Speculation Surrounds September 3DS Trade Conference

Nintendo said Tuesday it will hold a special conference next month in Tokyo, just days prior to the high-profile Tokyo Game Show, that will focus solely on the future of its 3DS handheld console. The Nintendo Conference will be held on September 13, and comes just a month after the company slashed the price of the stereoscopic 3D-display handheld worldwide. The announcement of the upcoming trade-only conference fuels speculation that the company is preparing to unveil something notable for the 3DS, which as of yet has not sold as well as Nintendo had hoped. Company stocks were up 8.4 percent to 13,100 yen ($170.57) on news of the conference. Indeed, a number of Japanese key executives at Nintendo took pay cuts in July as a result of the underperforming 3DS sales. Talking to The Wall Street Journal, Nikko Cordial Securities analyst Eiji Maeda said, "A new product is something the company badly needs right now." However, the price cut has ignited strong sales, at least in the short term. Following the price cut two weeks ago, the console saw a huge sales spurt in Japan, with 196,077 units sold in the week after the drop.