have found that people cannot feel it just by trying out a device, rather, some might even misestimate it when experiencing the images in an improper fashion.”

He also added that not all users are understanding the value of included features like Mii Maker, StreetPass, SpotPass, and augmented reality. Nintendo’s future marketing efforts will target these features and attempt to educate users and non-users of the unique, fun attributes of the 3DS.

What do you think? Are we judging too early or are there real problems with the Nintendo 3DS?

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