so there's been some hay made lately on here about whether the 3ds is on a "downward spiral" (to quote one user) or whether 2014 sales were down significantly because the software output did not match 2013, where you had a big hit every other month (several multi-million sellers including animal crossing: new leaf [7m+], luigi's mansion: dark moon [4m+], mario and luigi: dream team [2m+], fire emblem: awakening [~1.5m, series best], pokemon x/y, [14m+], a link between worlds [~2.5m], etc.).
in 2014, only smash bros. and pokémon approached the sales of any of those games. kirby and bravely default did respectably, as did yoshi and professor layton, but the big 3ds hits were all in japan (yokai watch, monster hunter 4). considering the drop in software output, i'm actually surprised sales didn't drop more than they did, but smash bros. and pokémon are huge franchises, i guess, and did a good job of picking up the slack, especially during the holidays.
now we have a sense of what's coming in the first half of this year, with a bunch of release dates from nintendo and third parties, i thought i'd pose the question: will new 3ds upgrades increase 3ds sales vs. 2014? or is it in a "downward spiral"? or will it do the same as 2014? here are the releases for the first half of this year, with some speculative titles for the second (i've bolded existing/potential million sellers):
first half of 2015 (confirmed): majora's mask 3d (feb. 13), ace combat+ (feb. 13), monster hunter 4 (feb. 13), story of seasons [harvest moon] (march 10), code name s.t.e.a.m. (march 13), fossil fighters frontier (march 20), xenoblade chronicles 3d (april 2), etrian mystery dungeon (april 7), devil survivor 2 (may 5), puzzle and dragons z/puzzle and dragons x super mario (may), hatsune miku project mirai dx (may 26)
second half of 2015 (speculative): bravely second, theatrhythm dragon warrior, new metroid, final fantasy explorers, the great ace attorney, new fire emblem, rodea (xseed?), enhanced remake of pokemon x/y, rhythm heaven 3ds (december title like ultimate nes remix), misc. unannounced nintendo titles (tba at e3)
