Nintendo’s second quarter financial results briefing saw an investor take the opportunity to ask whether the 2DS launch represented the company losing faith in their initial direction with the 3DS.
Naturally Satoru Iwata declined, instead stating that it has been introduced as an “entry-level product” that has been put in place to “maximise the sales potential” alongside Pokémon X and Pokémon Y releasing.
“I would now like to turn to your comment that Nintendo is perhaps wavering in its vision by launching Nintendo 2DS, which abandons 3D, the biggest differentiator of the product,” Iwata opened in his response.
“However, launching Nintendo 2DS at this point in time requires its development work to have begun a long time ago. Generally speaking, it takes approximately one and a half years before we can bring a new hardware system onto the market, and we already realised beforehand that it would be difficult to maximise the sales potential of Nintendo 3DS without an entry-level product ready in time for the release of a new Pokémon title. Because we already knew that the range of price options for Nintendo 3DS was not sufficient in light of the highly appreciated yen at the time, we had been preparing for this launch.”
He continued, “Incidentally the yen is now somewhat depreciated and we are able to offer Nintendo 2DS without facing profitability problems. This is very fortunate considering our business structure. We are offering such an option in order to further propel the popularity of the Nintendo 3DS platform in the overseas markets.
“Nintendo 2DS is, however, simply one of the options for consumers and we will continue to offer the existing Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL platforms in the overseas markets, and we are not saying that we will abandon 3D or cease to make new propositions in 3D. The Legend of Zelda title that we are going to release toward the end of the year is a superb showcase of the 3D effect, featuring a top-down style and offering a new form of gameplay by taking advantage of the 3D effect vertically.”
Iwata: 2DS aims to “propel the popularity” of 3DS platform overseas
