Satoru Iwata Writes Letter of Apology for 3DS Price Drop

[Andy Chalk]

Satoru Iwata Writes Letter of Apology for 3DS Price Drop

In the wake of last week's dramatic 3DS price cut, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata has published a letter of apology to consumers who paid full price for it.

Nintendo announced last week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111935-Nintendo-Slashing-3DS-Price-by-a-Third] that less than six months after launch, the price of the 3DS was being cut from $249.99 to $169.99, a huge reduction that's bound to make the device a lot more appealing to interested consumers who were put off by the cost. It's also very likely going to annoy at least some of the folks who laid down 250 smackers to buy the thing when it first came out. Nintendo softened the blow a bit by offering 20 free downloadable games to early adopters, but Satoru Iwata wants you to know that he still feels bad about it.

A letter to fans, written by Iwata, was posted on Nintendo's Giant Bomb [http://www.nintendo.co.jp/info110728/index.html] took the task upon itself, describing it as "about as heartfelt and genuine as you could expect from the head of a major corporation."

"In the past, there have been price drops for videogame systems some time after their release in order to broaden the user base further. However, never before has Nintendo chosen to issue such a dramatic price drop less than six months after a system release," Iwata wrote. "We are all too keenly aware that those of you who supported us by purchasing the 3DS in the beginning may feel betrayed and criticize this decision."

He explained that "the situation has changed greatly" since the launch of the 3DS and that Nintendo felt the need to impose the cut in order to attract more customers, not just to maintain the bottom line but also to keep game makers and retailers interested in the product. Without that, the critical mass needed to create a successful product cycle won't be achieved, and that's bad for company and customers alike.

"We feel a strong responsibility to develop the 3DS as a platform -- to ensure that, in the end, everyone is satisfied," he wrote. "We will make every effort to do so."

A similar letter, not attributed to a particular individual, was posted on Nintendo's European website [http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/nintendo_3ds_ambassador_programme_44123.html] but at last look nothing comparable had appeared on the North American site.

The 3DS price drop takes effect on August 12; current owners have until then to connect to the 3DS eShop to automatically enroll in the 3DS Ambassador plan, which will include ten free NES virtual console games and ten free GBA games. Further details, including a full list of the games up for grabs, are on the way.


Permalink

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

<3 Nintendo. In everything they do you can tell they are in the industry because they love games.

 

[Gralian]

I read an interesting article on IGN a while back saying that history predicts that the 3DS is doomed. Why? Because in the past, all of the failed consoles (Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube and one other i forgot) all had steep price drops around the same time after release as the 3DS and they all bombed. I've also seen various other articles say the 3DS isn't doing that great and it may continue to do poorly for the foreseeable future. This could be bad for a company that invested so much in the tech.

I would also like to point out that i called it. I really did. Several months back i got on my little podium and ranted about how the focus on the handheld market is a last ditch desperate attempt to revitalise and milk a dead avenue of business. The handheld market is rapidly falling victim to over-saturation and suffers still competition against iOS and other handheld devices. No-one wants to buy a £35 game (mini-game if you go by Mercenaries standards) when they can get Angry Birds for £3. In fact, i'd put money on Vita being a flop as well. Just wait and see. Though considering that it seemed to be more of a multimedia device than pure console, i can see it appealing to more than just gamers.

 

[Epona]

After the 3DS was shown at E3 but hadn't yet been priced, the gaming media had already priced it at $250. Nintendo may have taken that as a sign that people would pay that. Next time, the gaming media should aim lower.

 

[Epona]

Nintendo is in an odd position, after the sucess of the DS and Wii basically transcended gaming and took them into pop culture gadget icons they seemed to be able to do no wrong; even slightly odd acessories like the ballance board were massive hits. Yet with the 3Ds, a gimmick laden powered up DS, they have fallen foul. Apple and others get away with this on a regular basis yet people seem to be calling Nintendo in some of their real lack of propper new features.

Im not sure if i am happy or sad about this, Nintendo is no longer really 'for me' but they still output high quloaity titles and still do really give a crap in some areas. Granted most of their games seem to be copy-pasted from an N64 game (sometimes literally with the 3Ds) but they always maintain a degree of quality.

The Wii was a shitty system in my veiw looking back on it, it really lacked horribly compared to the other systems in almost every way BUT it managed to keep gaming on the mass media agenda for good reasons. I fully expect the Wii-U to flop horribly with the changing gaming enviroment and it will make me sad if it does. Nintendo have last their way quite a bit but they don't deserve to hammered for it.

