Nintendo explains lack of US 3DS sell-outs

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has been discussing early US 3DS sales following the publication of last night's NPD results.

Asked why there had been no sell-outs - 3DS shifted just under 400,000 units in North America in its first week - he told USA Today:


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"I would characterise it as a launch where we learned significant lessons from the launch of Wii and we made sure to have not only ample supply in the marketplace, but we staged supply so it would not sell out.

"We had product going direct to store and we also had product in retailers' (distribution centres), so they could easily replenish when they had stores running low on inventory.

"That strategy is why you didn't see massive sell-outs on Nintendo 3DS. Obviously, a sell-through of 400,000 units in one week is exceptional. And the fact that we achieved that without people being worried about massive stockouts and shortages just underscored how we properly executed our supply chain."

USA Today obviously didn't pick up the Wii 2 news that drowned out the NPD sales results last night, otherwise you'd think they'd have asked the big man about the new console, even just to get a 'no comment'.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS

Reggie did forget to mention the main problem causing average sales - with the lack of any 3DS killer-app upon its release! Im sure that couldnt have helped :( Pilotwings looks ok, nice graphics.. but.. Rayman?! Oh dear, lol. Hopefully Nintendo isnt set to merely rehash (sorry, update and release) all the N64 titles that it couldnt (or didnt want to) release on the DS (Zelda Ocarina of time is set for July). The next game that should definately sell well is Biohazard 5/Resident Evil, although that series is getting on a bit too. Far too many sequels, nothing new or original :( but then sequels of a well known franchise are almost always going to sell, and are the "safe option" :) !

I think Nintendo thought the 3D effect was impressive enough that a 'killer-app' was not required at launch.