Hardware sales in Japan have slumped to a record low in five years, according to Media Create sales data. Last week’s Japanese charts displayed grim reading in the hardware category after the Nintendo 3DS – the power house of handheld sales – hit under 20k units and suffered a market share fall to below 30 per cent.
Media Create suggests the considerable fall in 3DS and 3DS LL units, sold between April 14 and 20, are due to Nintendo’s “monthly recommended software” campaign, which begun on April 26 and will last until September. During this time, those who purchase a 3DS can choose from Nintendo’s selection of recommended titles, with two huge titles – Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Yokai Watch – kicking off the campaign.
Although this may be the case for the 3DS’ fall in sales, consoles also experienced incredibly low sales. But since the rise in mobile and smartphone gaming, consoles have taken a back seat in Japan. And it seems to be affecting software sales too, with new titles selling less than 50,000 copies for that week. Either way, we’ll find out whether 3DS hardware sales will increase due to Nintendo’s software campaign from this week’s Media Create, which are released tomorrow.
Damn, hope sales will be propped back up soon. This isn’t going to affect Nintendo only, it’ll affect the entire gaming industry in Japan…
God I wish smart phones would die, annoying and stupid they are.
Most games there I see are usually cheap knockoffs of the original that started gaming for us on handhelds and home consoles.
Mobile needs to stay out of gaming or be original for once. And BTW, touch screen only controls and hardware controller add-ons usually suck for any gaming so I don’t see the point of even trying to play while sliding your damn fingers on screen playing a FPS like Modern Combat (still ways better than current COD though)
Ugh. Don’t remind me of touch screen only controls. I still haven’t gotten over the fact Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, & Kid Icarus Uprising use touch screen controls with minimal button usage.
Whoa, whoa, whoa… What? Kid Icarus Uprising is touch screen controls? -sigh- BS. I hate that crap. And in Phantom Hourglass too. When I played ALBW, I moved Link with the analog stick and I was like “YES! IT DOESN’T DO LIKE PHANTOM HOURGLASS!” Anyway, that sucks. Was really considering KI:U..,
I highly suggest renting Kid Icarus Uprising if you can. It’s a fun & humorous game but the touch screen controls really hamper the long-term life of the game. At least for me, anyway. I should mention the fact that the touch screen controls is for the aiming & camera only. Unless you use the stand that comes with the game, you’ll be spending most of your time holding the 3DS with one hand while the other hand is busy using the stylus. So it’s not a game for those with carpal tunnel or any other problems that effect the wrists.
And the circle pad pro only adds right hand controls to it, so it does not allow you to use the right circle pad for camera & aiming functions.
some smart phones and tablets are even stronger the wii u and 3ds. that nintendo for you, always making wake inefficient hardware. why would anyone want a 3ds when you can get a tablet and do alot more,have better youtube quality, get cheap good games at low prices, very less restricted, has way more social capacity and even enjoy emulation of nintendo games. even the ps vita is a better value than the 3ds by far. look at how pathetic nintendo designed the 3ds and wii u, not many people will care for another for a ds 2.0 or wii 1.5. people want an xbox one or ps4 because its a cool system to have. why would any ps4 or xbox one owner buy a downgradeded hardware for just mario and zelda games. less and less people give a shit about pokemon and the sales of x and y prove it. as the president of atari said nintendo is becoming irrelevant and he said that like 8-9months ago. who would pay 300+ just to play another mario or zelda game. people are already even making wii u emulation for wii u games, check you for them.
“Sales of X and Y prove it”. You just basically told yourself the answer. People buy it because of the GAMES. You think we don’t already have some type of way to get to YouTube? Why would I buy a portable PS3 rip off with no games when I can get a system albeit less powerful with AMAZING games? I’ve been playing Animal Crossing New Leaf everyday since I got it back in March. I’ve played GTA V (no offense to fans) about 8 times since I had it. And I had that game since December. LOL.
Meanwhile, the NSA s ready to eat popcorn forcing you to make all sorts of perverted games…
Nice speech! Good job Sasori, you only took a few hours to write that! If you work hard enough you may actually be able to learn how to speak!
You’re so dumb haha
I stopped reading when you said PS Vita is a better value…
Damn. Mobile is really killing the gaming industry over there. How sad.
Actually it may not be just because of the mobile phones. since the raise of the sales tax in the beginning of April, the Japanese aren’t buying much of anything. Even phones….
You’re watching the beginning of the end of portable gaming. The Teeming Millions are (literally) buying into the “freemium” model and everyone is being dragged down to their level.
Beginning of the end? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
It won’t…
Someday they will realise just how corrupted their minds have been and they will come begging to our empire like apes on their knees…
Nintendo will have handhelds for a while. They’ll go handheld only before it’s over.
Also, with the way Iwata talks about quality of life, I don’t think they are even researching a new console,..or not putting much oomph into the effort.
I bet they drag wiiu along for 7 years total, then release one more console. After that, it will be handheld, QoL and whatever they become.
High Command already stated even before the Wii U was launched that they were already planning the next generation console…
So I’m not worried in that regard…
But the leadership needs to be replaced if things are not rectified at E3…
Yeah. If they pull a “Cranky Kong” on us, there will be riots.
There will be a full blown mutiny…
smart phones are way better than a 3ds.
And way more expansive and a lot less fun.
Causal gamer confirmed
social reject confirmed
Brainless manchild confirmed.
Filthy casual!
This is how I feel about our homeworld…
0:06-1:40
Sooner or later that race will be wiped out anyway so who cares no woman wants to have sex with those weird creeps forcing them to seek virtual love and anime porn while the rest are becoming gay and marching the streets meanwhile numbers dwindling RIP. This is what happens when gay becomes a norm. If they followed the teachings our lord Christ left behind they wouldn’t be in that mess. Let that be a lesson for everyone else
Sooner or later that race will be wiped out anyway so who cares no woman wants to have sex with those weird creeps forcing them to seek virtual love and anime porn while the rest are becoming gay and marching the streets meanwhile numbers dwindling RIP. This is what happened when gay becomes a norm. If they followed the teachings our lord Christ left behind they wouldn’t be in that mess. Let that be a lesson for everyone else
Go back to your Hitler loving garbage cave and my superiors will deal with you like the apes you are…
Or his religious fanaticism. Whichever is more true for the guy. Hell! It could be both in some sick & twisted fusion.
It usually is…
And I just want to add that I like you…
If you followed Christ’s teachings, you wouldn’t be talking like that. God doesn’t like posers twisting his words to support their own fucked up ideals. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” In this day & age, it’s “Let he who thinks he is without sin & believes he is better than everyone else cast the first stone.” since some religious fanatics do just that.
kinda late but
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2014/04/23/report-bravely-default-banned-saudi-arabia#.U1-F1VdT2ih
Who cares about that stupid country…
You… do…
Nintendo is japanese, bot.
http://media-cache-cd0.pinimg.com/originals/d3/c6/0f/d3c60f304126f7255ef3b0ce6ea55e62.jpg
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I absolutely hate smart phone games and I refuse to play them. I don’t know what casuals see in those horrible things! The fact they call those things games is proof that they are blind in some way.
Media Create FORGOT to mention the recent tax hike in this report. I hope the Japanese video game sales will rebound by Golden Week (this week, actually).
Great information. Lucky me I ran across your blog by accident (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved it for later!