Nintendo lost their way going after the casual crowd and like many before me have said, there is very little loyalty in that crowd.

 

[]DustArma[]

Nintendo is in an odd position, after the sucess of the DS and Wii basically transcended gaming and took them into pop culture gadget icons they seemed to be able to do no wrong; even slightly odd acessories like the ballance board were massive hits. Yet with the 3Ds, a gimmick laden powered up DS, they have fallen foul. Apple and others get away with this on a regular basis yet people seem to be calling Nintendo in some of their real lack of propper new features.

Im not sure if i am happy or sad about this, Nintendo is no longer really 'for me' but they still output high quloaity titles and still do really give a crap in some areas. Granted most of their games seem to be copy-pasted from an N64 game (sometimes literally with the 3Ds) but they always maintain a degree of quality.

The Wii was a shitty system in my veiw looking back on it, it really lacked horribly compared to the other systems in almost every way BUT it managed to keep gaming on the mass media agenda for good reasons. I fully expect the Wii-U to flop horribly with the changing gaming enviroment and it will make me sad if it does. Nintendo have last their way quite a bit but they don't deserve to hammered for it.

Nintendo lost their way going after the casual crowd and like many before me have said, there is very little loyalty in that crowd.

Considering how quick were most of the hardcores to leave Nintendo to "die" after they announced the Wii (a lot of them predicted it would bomb) then there was very little loyalty to begin with.

 

[Epona]

DustArma[]

Nintendo is in an odd position, after the sucess of the DS and Wii basically transcended gaming and took them into pop culture gadget icons they seemed to be able to do no wrong; even slightly odd acessories like the ballance board were massive hits. Yet with the 3Ds, a gimmick laden powered up DS, they have fallen foul. Apple and others get away with this on a regular basis yet people seem to be calling Nintendo in some of their real lack of propper new features.

Im not sure if i am happy or sad about this, Nintendo is no longer really 'for me' but they still output high quloaity titles and still do really give a crap in some areas. Granted most of their games seem to be copy-pasted from an N64 game (sometimes literally with the 3Ds) but they always maintain a degree of quality.

The Wii was a shitty system in my veiw looking back on it, it really lacked horribly compared to the other systems in almost every way BUT it managed to keep gaming on the mass media agenda for good reasons. I fully expect the Wii-U to flop horribly with the changing gaming enviroment and it will make me sad if it does. Nintendo have last their way quite a bit but they don't deserve to hammered for it.

Nintendo lost their way going after the casual crowd and like many before me have said, there is very little loyalty in that crowd.

Considering how quick were most of the hardcores to leave Nintendo to "die" after they announced the Wii (a lot of them predicted it would bomb) then there was very little loyalty to begin with.

Nintendo lost the hardcores long before the Wii, as far back as the N64 actually. It's why the PS1 won that generation. The touch screen and motion control of this gen just made things worse.

Now, those casual fans aren't returning to buy the 3DS and probably not the Wii-U but the hardcore that Nintendo abandoned, they're still gaming but not so much with Nintendo.

 

[kebab4you]

I read an interesting article on IGN a while back saying that history predicts that the 3DS is doomed. Why? Because in the past, all of the failed consoles (Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube and one other i forgot)

N64 & Gamecube counts as failed?

And I have no idea why you keep pushing 3-d Nintendo, it´s to early and to clunky, in 5-6 console cycles, maybe.

 

[faefrost]

Nintendo is in an odd position, after the sucess of the DS and Wii basically transcended gaming and took them into pop culture gadget icons they seemed to be able to do no wrong; even slightly odd acessories like the ballance board were massive hits. Yet with the 3Ds, a gimmick laden powered up DS, they have fallen foul. Apple and others get away with this on a regular basis yet people seem to be calling Nintendo in some of their real lack of propper new features.

Im not sure if i am happy or sad about this, Nintendo is no longer really 'for me' but they still output high quloaity titles and still do really give a crap in some areas. Granted most of their games seem to be copy-pasted from an N64 game (sometimes literally with the 3Ds) but they always maintain a degree of quality.

The Wii was a shitty system in my veiw looking back on it, it really lacked horribly compared to the other systems in almost every way BUT it managed to keep gaming on the mass media agenda for good reasons. I fully expect the Wii-U to flop horribly with the changing gaming enviroment and it will make me sad if it does. Nintendo have last their way quite a bit but they don't deserve to hammered for it.

