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Giant Bomb: Iwata's Apology Letter to 3DS Owners Translated

L

LiK

Member
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/read-satoru-iwatas-apologic-letter-to-existing-3ds-owners/3546/

When a company's flagship product falters, you don't expect the president to slash his salary in half, but that's exactly what Nintendo's Satoru Iwata did last week, after revealing the drastic 3DS price cut.

Nintendo has not been happy with 3DS hardware sales to date, and rather than patiently waiting another few months for a holiday boost, it's injecting the platform with a signifiant price drop less than six months after launch.

Iwata's making a full court press to boost Nintendo's new handheld, even if it means ticking off early adopter customers, Nintendo's core following.

After the announcement, Iwata published a letter to Nintendo fans on the company's website. This letter hasn't been officially translated to English by Nintendo, nor has Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime passed along something similar. I had a friend translate the letter, which comes across about as heartfelt and genuine as you could expect from the head of a major corporation.

The closet thing I've seen for American customers is a message summarizing the announcement.

I've decided to reprint the translation in full, with the exception of where Iwata details the 3DS Ambassador program, Nintendo's mea culpa through free NES and Game Boy Advance games, which you can read more about here.


-----
To Those Customers Who Bought A Nintendo 3DS Before The Price Change

Greetings, everyone. This is Satoru Iwata from Nintendo.

Thank you very much for purchasing a Nintendo 3DS.

We have just announced a price drop for the Nintendo 3DS system effective on August 11 [August 12 in North America].

In the past, there have been price drops for video game systems some time after their release in order to broaden the user base further. However, never before has Nintendo chosen to issue such a dramatic price drop less than 6 months after a system release.

We are all too keenly aware that those of you who supported us by purchasing the 3DS in the beginning may feel betrayed and criticize this decision.

This unprecedented timing for a price cut is because the situation has changed greatly since we originally launched the 3DS. We decided it was necessary to take this drastic step in order to ensure that large numbers of users will continue to enjoy the 3DS in the future.

If the software creators and those on the retail side are not confident that the Nintendo 3DS is a worthy successor to the DS and will achieve a similarly broad (user) base, it will be impossible for the 3DS to gain popularity, acquire a wide range of software, and eventually create the product cycle necessary for everyone to be satisfied with the system.

Those customers who purchased the 3DS at the very beginning are extremely important to us. We know that there is nothing we can do to completely make up for the feeling that you are being punished for buying the system early. Still, we would like to offer the following as a sign of our appreciation to you.

[3DS Ambassador program details]

We feel a strong responsibility to develop the 3DS as a platform -- to ensure that, in the end, everyone is satisfied; we will make every effort to do so.

Additionally, we know everyone is waiting for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. They are scheduled for release in November and December, respectively, so we ask for your patience until then.

Thank you again, and we look forward to your continued support.
-----

The retail price for 3DS will drop from $249.99 to $169.99 on August 12.
In order to participate in the 3DS Ambassador program, log into the eShop before midnight on August 11.
Click to expand...
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Some bowing action would have been appreciated ;)

If Microsoft got in on the act we could have ourselves a hattrick this year.
 
M

Massa

Member
I feel bad for the people working on those Mario games. They're probably living at Nintendo 24-7 to get them shipped this year.
 
K

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Iwata is on a roll to make every other exec at his level in the industry look like a soulless corporate automaton.

That includes Reggie.
 
N

Nuclear Muffin

Banned
Videogame Journalism lol. Nintendo actually have translated the letter into English. It has been on the UK website ever since the price drop announcement.

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/nintendo_3ds_ambassador_programme_44123.html

28/07/11

Nintendo 3DS Ambassador programme

Nintendo has today announced a global change in the trade pricing policy of Nintendo 3DS. In Europe, this will be applicable from August 12th.

There have been times in the past when we, Nintendo, have marked down the trade prices for our video game machines a certain amount of time after launch to further accelerate adoption of the hardware, but never in Nintendo’s history have we dropped a system’s trade price so significantly less than 6 months after launch.

We are aware this may cause you, the loyal fans who supported Nintendo 3DS from the beginning, to lose trust in us, and this is not our intention in any way.

All of you who have kindly supported Nintendo 3DS from the beginning are Nintendo’s most important customers. Although we may not be able to completely prevent you from regretting purchasing Nintendo 3DS early, we would like to express our gratitude to our special customers like you by offering 20 free downloadable games from Nintendo eShop.

These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 23:59 pm (Central European Time) on August 11th. These Nintendo 3DS systems will be automatically registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador programme.
Click to expand...
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
Live Free or Die said:
damage control
Click to expand...
Yes. That's what an apology is.

I gotta say, though, this is very sincere. It's jarring seeing Iwata write write something like this after seeing NoA's response to Op. Rainfall.
 
L

lolez2matt

Member
Bentendo said:
Pretty cool. I can't wait for Reggie's message.

[Reggie laughs]
Click to expand...
Nintendo-Clarifies-Stance-on-Independent-Developers-Wants-Experience-from-Them-2.jpg


My letter is ready!
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
Nintendo of Europe published a similar letter announcing the Ambassador program. Kind of odd (and perhaps a bit obnoxious) that NOA didn't.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
Father_Brain said:
Nintendo of Europe published a similar letter announcing the Ambassador program. Kind of odd (and perhaps a bit obnoxious) that NOA didn't.
Click to expand...

