Reggie Fils-Aime said: strong momentum for Nintendo 3DS.

( This is a momentum driven business. When you have momentum, it can work in your favor. When you don't have momentum, it can be a really tough situation. For us, this is all about making sure we havefor Nintendo 3DS. source .) Click to expand... Click to shrink...

not able to sustain that momentum until the year-end sales season was in full swing and turn Nintendo 3DS into a leading force in the overseas markets.

( Although we simultaneously released Nintendo 3DS XL and “New Super Mario Bros. 2” last summer, we wereuntil the year-end sales season was in full swing and turn Nintendo 3DS into a leading force in the overseas markets. source .) Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Satoru Iwata said: accelerate the momentum of the Nintendo 3DS platform in the overseas markets as well.





( We will be able to seamlessly release our key titles throughout the year, so we are confident that we will be able toof the Nintendo 3DS platform in the overseas markets as well. source .) Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Pokémon X/Y and Nintendo 2DS

Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and New Nintendo 3DS (XL)

Pokémon UltraSun/UltraMoon and New Nintendo 2DS XL

Satoru Iwata said:



A product that is expected to play a significant role in achieving this goal is Nintendo 2DS, which we have just launched in the U.S. and Europe on October 12 along with the Pokémon title. Given the highly appreciated yen at the time when the original Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL were launched as well as the high manufacturing costs of the Nintendo 3DS hardware which incorporated various features, we were not able to provide a competitive price point for an entry-level gaming system.

( This year, as I just explained to you, we are going to head into November, the month when the year-end sales season truly begins, with great momentum that has been created by the release of “Pokémon X/Pokémon Y” on October 12. In addition, existing titles such as “Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon,” “Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D,” “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” and “Mario & Luigi: Dream Team” still maintain sufficient momentum, while the latest installment in the “The Legend of Zelda” series is set to be released for Nintendo 3DS in November. With such a strong lineup of key games in place for the year-end sales season, we aim to achieve great results towards the end of this calendar year.A product that is expected to play awhich we have just launched in the U.S. and Europe on October 12. Given the highly appreciated yen at the time when the original Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL were launched as well as the high manufacturing costs of the Nintendo 3DS hardware which incorporated various features, we were not able to provide a competitive price point for an entry-level gaming system. source .) Click to expand... Click to shrink...

So I was looking into the release schedule for the Nintendo Switch and I noticed something peculiar: A lot of the Nintendo Switch games that are going to be released this year are very similar to games that were released for Nintendo 3DS in its third year.This prompted me to look a little bit more into the lessons Nintendo learned. Maybe we will learn a thing or two from that as well.Nintendo 3DS was not selling well after its launch in overseas markets. Nintendo made a drastic price cut in 2011 soon after the launch to boost the system into the holiday season. What was interesting is that they claimed it was a momentum problem. Let's take a short look at the timeline of how that went.Reggie admitted in this interview that Nintendo 3DS had a momentum problem and that they tried to address it with this price cut. Later on, they tried sustaining momentum by releasing New Super Mario Bros. 2 and the Nintendo 3DS XL in 2012. However, this was not enough to keep the momentum going.Soon after Nintendo presented their battle plan to accelerate momentum in the overseas markets with a list of games that is very similar to the list of Nintendo Switch games that are slated for release this year.Interestingly, Nintendo did not only announce these titles, but also an "entry-level gaming system" along with the newest core Pokémon RPG. Keep in mind that generally, new models of existing hardware have been introduced around the release of a core Pokémon RPG in the past with Nintendo 3DS:With all these similarities, could that mean the rumored new model will be a budget version of the Nintendo Switch? Or does the Nintendo 3DS family still count as their entry-level systems, since they are still supporting the system with new games?Their tactics to sustain momentum in 2012/2013 worked very well and are extremely similar to the ones they are using this year. It's really interesting to see what Nintendo has learned from their previous missteps and to see how they implemented it on their current console that already has such strong momentum. Looking at the image above, do you expect any other titles that fit in this list? Or could we even predict the launch month of new titles by looking at this?