Nintendo lost their way going after the casual crowd and like many before me have said, there is very little loyalty in that crowd.

There can be huge loyalty in that crowd. The problem is that after fully sucking them in and servicing them for a long time with the DS series of handhelds, they released the 3ds, which offers nothing to them and if anything is an anathema to them. Nintendo tried to split the middle between the more casual touch and click puzzle and simple game players, such as the housewives and commuters and the more hardcore gamers with the 3ds and seemingly failed to execute it. The 3ds was horrifically expensive at $250 for what was essentially a souped up DS. The core of their DS user base would still get the same level of functionality and gameplay using their older DS units or their IOS or Android phones, and the newfangled gadget, the 3d gave people headaches and offered nothing for this type of gamers preferred style of gameplay. Mom and Grandma had absolutely no reason to spend $250 on a 3ds, even after heavily using their DSiXL's for years. While for the more hardcore gamers the system is clearly surpassed by the much sexier SONY offering at the same price point.

And yeah, Apple has made these same sorts of horrific mistakes in the past. Newton anyone? or how about the rarely seen Apple Gaming Console? (Although looking at the Wii FU or whatever they are calling it, it really looks like Apple could choose to quickly evolve a device cobbled together from an AppleTV box and a few iPads to use as a game streaming console and surpass Nintendo's next offering. Play your iPad Angry Birds on your TV using your iPad!)

 

[Epona]

Nintendo is in an odd position, after the sucess of the DS and Wii basically transcended gaming and took them into pop culture gadget icons they seemed to be able to do no wrong; even slightly odd acessories like the ballance board were massive hits. Yet with the 3Ds, a gimmick laden powered up DS, they have fallen foul. Apple and others get away with this on a regular basis yet people seem to be calling Nintendo in some of their real lack of propper new features.

Im not sure if i am happy or sad about this, Nintendo is no longer really 'for me' but they still output high quloaity titles and still do really give a crap in some areas. Granted most of their games seem to be copy-pasted from an N64 game (sometimes literally with the 3Ds) but they always maintain a degree of quality.

The Wii was a shitty system in my veiw looking back on it, it really lacked horribly compared to the other systems in almost every way BUT it managed to keep gaming on the mass media agenda for good reasons. I fully expect the Wii-U to flop horribly with the changing gaming enviroment and it will make me sad if it does. Nintendo have last their way quite a bit but they don't deserve to hammered for it.

Nintendo lost their way going after the casual crowd and like many before me have said, there is very little loyalty in that crowd.

There can be huge loyalty in that crowd. The problem is that after fully sucking them in and servicing them for a long time with the DS series of handhelds, they released the 3ds, which offers nothing to them and if anything is an anathema to them. Nintendo tried to split the middle between the more casual touch and click puzzle and simple game players, such as the housewives and commuters and the more hardcore gamers with the 3ds and seemingly failed to execute it. The 3ds was horrifically expensive at $250 for what was essentially a souped up DS. The core of their DS user base would still get the same level of functionality and gameplay using their older DS units or their IOS or Android phones, and the newfangled gadget, the 3d gave people headaches and offered nothing for this type of gamers preferred style of gameplay. Mom and Grandma had absolutely no reason to spend $250 on a 3ds, even after heavily using their DSiXL's for years. While for the more hardcore gamers the system is clearly surpassed by the much sexier SONY offering at the same price point.

And yeah, Apple has made these same sorts of horrific mistakes in the past. Newton anyone? or how about the rarely seen Apple Gaming Console? (Although looking at the Wii FU or whatever they are calling it, it really looks like Apple could choose to quickly evolve a device cobbled together from an AppleTV box and a few iPads to use as a game streaming console and surpass Nintendo's next offering. Play your iPad Angry Birds on your TV using your iPad!)

Many people (hardcore and casual) bought the DS and Wii and regret their purchase and have vowed to not be fooled again. Why? The DS was great but all the different iterations can be irritating and taking a franchise like Zelda and forcing touch controls didn't win them any points.

The Wii, well, it collects dust in most households and I think we all know why.

Nintendo has abused it's 1st place position this generation in both the handheld and console markets. Up until recently Nintendo was still charging full price for many Nintendo published Wii games, even those that were released 4-5 years ago. On the DS, they are still charging full price for Nintendo published games. I would imagine people are sick of that.

