Satoru Iwata: “Richer” 3DS Third Party Lineup from Western Developers Coming

The Nintendo 3DS, since its price drop, has been doing great everywhere but no where near as much as Japan. The top selling games for the console last year were all developed there too. So where is the love from American and European developers?

According to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata it’s on the way and E3 is when you should be paying attention.

In a shareholders Q&A published on Nintendo’s website this evening, a shareholder has asked Iwata how he’s going to motivate third parties to work on the Nintendo 3DS and even the Wii.

While Iwata wasn’t talking Wii U at all he did share his thoughts on the Nintendo 3DS situation.

[quote][regarding the Nintendo 3DS] there may appear to be fewer commitments from the U.S. and the European software publishers than those of their Japanese counterparts. This is due to the different timing (between Japan and overseas) when they noticed that the Nintendo 3DS would surely expand widely into their markets and, thus, the different timing when they started the actual development of the Nintendo 3DS software.[/quote]

So now that the developers and publishers outside of Japan have seen this market shift, when can we expect the games or announcement of games?

[quote]You will also notice a change in this situation when a richer Nintendo 3DS software lineup in the overseas markets is announced around the time of the E3 show. In Japan, we have this solid feeling that the Japanese publishers will continuously support the Nintendo 3DS. Accordingly, I have no pessimistic view on the Nintendo 3DS software lineup.[/quote]

The 3DS, when it was first announced, got many great franchises committed to coming to the platform. There was a great amount of support from developers for the launch too, in all regions. But soon thereafter we saw games getting cancelled (Assassin’s Creed, Saint’s Row) as well as games getting delayed (Crus3D, Shinobi) in order to wait for a bigger install base. Since then, the western developers have been pretty quiet but E3 should reveal more.

Remember, Iwata told you so.