Why Does 3DS Not Sell Too Well In The West?

davidd_err18

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davidd_err18 on 09 July 2012

Nintendo needs to kill the DS in the US, (but they keep releasing DS important games ,like the Pokemon games-_-, a year and a half from the 3DS launch), thats why is not selling, the DS is cheaper and looks just like the 3DS

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UnitSmiley on 10 July 2012

As brothawiz already said there is quite a large stigma for adults and older teens to play their DS's (Or 3DS's) in public. In the US (where I live) the DS sold muuuch more to young children. My two little brothers both have one and they are 7 and 4 respectively. Playing a crappy casual game on your phone is just fine, but god forbid you try to play a REAL game on a device specifically made for gaming.

Japan doesn't have to deal with that. Their culture is much more into gaming and specifically handhelds. Also, and I know i'm not the majority of people in the US (i'm so far from x_X) Most of the games i'm eagerly awaiting for the 3DS are games that i'm not sure will ever come to the West anyway. KH3D, FE, MH,Bravery Default ect. I'm hoping all of them will but i'm not so sure on the last two. I'm sure a lot of people are just waiting for that one game they are dying to play to finally get out in the west.

Which leads me to my next point. Localize more, and try to work on global launches. Once a game has a global launch you can spend the rest of the time hyping it up to all over the world!

Just what I think anyway, a lot of this has already been said, but yeah.

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oldschoolfool on 10 July 2012

what are you talking about. Last week on the xbox360 oldsold it in America. It's doing very well.

Kasz216

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Kasz216 on 10 July 2012

MontanaHatchet said:
Handheld systems are naturally more popular in Japan than the west. In order for handhelds to achieve breakthrough sales in America and Europe, they generally have to offer games which have widespread appeal and broaden the market. With the original Gameboy, this was achieved primarily through Pokemon Red/Blue and Tetris. Conversely, with the DS, this explosive growth was achieved through games like Brain Training and Nintendogs.

With the 3DS, Nintendo's strategy seems to be to release traditional series such as Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda to sustain sales. This is fine, except the market isn't being expanded. With the popularity of mobile gaming as well as ongoing economic problems, the 3DS will naturally lose DS owners who will decide not to upgrade. Nintendo could mitigate this by attempting to expand the market with blue ocean games, but they are currently releasing the exact same types of games they've been releasing for decades (those from their core series). Games from traditional, core Nintendo series such as Mario and Zelda will attract long time Nintendo fans and those who enjoyed the most recent iterations, but buyers will be lost through attrition.

This is one of the reasons that the N64 sold less than the SNES, and the Gamecube sold less than the N64. A large part of it was increased competition, but a perhaps even more important aspect of it was that Nintendo wasn't expanding their audience. The N64 released the same types of Mario/Donkey Kong/Zelda games as the SNES, and the Gamecube followed suit with its predecessor. It wasn't until Nintendo released the Wii and brought audience expanding games like Wii Sports/Fit/Play that hardware sales increased significantly. The new expanded audience that these games brought also purchased various traditional Nintendo games, which can be seen in the high sales of games like Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros.

Another factor to consider is that while the DS had gameplay innovations with its double screen and touch controls, the 3DS doesn't have this same advantage. Its main feature (3D visuals) doesn't offer significant changes in gaming or interface control. If one examines the Wii U, it offers a gameplay innovation in the tablet controller, but its library also seems to be primarily made up of traditional Nintendo series. However, its controller offers opportunities for innovation. The 3DS, in many respects, has painted itself into a corner. It doesn't offer much to bring in new gamers.

This.... PLUS the fact that Cellphone games have ALWAYS been popular in Japan.

Cellphones got a Final Fantasy 4 Spin-off for example... that has to eat in the market some.

Not as much for people who already own DS, so the price to buy a game is the same... but those who have to invest further in 3DS hardware?

Mazty

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Mazty on 22 August 2012

happydolphin said:

NoirSon said:
1) It is simply that there hasn't been a cross market blockbusters like Pokemon, Brain Age or Nintendogs that can push the 3DS to DS sales territory.

2) But beyond that, it pretty much comes down to the fact that the West (or more specifically the United States) aren't into handhelds as much as Japan. Heck, in Japan, the portable devices are pretty much King since early in the first console generation. But after little less then a year, I don't think it is valid to say it isn't doing well in one territory when the difference is about a million and as I stated, the DS at around this time had its major genre busting games being first released.

1) Pokemon is true, Brain Age too, but not Nintendogs. If you mean "Like Nintendogs", but a new IP, yeah you're right.

2) Far as I know, Nintendo's handhelds have always been big in the states (/Canada/Mexico), always higher than the sales in Japan. For the DS and Gameboy, that logic extended to Europe also:

Pos	Platform	North America	Europe	Japan	Rest of World	Global
2	Nintendo DS (DS)	55.31	51.40	33.01	12.43	152.15
3	Game Boy (GB)	43.18	40.05	32.47	2.99	118.69
6	Game Boy Advance (GBA)	40.39	21.31	16.96	2.85	81.51
7	PlayStation Portable (PSP)	21.12	21.46	19.02	13.03	74.63

The question is, how to explain the 3DS?

16

Nintendo 3DS (3DS)

5.70

4.83

6.30

1.39

18.22

The main answers are:

A big holiday season should be coming to start the momentum.
Nintendo's US trends usually 1 year later than Japan trends, and higher sales usually begin in years 2 and counting, up until the trend phases back down.
A lack of a marketing push for the 3DS in the West (imho).
Competition from smartphones.
A lack of compelling games to compensate for the lack of interest in the platform in the West. (like you mentioned) This should soon be fixed with NSMB2 and Animal Crossing, as well as a few others coming out in the next few months.

Smart phones as you have mentioned are key. They are "cooler" and more people have a smartphone. Plus a lot of people don't care about 3D, whereas they do care about the latest Android or IOS. Simply put, the market for handhelds is far smaller nowadays then with the DS as there is far more competition.