Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the Wii U will learn from the "bitter lesson" of the Nintendo 3DS's troubled launch. Speaking to investors following confirmation of its huge £578m loss, Iwata promised the platform holder is going all out to make sure the Wii successor heralds a reverse of fortunes for the company.
"We are planning to launch the Wii U, which is the successor to the Wii, during the next fiscal year," he told investors in Japan.
"We would like to show the final format of the Wii U at the E3 show next year. As we learned a bitter lesson with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, we are trying to take every possible measure so that the Wii U will have a successful launch."
In the same meeting the Nintendo boss said he feels "greatly accountable for missing our financial forecast for the half year ended September and revising downward our forecast for the full year".
He explained: "The company was unable to launch much-anticipated first-party titles for the Wii nor for the Nintendo 3DS in a timely fashion in the first half of the term. In the game platform business, creating momentum is very important, but the momentum was once lost, and it has had a large negative effect on our sales and profits."