The Nintendo 3DS is selling like hot cakes in Japan, having crossed 10 million in sales in under two years, but it isn’t doing as well in the west. In the U.S. and Europe, 3DS sales are below expectations, and Nintendo need to do something about it.
What they’ll do, according to Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, is release more games that widen the system’s appeal. This involves releasing around ten key games in the near future that will help sell the 3DS to more people.
“We plan to intensively and actively sell approximately 10 key titles on our own in order to change the Nintendo 3DS system from a handheld device just to play the Mario series to the one to enjoy a variety of games,” Iwata stated at the company’s third quarter financial results briefing.
He added: “Naturally, we will keep the momentum of already-released titles with much sales potential by, for example, having them digitally distributed.”
Iwata doesn’t name all ten 3DS games that Nintendo have pegged their hopes on, but he does name six of them—Fire Emblem: Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Brain Age: Concentration Training, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and of course Pokémon X/Y.
Additionally, Iwata says that third-party developers in Japan are assigning their top teams to develop big games for the 3DS, and that Nintendo will help distribute their key games overseas.
Iwata stated: “Among those third-party titles both developed and published in Japan, there have been some games which Nintendo published in Europe, including the Professor Layton series. We will increase the number of such games for the U.S. market as well as in Europe. We are also willing to flexibly assist third-party developers in distributing their valuable games overseas.”
