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When we looked over Nintendo's most recent financial results one set of statistics stood out among the relatively uneventful reports - the 3DS and New 3DS are struggling. That's only reinforced in the official translation of company President Tatsumi Kimishima's Presentation, which includes slides that show sales trending below those of the previous year.

In addressing this the presentation outlines rough plans for the 3DS family of hardware, with the most promising detail being that "several strong titles" - first- and third-party - are planned for release; time will tell on those and their potential impact.

Another key part of the strategy is focusing on evergreen titles, value offerings and expanding the "Kids and Female demographics" for the systems. The graphic below shows the sales impact, for example, of last year's Nintendo Selects range that was released in Europe. The reduced price re-releases drove sizeable increases in their respective sales.

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The upcoming Pokemon Gen 1 2DS and New 3DS bundles were also highlighted as a major upcoming initiative, as Nintendo seeks to capitalise on nostalgia and curiosity around the Virtual Console releases.

Our takeaway from these explanations is that Nintendo will combine a handful of key new releases with a drive to push the value and back-catalogue of the 3DS, which is certainly logical considering its been on the market for nearly five years. Whether it pays off will be interesting to see.

[source nintendo.co.jp]