Hideki Konno says Nintendo are not launching the eShop alongside the 3DS because they want to learn from the mistakes they made with the Wii Shop.

Hideki Konno spoke to Gamasutra about the upcoming Nintendo 3DS. Mr. Konno has been in charge of the project and spoke about many issues with Gamasutra but one of the most interesting was Nintendo's reason for not launching the eShop at the same time as the 3DS.

Mr. Konno admits that using the Wii Shop channel "just didn't work out quite as we were hoping." He also notes that separating the information channel from the shopping section did not work well and Nintendo are intending to cover all bases in one place.

And again, we're taking more time because we want to be able to create a system where a consumer sees a promotion and says, "Wow, that looks great!" Sees a game demo, game trailer, whatever it is, and says, "I want that!" And the ability to then say "Now I can purchase it right here without having to back out and go somewhere else" -- we want to provide that experience. So that's one other reason why we're not bringing it out with the system itself.

Additionally Hideki Konno commented on the rising success of the iPhone and cheap or free games. Nintendo do not plan to replicate this kind of business model because they feel that they would not be able to continue to create the same quality of games by selling them at those prices.

Again, it's sort of the same thing, but as a game developer I've put my heart into what I create, and I'm hoping that what I'm putting out there is something that people will be engaged by and entertained by. And as a consumer, I want the same thing. If I go and I see a game that interests me and I think I want to play it, I don't mind the fact that I have to pay a reasonable price for it. I'm not trying to say that I think games on cell phones are a bad thing; I'm not trying to say that they're worthless, or have no value at all. I'm just saying that they're just different.