Nintendo Admits to Delaying Software that's Ready for Launch

Love or hate on the system all you want for its 3D magic trick, but we can all probably agree that the Nintendo 3DS saw so much rocky terrain within its launch window because of a lack of quality software within its catalogue. We've written about it several times on TechnoBuffalo alone; Nintendo needs good games in order to sell their hardware, it's as simple as that.

What's strange about the news that has been spreading around the web today is that Nintendo has actually been holding back on software releases despite the fact that their games are ready. Their logic for doing so, in a sense, is sound, however, with the company admitting to delaying ready-to-launch games today, we're wondering if this is something they practiced before.

Here's what Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said to investors after a briefing:

"[It's] so dense that, if we added any more software, the total sales would not increase…Accordingly, we have intentionally delayed the launch of some software titles to early next year.

…Video games need to stay fresh…so it is not practical for us to put them on hold for too long, but we think that some of them may be held for a certain amount of time so that there will be a short interval between when they are completed and when they are launched."

While it makes sense that Nintendo wouldn't want to release their products into a crowded room of already epic games for fear of getting lost amongst shoppers, actively avoiding success doesn't seem like the smartest move. Buyers today are working with restricted budgets. If they buy a system and several games in November, they may not have the scratch to pick up titles that launch in January or February. They may even look at one machine and decide to go with it based on its current software catalogue, not what's planned for the console at a later date.

Nintendo bumped games like Luigi's Mansion 2 and Kid Icarus for the Nintendo 3DS out of 2011 in order to ensure their success. The only thing they are ensuring, it seems to me, is that people will view their portable as currently light on games.

[via Game Informer]

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