Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, has explained that theNintendo 3DS is extremely successful in Japan, but the sales in the west do not match up. Reason being, is that publishers tend to focus more on consoles, rather than publishing titles on the handheld system.
The Nintendo has sold over 10 million units in both the U.S. and Europe. While Nintendo is keeping the focus of Japanese titles coming to “the number one dedicated video game system that Japanese third-party publishers are focusing on” in Japan, he believes Nintendo must “create a strong foundation in areas Nintendo excels at and achieve a sufficient sales volume,” in regards to Nintendo 3DS titles in the west.
Iwata stated, during the company’s investor briefing last week:
“… in terms of third-party support, while many point out that Nintendo has traditionally been weak in terms of acquiring it, if you consider the Japanese market, it is fair to say that the number one dedicated video game system that Japanese third-party publishers are focusing on is Nintendo 3DS. This is because Nintendo 3DS has an overwhelmingly strong presence in the hardware as well as software markets for dedicated game systems, meaning that it would be illogical not to do business on Nintendo 3DS, and we are cooperating with third-party publishers in a variety of ways as long as we can establish win-win relationships. On the other hand, if you turn to the overseas markets, as home consoles are more popular, many publishers are not as focused on handheld devices. In such an environment, while we are certainly not satisfied with its overall unit sales or the results from the last year-end sales season, the fact that Nintendo 3DS has now sold over 10 million units in both the U.S. and Europe seems to be news for third-party publishers, and we have recently been receiving more proposals from third-party publishers. However, as many overseas software publishers are specialized in developing games for high-end home consoles, while they are very interested in Nintendo 3DS, it appears that they are currently investigating what they want to develop on our platform. Also, we sometimes distribute, or even publish depending on the circumstances, games that were made by Japanese software publishers in the overseas markets, and you can expect to see more examples of this this year and the next. As for Nintendo 3DS, as I mentioned before, its total global sales have already exceeded 40 million units. As for Wii U, opinions significantly differ among third-party publishers. Software publishers that develop content that has great affinity with audiences that Nintendo has historically been strong with, namely children and families, are still very active supporters of Wii U, and their enthusiasm for Wii U can also been seen from the fact that they have even reached out to us to help people upgrade from Wii to Wii U. On the other hand, software publishers are not necessarily keen on making games in genres that have weaker affinity with audiences that Nintendo has not been as strong with, where making a huge investment does not guarantee a sufficient return. With regard to Wii U, we first need to create a strong foundation in areas Nintendo excels at and achieve a sufficient sales volume. If we manage to do so, those publishers in the overseas markets who are currently not interested in Wii U will be attracted to the Wii U platform, as they were to Nintendo 3DS. This is going to be our approach in the near future.
Shigeru Miyamoto shared that he felt that Nintendo "failed to communicate the true value of Wii U, failed to make children persuade their parents to buy our products for them, and failed to offer products that parents could not resist.” As a result, Miyamoto continued, “will need to put more focus on creating experiences that utilize the GamePad that can also be fully enjoyed when playing alone.”
This is somewhat true. The Wii sold because the hardcore Nintendo fans and children alike wanted the system. It was Nintendo's new system and it was a must-own. However, the Wii U did not offer enough, value-wise, to the buyer for the purchase to be made. Not only did Nintendo not focus on WHY it must be in the home, but the parents that purchased Wiis found that, in most cases, the children were letting it collect dust and it was not getting as much use as they hoped it would, to get their moneys worth.
Miyamoto did state that he felt the situation has been improved by releasing a number of Nintendo first-party titles for the Wii U, such as Supre Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, Nintendo Land, and New Super Mario Bros. U, concluding, “Therefore, I feel that we have managed to overcome the challenge of releasing enough first-party franchises on Wii U."
