Nintendo 3DS not selling well says Iwata, owners to get free Excitebike

Why is the Nintendo 3DS such a hard sell? Is it the price? Is it the fact that people are afraid of it and afraid to make a blind purchase without seeing what the 3DS can do? Is it the lackluster list of launch titles? All very viable explanations but Nintendo's Satoru Iwata says otherwise. According to Iwata sales have been down all over the world and not just the US or Japan.

Iwata went on to say that Nintendo has basically failed to appropriately market the 3DS and some consumers are confused by or not privy to the features the 3DS has to offer. Unfortunately the 3DS screen doesn't translate to screen or print to well and the demo booths are not doing the trick in terms of sales. Iwata claims that users are not able to view the device in all it's grander.

"The value of 3D images without the need for special glasses is hard to be understood through the existing media. However, we have found that people cannot feel it just by trying out a device, rather, some might even misestimate it when experiencing the images in an improper fashion."

Iwata continues..."It is now clear that the combination of these new features is not necessarily easy-to-understand by just saying one word to those without experience," said Iwata. "We have found that not all Nintendo 3DS users enjoy this software. There seems to be more than a few consumers who have Nintendo 3DS hardware but don't know about this software and possibly haven't had a chance to get interested in it."

This statement is definitely something that I can get behind due to the fact that even though I've had the system since launch I am still learning all that the 3DS has to offer. I also think the price point is hard for people to swallow when you can get a home console for just as much money. It's very hard to drop $249 on a device that you have not properly players or have any knowledge of. It's a very big gamble if the system is a failure (which by the way it's not).

On top of all this the eShop for the 3DS has yet to launch and is said to be launching in May. Also in May Nintendo will be offering a 3D version of the NES favorite Excitebike for free for a limited time.