Would Sony do the same thing if they were on top? I don't know, did they do the same thing when they were on top or did they release the Greatest Hits games in a timely manner?

 

[Gralian]

N64 & Gamecube counts as failed?
.

In terms of sales, absolutely. I don't have the actual records on hand (i think it might have been in the article i mentioned) but the N64 and Gamecube just didn't see that many units shifted, both the console and the game. I think part of the problem for the N64 was that the games for it were just far too expensive (Operation Winback cost £80 here on release) and the Gamecube's library was very limited in contrast to its competitors, the PS2 and Xbox. The Xbox library wasn't great itself but it did have a fair few games the PS2 had if i recall correctly. The fact the N64's and Gamecube's sales didn't do great and they both suffered a sharp price cut not long after release - and that exact effect is being echoed with the 3DS - indicates that it is a doomed product.

Also i agree with you, developers should focus less on 3D tech. It's too young and too risky. Let cinema perfect it first and focus more on bringing us higher frames per second with high fidelity graphics.

 

[MisterShine]

As someone who bought the system just a few weeks after release, how I feel about the price drop is...

Not angry at all.

True, I've only got 3 3ds games that I've played, and if I HAD waited a few months I could've gotten them significantly cheaper but.. I knew that ahead of time. I paid for the privilege to play those games earlier than the people who waited to pay a price more agreeable to them.. that's just business. It's like that ridiculous hubub about the iphone dropping its price: You paid for your early time, quit bitching. The added games from the NES and GBA are just a nice bonus.

 

[Danpascooch]

Oh you really feel bad? How about $40 virtual store cash instead of 20 games we've all already played!? This is bullshit

 

[TeeBs]

I don't feel screwed over at all, and I shouldn't, the 3DS is way worth the price. 20 free games? That just feels like too much nintendo, I feel I owe you at this point.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I would also like to point out that i called it. I really did.

You and every-other gimmick nay-sayer out there. I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed to claim credit for "calling it" anymore, especially not when the last two gimmick-based predictions of doom failed to come true (The Wii and the DS). You can't just predict doom for every gimmick that comes out then get all smug when it finally comes true for one of them.

Edit: Besides, this is the internet. Someone always called it, no matter what outcome occurs.

 

[Gralian]

I would also like to point out that i called it. I really did.

You and every-other gimmick nay-sayer out there. I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed to claim credit for "calling it" anymore, especially not when the last two gimmick-based predictions of doom failed to come true (The Wii and the DS). You can't just predict doom for every gimmick that comes out then get all smug when it finally comes true for one of them.

Edit: Besides, this is the internet. Someone always called it, no matter what outcome occurs.

1) Don't lump me with the same "gimmicks are fail" crowd who label everything as doomed.
2) I didn't say "I called it before anyone else". I simply "called it".
3) The DS was considered a gimmicky product?
4) Anyone who makes a prediction and sees it come to fruition is likely to get smug about it - may i present to you Michael Pachter and every other analyst out there.

I knew the Wii (and to a large extent the original DS) had a place among the untapped casual crowd. I didn't deny that. However, when something is ostensibly aimed at a market that has already scorned such products, it's not hard to see that a flop is imminent. You don't need to be a doomsayer to see that. What really makes me facepalm is seeing Nintendo pump so much money into the tech behind the 3DS in an attempt to appeal to the more hardcore market when they outright refuse to release games that directly appeal to that market because they "don't want to localise it". You know which ones i'm talking about. Xenoblade, the Last Story and Pandora's Tower. The sheer irony of it being that it would've cost far less to localise those games for the Americas and see fair returns in comparison to the horrendously expensive 3DS that isn't doing so well. Fact is, the Ninendo fans who are willing to pony up $250 for a new iteration of a handheld that's already gone through like 3 iterations already are going to be the people who buy those sorts of games, not casuals. They'll most likely be content with what they have and not see any reason to get "the next big thing".

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

3) The DS was considered a gimmicky product?

Oh yeah. Both when it was announced and when it came out, I never heard the end of people griping about those gimmicky touch-screen controls.

*Snip*

Yeah, I can definitely agree that Nintendo needs to put more effort into appealing to the hardcores. Seems anytime they release a really high-demand game, they refuse to port it because they think the demand is too low... when their inbox is flooded with requests for the games. Listen, Nintendo, I'm sorry that Earthbound didn't do too well back in the day, but in case you didn't notice, the series has gotten very popular since then. There was no reason to not release Mother 3 over here.