With Nintendo's Wii U enroute for 2012, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata blamed the company's portable 3DS console's tepid performance on a "lacking" launch lineup.

Responding to an investor's question about the 3DS's weak initial performance Iwata acknowledged that the console continues to struggle.

The company president clarified that Nintendo was finding it difficult to gain sales momentum with the 3DS after its slow start.

Iwata went on to blame a lack of preparation by Nintendo toward the 3DS's launch titles for the console's continuing weakness. The president went so far as to describe the 3DS launch lineup preparation work as "lacking".

Later in the meeting Iwata commented that he believed the console would have done better had it been launched alongside better games:

"We also must reflect on the fact that we were not able to launch Nintendo 3DS at a time when a sufficient number of strong software titles were ready.

"In order to avoid the same thing from happening to the Wii U, we are considering details, such as what software is suitable for the launch, more carefully than ever before."

During the same shareholder meeting, Iwata was again asked about the possibility of Nintendo developing for mobile devices or creating its own app store. In response Iwata reiterated that it was and for the moment would remain the company's policy to only develop software for its own devices:

"If we had never considered combining a mobile phone and a handheld device, we would be negligent... but on the other hand, mobile phones are subject to monthly fees, and we need to consider how well this would fit with game devices or how we should balance these aspects.

"Adding to this, mobile phone companies are generally divided by countries, and when running a business on a worldwide basis, we need to consider in what conditions can we partner up with mobile phone companies around the world. Please understand that we are still researching these areas."

Nintendo