Nintendo 3DS eShop delay explained

This shiny 3DS that I showed off a few weeks ago in Japan? It seems so lonely and lifeless now that I’m in America. No Miis to trade with, no online action — Nothing. Just some AR cards that I still toy with, and my silly Nintendog corgi that keeps getting dirty. He’s pissing me off. What I really need is some fun downloadable games. It’s too bad that fancy pants eShop isn’t open yet. 

Nintendo explains why we have to wait a bit — until May — for our eShopping for those 3D demos, game upgrades and DSiWare-like content. Nintendo’s Hideki Konno, hardware producer, explains in an interview with Gamasutra:

We definitely want to make sure that it’s ready before we bring it out. The iterations that we’ve had before — for Wii and DS — to be honest, we just haven’t been as satisfied as we would like

Yes, do that. We can wait. 

Konno goes on to explain that their first try on the DS didn’t work as expected, and that they didn’t like that the online experience was split up on the Wii. He says that for the 3DS they want to “cover it from all sides” and take the right amount of time to “make sure that it’s right.” 

Good to hear. Again, we can wait.