Nintendo Q2 FY3/2015 Corporate Management Policy Briefing, Part 7: New Nintendo 3DS and the Western Markets

Iwata: “In the U.S. and Europe, highly acclaimed games are likely to be longtime sellers.”

☆ NintendObs Event – Nintendo Q2 FY3/2015.

When it comes to the overseas markets, we do not plan to launch New Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL for the U.S. or Europe this year. Additionally, there are only a couple of big titles, “Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS,” and “Pokémon Omega Ruby” and “Pokémon Alpha Sapphire,” overseas as no “YOKAI WATCH” franchises or “Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate” will be scheduled this year there. Based on these observations, some might wonder if, apart from the domestic market, the sales of Nintendo 3DS will really be able to gain momentum in the overseas markets.

The overseas markets are different from the Japanese market in both their stages of popularization of Nintendo 3DS and their market characteristics.

The stage of popularization of Nintendo 3DS means the degree to which we have turned potential purchasing power into actual sales of the product in a market. In Japan, the total number of sales of Nintendo 3DS has reached nearly 17 million in the three and a half years since its launch. It is almost the same as the lifetime sales of GameBoy Advance released in 2001, which implies that it is reasonable that the sales of Nintendo 3DS have been temporarily slow moving in the Japanese market. This is one of the reasons we needed to bring New Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL to the market this year. To the contrary, neither of the cumulative sales figures of Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. nor Europe is more than that in Japan despite, based on the historical performance, bigger sales potential. In short, Nintendo 3DS is still at an earlier stage of popularization in these two markets.

Also, the difference in market characteristics shows up in the software sales pace. In the Japanese market, both hardware and software tend to sell during a short period along with a quick spread of information on them. In the U.S. and Europe, on the other hand, highly acclaimed games are likely to be longtime sellers.

This is the sales transitions of “Pokémon X” and “Pokémon Y,” including their package versions, download versions and versions bundled with hardware, released in October last year. As you can see, the titles continue to sell for a long time in the U.S. and Canada in contrast with the sudden spurt in the Japanese market. Although the total sales figure of Nintendo 3DS is approximately 15 percent less in the U.S. and Canada than that in Japan, the combined sales of the “Pokémon” franchise there surpassed the number in Japan this June and have kept enlarging the gap.

In other words, once a key title becomes popular, the selling power is sustained for a long time. In overseas markets, the key titles for the year-end sales season are “Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS” and “Pokémon Omega Ruby” and “Pokémon Alpha Sapphire.” On top of that, it would be important for us to take advantage of sales potential of the big titles we have released so far.

We released “Tomodachi Life” in overseas markets this year, which is the title released as “Tomodachi Collection: Shin-seikatsu” (Japanese title) in Japan last year.

In Japan, the initial sales of this title were positive because it was the sequel to “Tomodachi Collection,” released for Nintendo DS only in Japan and was a big hit. It is, however, completely new for the overseas markets. We therefore have made efforts to sell it steadily for a long time there. Please let me show you an interesting sales transition of this title in the European market.

As you are aware, it has maintained stable sales for quite a long time. It has lost momentum lately, but we think it is because video games generally sell the least in September and October in Europe, and we anticipate that the sales will be boosted again toward the year-end sales season.

Let’s compare this with the sales transition of “Animal Crossing: New Leaf,” which was released almost one year ago. The initial sales of “Tomodachi Life” are lower than “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” due to the difference in brand awareness. However, the sales surpass “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” in summer, which indicates that “Tomodachi Life” has high sales potential.

Both “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” and “Tomodachi Life” have few competing titles in the video game industry. We think it very important to fulfill sales potential of these types of games in order to vitalize the Nintendo 3DS business.

— Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo
Source: Nintendo JP, Nintendo JP.