Wrong question. In order to reach those levels Nintendo would have needed to put out at least a couple of these games already. To match the DS on the road to 10m, Nintendo needs to sell five million 3DSes in seven months, that's 700k per month or more than 150k per week. Currently they sell about half of that.

The 3DS needs a REAL Mario game, Pokémon generation VI, its own Tetris (not literally Tetris) and a myriad of other games that have proved themselves on the DS already. Nintendo needs to put out more games that make DS owners buy a 3DS. Of course, appealing to those who never bought a DS will increase sales too, but Nintendo should not forget about their core audience.

UncleScrooge said:

And today Nintendo flat out refuses to include all the people that made their platforms sell so well. It's a shame, really. And Nintendo won't get out of its financial trouble with their handheld business going from 30m / year to 20m while losing money on the hardware.

Wrong question. In order to reach those levels Nintendo would have needed to put out at least a couple of these games already. To match the DS on the road to 10m, Nintendo needs to sell five million 3DSes in seven months, that's 700k per month or more than 150k per week. Currently they sell about half of that.

The 3DS needs a REAL Mario game, Pokémon generation VI, its own Tetris (not literally Tetris) and a myriad of other games that have proved themselves on the DS already. Nintendo needs to put out more games that make DS owners buy a 3DS. Of course, appealing to those who never bought a DS will increase sales too, but Nintendo should not forget about their core audience.

I mean something that isn't character based and it needs to be a retail release to make an impact. Pushmo doesn't fit the bill for yet another reason and that is that really only is a puzzle game. While Tetris and Brain Training were cerebral experiences, they also required quick reflexes. Brain Training did release in the DS's first year in Japan, by the way.

The myriad of other games are titles that flesh out the library and thus make the system more appealing to a broader audience. Currently, pretty much everything on the 3DS is 3D gameplay centric, so getting out some more 2D platformers other than Super Mario Bros. would be a good idea. There's also Yoshi's Island, Kirby and Wario Land in terms of established IPs. A topdown Zelda wouldn't hurt either, but not one like the DS games which were eventually rejected by the market (big amounts of Spirit Tracks ended up in Japanese bargain bins). A true successor to Super Metroid, not something like Fusion that spoonfeeds the player the content.

Beyond that, there's always the option to create some new IPs or get third parties to develop some interesting content.

Momentum is generated by creating passionate customers. The more variety you have on your system, the bigger the chances that positive word of mouth spreads beyond internet message boards and actually makes an impact on a broader audience. Currently the 3DS does not reach a broad audience.

Yes, I consider Brain Training a Tetris. That should answer the rest of your post too.

Or in other words, stuff like Kid Icarus: Uprising, Luigi's Mansion 2 and Paper Mario isn't going to make the 3DS explode in popularity.

One more thing about the DS though: It was posting >100k weekly with the help of Nintendogs and Brain Training, but since neither of these games is characterbased, neither will work as well as last generation. We can already see this in action with Nintendogs + Cats, hence why I am talking about a new Tetris and not a straight sequel of Brain Training.