Both Mr. Iwata and Reggie have gone on record to admit Nintendo made mistakes with the 3DS launch. In a recent interview, Reggie announced Nintendo was learning from those mistakes and will not repeat them with the launch of the Wii U. What might have Nintendo learned from the mistakes of the 3DS that they are applying to the Wii U?

The 3DS was launched with too high of a price point. As I have stated before in recent columns, Nintendo was a little full of themselves announcing such a high price point for the 3DS. A part of that had something to do with us as journalists. We hyped up the 3DS to such a point that Nintendo was trying to ride that hype, that we created, to some extra money. The other part had to do with Nintendo’s success with the Wii and DS. Nintendo gained this mentality that, “Hey we did it twice, why not again.” Nintendo has learned, when it comes to video games, excitement does not actually mean demand. As gamers, we have become jaded in our ways. We complain each time game and system prices go up. If core gamers hesitated on the 3DS, what do you expect the casual gamer was thinking?

Nintendo has learned from their mistake with the high 3DS price. I truly believe the Wii U will probably be priced around $250- $300. For a new generation system, with that controller, I believe a $50 price jump from the Wii would be reasonable to consumers. I also would not be surprised if Nintendo became very aggressive and lowered the price to $250, matching the Wii’s release price. Unlike the Wii and the 3DS, Nintendo has come to the conclusion that it is OK to lose money on their systems at first, which they possibly could with the Wii U at the price point above.

The second mistake Nintendo made with the 3DS was a weak software launch. Once again, Nintendo believed that the system itself could carry sales, but they were dead wrong. Like I stated earlier, gamers have become jaded. We all focus on what games are coming more than the system itself. As long as there are good, enjoyable games, we do not care much about the system. I purchased the 3DS at its launch, played it for a few weeks with the two game purchases, Nintendogs and Street Fighter, and then put it down, for the most part, until Ocarina of Time was released. I have heard multiple people voicing their opinions about the 3DS software launch and its lack of quality games. Even people on our own staff have been waiting for this time of year to purchase a 3DS with games like Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land.

Nintendo will not repeat the weak software sales with the Wii U. At E3 2011, Nintendo made it clear they were working personally with 3rd party developers to get things developed for the Wii U. Ubisoft showed off a great FPS game, Killer Freaks from Outer Space. As well as other companies promising to bring their titles to the Wii U at launch, some that have been announced so far are Ninja Gaiden, Batman Arkham City, and some type of Assassins Creed game. One thing missing from the Nintendo 3DS launch was a strong Nintendo title. This is just pure speculation, but during this year’s E3 round-table, Miyamoto talked about Pikmin. Miyamoto announced that Pikmin has been in the works for the Wii, but now they have plans to move it onto the Wii U. I strongly believe Nintendo will have one key title at the Wii U’s launch, be it Pikmin or some Mario game.

The third mistake Nintendo made with the 3DS was lack of 3rd-party input. Nintendo has always been a rogue when it comes to development. Nintendo normally keeps most of the development in house, with little input from outside sources. To be honest, this has worked for Nintendo until now. During the announcement of the 3DS at E3 2010, Nintendo gave the elusion that 3rd-parties were a big part of the 3DS. This fact was actually a little skewed. Yes, Nintendo wanted to give the developers a chance to support the 3DS before they took it over with their games, but the help stopped there.

Nintendo will not make this mistake again with the Wii U. Nintendo showed at E3 2011 that they are really looking to 3rd party developers for guidance with the Wii U. Ubisoft and Nintendo held a joint round-table to discuss the Wii U during E3. Nintendo has turned to established online 3rd parties for help with their online structure, and well with the Wii U power and the Wii-pad.  The reason we have no clue about the specs of the Wii U is because Nintendo is still working on it. We have heard so many different reports about the specs, probably because there are so many different development packages out there. I do believe the Wii U core development structure is close to being completed, but the exact clock speed, RAM, etc are still being tweaked. Nintendo has sent out these development kits, earlier than normal, to see how much power the system really needs for developers to do what they want to do. Instead of releasing a system and saying, “Here it is, work with it.”

Even with Nintendo seemingly learning from their past mistakes, there is still one mistake that Nintendo may be making. I recently took a part-time job at a retail outlet. With my background, I was thrust into the video game section. Doing what I do here at Pure Nintendo, I have come accustomed to knowing and realizing things about video games, but I forget that others may not know or understand what I have come to understand. What I have become to realize is that people do not fully understand what the 3DS is all about. Just the other day I received this question, “What is the difference between the DS and the 3DS, besides the whole 3D thing?” What I realized after I was asked that question is that casual video game consumers are getting tripped up by the “DS” part of the name. They are concluding that the 3DS is a DS but with 3D. Yes, you can simply describe the 3DS as that, but for those of us who know better, the 3DS is so much more. Many parents, who are the high consumer of game purchases, have no clue about the 3DS, and this has to do a lot with the name.

Now lets take a look at the Wii U. Even all of us at Pure Nintendo were not even 100% sure that what we were seeing during the Nintendo E3 2011 press conference was a whole new system. I have also been asked the question in my journey’ss in life, “ Is the Wii U just the tablet thingy?” People see the word “Wii” and instantly think it’s just another version of the Wii like Nintendo has done with so many of their systems. DS, DS lite, DSi, DS XL, and that’s just the last generation of handhelds. Nintendo is going to have to make a clear line and separate themselves from the Wii in order for consumers to truly grasp that this system is their next evolution of home entertainment.

The Japanese culture is a very proud culture and I believe this will help the Wii U. Nintendo executives, Iwata, Miyamoto, etc (I dare you to name someone else) are very proud of what they do and their honor was a little shaken with the mis-step by the 3DS. Besides the fact that Nintendo lost a lot of money on the poor 3DS launch, I believe they want to re-gain their dominance and respect more. Living in Japan for a couple of years, and covering Nintendo for the past 5 years, I truly feel Nintendo wants to prove themselves and re-establish themselves as the company who everyone is trying to chase down and compete with. I am sure we will see this new aggressive and competitive Nintendo in years to come.