Maybe NoA's trying to find a way to not give us those free games.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
Father_Brain said:
Nintendo of Europe published a similar letter announcing the Ambassador program. Kind of odd (and perhaps a bit obnoxious) that NOA didn't.
Click to expand...
"We are aware that you are upset that we cut the price so soon. However, that's what we did. Deal with it. Thank you for being such great fans!"
 
N

newjeruse

Member
Google translate a.k.a. "a friend" now passes for a news article. Great job Klepeck, you're worth your weight in gold.
 
G

GringoJB

Member
BurntPork said:
I gotta say, though, this is very sincere. It's jarring seeing Iwata write write something like this after seeing NoA's response to Op. Rainfall.
Click to expand...

Yes, this! I said something like it in another thread, but I think that short, frank "this is why we're doing what we're doing" statements go a long way with People Who Care About Video Games. Plus, they don't cost anything.
 
D

darkressurection

Banned
newjeruse said:
Google translate a.k.a. "a friend" now passes for a news article. Great job Klepeck, you're worth your weight in gold.
Click to expand...
Come on dude, there is NO way google translate would be as coherent as the translation in the article.
 
F

Futureman

Member
I pretty much knew it was overpriced when I bought one, but Nintendo is perhaps my favorite company, so I decided to support them at the full $250 in the hopes that they will be able to continue to develope hardware and software in the future.

Plus, besides puzzle type games and some random exceptions, I really don't like iOS/Android gaming at all, so I want to continue to support game development from companies that look to provide robust gameplay systems w/ physical controls.
 
M

MikeE21286

Member
BurntPork said:
Yes. That's what an apology is.

I gotta say, though, this is very sincere. It's jarring seeing Iwata write write something like this after seeing NoA's response to Op. Rainfall.
Click to expand...

They should just grab some cache back with the core gamers (i.e. those who bought a 3DS early on and he's apologizing too) by localizing the Op. Rainfall games

it's nice to want things :(
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
newjeruse said:
Google translate a.k.a. "a friend" now passes for a news article. Great job Klepeck, you're worth your weight in gold.
Click to expand...
darkressurection said:
Come on dude, there is NO way google translate would be as coherent as the translation in the article.
Click to expand...
For the record, this is what Google Translate comes up with:

Hello, everyone. Iwata, Nintendo is.

We love our Nintendo 3DS, Thank you.

This time, it will help us to revise the price of Nintendo 3DS hard on August 11, Announced today that fiscal year.

Period of time has passed and the game launched, that aims to spread to additional price cuts are there in the past, as now, without even half a year has elapsed since its release, yet so big discount It was, you had no past history of Nintendo.

This will undermine the trust of everyone who have supported from the very beginning, Nintendo 3DS, we are keenly aware that it could accept the criticism.

This time, decided to Price on such an unprecedented time, before the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, the situation changes significantly at the moment, if I hit the bold hand, with many customers to enjoy the Nintendo 3DS determined that because the future is highly likely you Tsukuridasenai.

People to make a soft hand, everyone involved in sales to, "Nintendo 3DS is definitely a game to spread the successor to Nintendo DS" Itadakenakere confident that you, well a lot of momentum for Nintendo 3DS spread your software is substantial, not create a cycle that you have purchased our satisfaction to all the Nintendo 3DS as a result.

Everyone is a valued customer Kudasatta to support the first Nintendo 3DS. "The loss to buy soon," you feel completely eliminate it might not be, expressed gratitude for our special guests are, We will be prepared the following suggestions directly below.

To everyone, "ultimately satisfied" to make you feel, it will raise a platform that Nintendo 3DS, we feel it our responsibility and above all, make every effort to realize the match The.

Here, Nintendo 3DS special software we welcome You to our "3D Super Mario Land" in November this year, "Mario Kart 7", so we plan to launch in December this year respectively, again for your patience so thank you.

We look forward to your continued support in the future, thank you.
Click to expand...
 
V

VGChampion

Member
I hate pulling out the hardcore / casual thing because I really do hate those comparisons but I've been a fan of Nintendo since the NES when my dad brought home something I had no idea what it was and I'll still be a fan after. It is nice of them to do everything they've done so far.
 
J

jay

Member
Neuromancer said:
For the record, this is what Google Translate comes up with:

​
Click to expand...

This is superior because, "People to make a soft hand, everyone involved in sales to, "Nintendo 3DS is definitely a game to spread the successor to Nintendo DS" Itadakenakere confident that you, well a lot of momentum for Nintendo 3DS spread your software is substantial, not create a cycle that you have purchased our satisfaction to all the Nintendo 3DS as a result" really is the truth.
 
A

AAK

Member
Is the 3DS doing bad in japan as well??

I know handhelds aren't in a great position in North America but I assumed they'd be selling really well over in Japan.
 
C

ciD_Vain

Member
I can't convince myself that the $250 i spent on it early has been completely worth it, but I can say that I appreciate Nintendo's acknowledgement of the situation.
 
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