Satoru Iwata admits sales of the newly-launched 3DS system have tailed-off more than anticipated...

Speaking to investors, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata has expressed disappointment at hardware sales of the 3DS so far, despite solid opening weeks in every territory. He noted that sales from the second week in North America and Europe particularly were lower than expected.

The 3DS' launch period has been notable for a lack of big-hitter first-party titles from the Kyoto giant. It's believed the company has been holding back in order to give third parties room to create a solid software base, with familiar blockbusters like The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox arriving from summer.

It had also been confirmed that hardware sales of 3DS stood at 3.61m worldwide by the end of March, falling short of the 4m previously predicted.