Nintendo are seeing digital distribution quickly becoming an increasingly important contributor to the company’s bottom line, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime tells GamesIndustry.biz.
“We have 15 Nintendo-published titles available, both physically and digitally [on the 3DS],” Fils-Aime says. “So far in 2013, of those 15 available in this format, 11% of sales have come through full digital downloads of those games.”
Fils-Aime also provides U.S. sales figures for two notable 3DS games—Fire Emblem: Awakening and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
As Siliconera reported last month, Fire Emblem: Awakening sold over 180,000 copies in North America in February. That figure—including download sales—is now at 240,000. Download sales account for one-third of that number, Fils-Aime says.
Meanwhile, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon has sold 415,000 copies so far.
While the Nintendo 3DS is starting to pick up steam in the West, Fils-Aime admits that the Wii U isn’t quite doing what it needs to. “What I would say about Wii U—and what Mr. Iwata has said—is that the pace of launches has been slower than we hoped,” he shares. “But as we prepare for E3, the pace of launches for Wii U is going to dramatically increase.”
Wii U support from third-party publishers has been underwhelming to say the least, with a number of significant Western publishers seeming uninterested in the console. However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated in January that Nintendo are working on collaborative projects with several third-parties to ensure software support. Examples of these are Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, Bayonetta 2 and Lego City Undercover.
