3DS’s Second Year to see Focus on Casual Market

Worried about the lack of mental exercise and pet simulation gams gracing Nintendo’s visually-enhanced handheld? Fret not. In an interview with AOL, Nintendo of America President and Readier of Bodies Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed that Nintendo is planning to bring a number of mass-market games to the 3DS over the course of the next year.

This line of casual-oriented software is set to be announced at E3 2012. Said Fils-Aime, “My expectation is that, come E3, I think we’ll be showcasing a range of different titles that, for a more casual consumer, they’ll see reasons to jump on board with the Nintendo 3DS.”

What exactly these titles will entail is anybody’s guess, but Reggie was keen to point out that they understand that it was games like Brain Age and Nintendogs that made the DS the enormous success it was:

In terms of other genres, absolutely we will continue to push the envelope with new, unique, differentiated experiences that you can only get on the Nintendo 3DS and that widen the consumer demographic. So, will there be content to appeal to consumers 50 plus the way Brain Age did? Absolutely. Will there be content that’s going to appeal to women the way we are able to do with the DS? Absolutely. I can’t go into the details of what exactly those titles will be, but stay tuned.

While the 3DS had a rocky launch, a significant price drop and a swath of solid first-party titles leading into the holiday season have helped the system recover. Up until now, the 3DS has mostly focused on core games, with little available for the casual market. The original DS saw an enormous surge in popularity when games like Brain Age were released, but it remains to be seen if the 3DS will enjoy the same boost when the casual games begin to flow.