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The big hardware launch of the moment may be Microsoft’s Kinect – but plans are moving quickly for Nintendo’s 3DS.
Speaking during a recently investors Q&A, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata shrugged off a suggestion that initial shipment figures of 4m hardware and 15m software units were too high.
He said that retailers are already promising decent space for the new handheld and plan to help showcase the technology to customers.
"We are launching a new hardware device, for which people’s anticipation is fortunately high," he said, saying retailers, publishers, consumers and developers were all excited for the device.
"In terms of the current circumstance where a number of software developers with strong will to make the software for it are wanting to launch their software on or close to the launch date of Nintendo 3DS, we think that the company will be able to make that size of software shipment from Nintendo."
He added: "In addition, since the retailers also have high expectations for this new hardware, we are expecting them to offer sufficient shelf space to showcase and sell a certain good amount of the software from the beginning. These are the reasons as to how we have come up with that software shipment figure [of 15m].
"Taking into consideration the high expectations for this product before the launch, we have concluded that we would be able to make that shipment figure."
With 4m handhelds and 15m games being shipped to stores, the device could have an attach rate of around three to four games per user at launch.
3DS is set to arrive in Japan on February 26th for Japan at 25000 (188), Europe and North America get the device in March.
