Nintendo had a label for DS games that skewed towards a more casual audience. The "Touch Generations" line of games included Brain Age and Nintendogs, and "Personal Trainer" apps that promised to make you a better cook and mathematician. These games expanded the DS audience well beyond the core and into the mainstream, and helped make Nintendo a household name.

So where are the 3DS "Touch Generations" games? "If the company was to simply port these 'Touch-Generations' titles to the Nintendo 3DS, there would be nothing fresh," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata claimed.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Nintendo is going to pursue that expanded audience. "Although we have not included the software in the lineup that we have announced so far for this year, we are, of course, preparing several titles with which we will be able to aim to expand the entire gaming population."

"For example, in comparison to the Nintendo DS and the Wii, fewer senior consumers are using the Nintendo 3DS today," Iwata noted. "It must be inevitable as there are few titles among the Nintendo 3DS software so far developed with this age demographic in mind."

Hopefully, the elderly won't be too off-put by the dizzying images produced by the 3DS' glasses-free 3D tech.

Before Nintendo releases casual-friendly software on the 3DS, Iwata notes that the company must sate the needs of its current audience. Given the system's sluggish start, it's imperative that Nintendo continue to make its hardcore base happy. "For the Nintendo 3DS, we have to first maintain the situation in which the current owners of the Nintendo 3DS will be satisfied. We cannot put too much priority on expanding the entire user demographic at present. It is important to maintain a good sense of balance here."