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Iwata discusses 3DS sales around the world - sales growing worldwide

by rawmeatcowboy
31 October 2013
GN Version 4.0
Although I have said this a number of times, the handheld platform shares are high in Japan, and Nintendo 3DS, in particular, progressed well. On the other hand, in the U.S. and European markets, the presence of Nintendo 3DS is lower in comparison with that of the Japanese market. In the Financial Results Briefing in April, I announced that vitalizing the overseas markets was our top priority for our Nintendo 3DS business.

As you can see, the Nintendo 3DS market share has been growing not only in Japan but also in overseas markets. You could say that we are now starting to see the results of intensively and actively releasing strong first-party titles since March this year as part of our effort to expand Nintendo 3DS in the overseas markets, which is our top priority for this fiscal year. On the other hand, the higher market share of Nintendo 3DS is not attributable solely to its increased sales. The overall sales units of dedicated gaming hardware platforms decreased by approximately 10 percent in Japan and 30 percent in the U.S. and Europe on a year-on-year basis as other platforms are in transitional periods, which have the effect to relatively increase Nintendo 3DS's market share. Of course, since the software market for Nintendo 3DS is expanding much more than in the previous year, there is no doubt that its presence is increasing and is now being recognized as the growing platform business in the video game market.

Some might feel it is odd that even though the market shares in the overseas markets are increasing, the sales units from Nintendo in the first half of this period were less than in the previous year. This is because, in addition to the relative nature of the market share, Nintendo 3DS XL was released in July in Japan and Europe, and in August in the U.S. last year.

Also, as I said in April, the Nintendo platform shares in Europe vary in each country, so I would like to show you the market share by country as well.

Compared with the data from January to March, which was shown in the Financial Results Briefing in April, the market share has increased by 8 percent in the UK, 12 percent in France and Germany, and the Nintendo 3DS market share has greatly increased in all countries. The market share in the UK, our main concern, has also improved, and there was a month in France that the monthly hardware share reached 50 percent, a presence that is as high as Nintendo has shown in Japan.

I would like to explain the results from this September in detail because it is when we noted a large difference in trends between the Japanese market and the overseas markets. In the Japanese market, Nintendo 3DS sales sharply increased after the release of Capcom's “Monster Hunter 4” and its market share grew to over 80 percent. On the other hand, the sales in the overseas markets for other video game platforms experienced significant growth in September due to the releases of software such as “Grand Theft Auto V,” which became a big hit, and “FIFA 14,” the soccer franchise that is particularly popular in Europe, causing the market share of Nintendo 3DS to slightly decrease temporarily. Even though Nintendo 3DS had not actually lost momentum, the games for other platforms were selling very well in this period, and this trend was particularly noticeable in Europe. - Satoru Iwata
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