The arrival of the Nintendo 3DS can't come any quicker for the Japanese manufacturer, who has today posted a rather depressing financial earnings statement.

Covering a nine-month period that leads up to December 31, 2010, the report shows that 2010 has been a bad year for Nintendo, with earnings down 31.7% from the same period in 2009. Sales of DS and Wii hardware have also plummeted, with 23 million and 13.7 million less units sold respectively in 2010 compared to the previous year. That's only going to get worse in 2011.

Projections for the coming year aren't great either, with Nintendo expecting profits to fall by a whopping 60.6%. The good news is that the arrival of the 3DS, which launches in the US and Europe in March, may help the situation improve. However, Nintendo would do well to look at what its rival, Sony, is planning later this year with the community aspect of the NGP, the successor to the PSP - and the partnership with Android phones that looks set to bring quality casual gaming to the masses.

One thing's for certain: with the arrival of Kinect and Move late last year- Microsoft and Sony's answer to Wii's now out-dated motion-control gaming experience - Nintendo needs to think of something better than just offering gamers the same motion-controlled experience with better graphics, which is essentially what Wii HD looks set to do. What Nintendo really needs to do is get working on a new console, get back to the boardroom and re-think its strategy.