Learning from the 3DS, Nintendo will put its best foot forward with Wii U's launch games

Nintendo's still not ready to reveal its launch titles for this year's Wii U, though company president Satoru Iwata tells investors that its first batch of games could potentially include long-term sellers. As it prepares to debut Wii U, the company hopes to replicate the same success it experienced with key Wii games -- so-called evergreen titles like Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Play that continued to sell plenty of copies years after their release. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata admitted that preparing those games in time for launch can be a challenge: "There is always a limit to our internal resources. The company now has to develop software for the Nintendo 3DS, has to prepare for the Wii U launch and has to finalize the hardware functionalities." "With these circumstances in mind, if I said that an overwhelmingly rich software lineup would be prepared from day one, it would be too much of a promise to make," Iwata told investors at a Q&A session last week. Many criticized the company for releasing its last system, the Nintendo 3DS, with a weak lineup of games that lacked any must-have titles. It wasn't until months after the portable's launch when big 3DS titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Mario Kart 7 hit stores. Nintendo is working to make sure that won't be the case with Wii U, though. Iwata noted, "On the other hand, we are making efforts so that we will be able to make several proposals even from the launch period that can eventually become evergreen titles for the Wii U." "We have learned the lesson that we have to make that kind of preparation for the Wii U, or the Wii U will not gain enough momentum to expand its sales," he added. "At the E3 show this June, you will be able to experience not only Nintendo's Wii U software but also the titles being prepared by the third-party publishers." Nintendo has not yet announced any launch titles for Wii U. One of the company's launch games for Wii, Wii Sports, went on to sell more than 79 million copies (the game was bundled with the console in most countries).