3DS sales momentum 'currently weak' outside of Japan
Handheld accounts for 55 per cent of all gaming hardware sales in Japan.
Sales of the 3DS in Japan are averaging 83,000 units each week in 2012, giving the handheld a 55 per cent share of all gaming hardware, but the situation is much less impressive in Europe and the US, says Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
"What we should say first is that while the Nintendo 3DS has a certain degree of sales momentum in Japan, the momentum in the US and Europe is currently weak," Iwata has told investors.
He added: "Sales of the Nintendo 3DS are constant in Japan and in fact we could say the sales volume is exceeding our forecast at the start of this fiscal year."
Iwata revealed that given the larger markets in Europe and the US, sales are expected to be higher.
"The sales proportion of the Nintendo 3DS is now about 20 per cent of the total video game sales in those markets. Thus, solid sales momentum has not been created," Iwata explained.
"With the Nintendo 3DS XL I just spoke about and our key titles, such as New Super Mario Bros. 2, to be released globally this summer, one of our immediate top-priority missions is to create sales momentum," he concluded.
User Comments
Woffls
That said, the Japanese market is far less influenced by the normal annual release cycle than the Western markets, so I wouldn't read much into this other than 3DS having a slow start.
pblive
Nintendo have always thrived on their unique software and this needs to be more plentiful.
BC_Animus
There were game I was interested in, like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, but didn't want to wrestle with the controls and didn't want to have to buy a big bulky addon for the damn thing (especially if it requires its own battery).
I had purchased a 3DS early on, but was pretty much only using it for old DS RPGs - even took it with me to work for a while, but with the rubbish battery life I've pretty much stopped taking it outside of the house. I WAS looking forward to a revised model, and was excited when they announced the XL... but seeing how it doesn't have a built in circle pad pro controls, my interest in the 3DS (and Nintendo in general) has pretty much dropped to zero.
Would be interesting to see how the Wii U will do when that comes out.