Nintendo"s newest portable console, the Nintendo 3DS, has not been selling as well as predicted and even the company"s president admits that. In an English language version of an E3 2011 investor Q&A on Nintendo"s web site, president Satoru Iwata states, "So, first I think it"s fair to say that while Nintendo 3DS had a strong launch day, the results since then have not met our expectations." He added, " ... although pre-orders for this system were very strong and initial impressions of this system were very positive, those early indicators stand in conflict with where the system is at today. So, I can"t say there are no issues at present."
The Nintendo 3DS, which allows gamers to enjoy 3D visuals without the need for special glasses, started selling in Japan back in late February. However sales of the console only reached the 1 million mark earlier this month in Japan. By comparison the original DS console only took one month to reach the 1 million sales mark while the DS Lite and DSi variants took two months to sell 1 million units. The larger Nintendo DSi XL did take longer to reach the one million sales mark at six months. The US started selling the Nintendo 3DS in late March where it sold 440,000 units during its first week of release.
In the investor Q&A Iwata said he was hopeful that the 3DS will gain more sales, saying, "I think that we"ll be able to show you that as Nintendo eShop and 3D video services come online, and a number of key software titles become available, we"ll be able to regain momentum for this hardware."