[Nirolak]

Nintendo has revealed what they would like the 3DS (and other platforms? that note isn't entirely clear) to be selling in their ideal world, and I thought it might be nice to have a thread discussing what they need to do to get there.

First, their statements and the hardware for the most recent quarter:

Thread 1: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471862
Thread 2: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471891

3DS post xmas in japan success has accelerated while not overseas

Only has 6 in top 20 titles in usa versus over 15 in top 20 in japan, usa should be 3x jp performance

However, considering that the U.S. market is two or three times the size of its Japanese equivalent, I believe that the sales of the Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. are far below the level that it could potentially reach.

Demand for 3ds in eu/us has been been rather very weak, think 3rd year crucial and then if surge will achieve nintendo like profits

Hardware Sales (Unit: Million)

Handhelds

            EU        US       JP        YTD

3DS        0.60      0.65     1.24       2.49

Source: Nintendo,NPD,Media Create (Up to Week 13)

While saying "They need games X, Y, and Z" or "They can't" is fine, what I'm really hoping for is an explanation of why.

I have to head to work, but if there are any errors here, I will try to correctly them shortly after I get there.

I'm hoping for a good discussion here instead of mud slinging. Thanks for all efforts toward such.

[EatChildren]

They should smoke up and keep dreaming.

[TheOddOne]

They should smoke up and keep dreaming.

Mario.

[Sardello]

They should develop games for iOs

[deadlast]

two thumbs sticks and more good 1st party games.

[DragonSworne]

They still need to clean up the disaster that is 3DS display shelfs at stores. I still can't easily distigush 3DS games from DS games at places like Best Buy and Gamestop.

I say change the covers for 3DS games. Make them black, red, or some other color than white.

[Chris1964]

USA market is 3 times bigger than Japanese, that's the meaning of Iwata's words.

The easiest way is to stop shipping 3DS in Japan to the point it drops 3 times below USA.

[bigtroyjon]

DS didn't even do double in the US compared to Japan, with the current market conditions there is nothing they can do to get the 3DS double Japan, let alone triple.

Edit-Also not sure why you are attributing those quotes to Nintendo, they're from some guy's twitter. Here's what Iwata said

However, considering that the U.S. market is two or three times the size of its Japanese equivalent, I believe that the sales of the Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. are far below the level that it could potentially reach.

All he is saying is that US sales should be better than they currently are.

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Stop fucking around and release the 3DS Wii U multiplat skylander Pokemon MMO. Thats it.

[The_Darkest_Red]

Honestly I'm not sure this is possible for Nintendo but if they were going to accomplish such a task it would take a variety of different actions. They'd need a good combination of marketing, new games, and games that appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers. They need to convince all of the Brain Age and Nintendogs only gamers that the 3DS is worth picking up, which is a much more difficult task now than it was in 2005.

Of course, the biased side of me just wants Monster Hunter and Fire Emblem but I don't think either of those games would help this situation much unless MH somehow became incredibly popular here in the West.

Also, a super-stylish redesign wouldn't hurt anything.

[Antioch]

USA market is 3 times bigger than Japanese, that's the meaning of Iwata's words. The easiest way is to stop shipping 3DS in Japan to the point it drops 3 times below USA.

Chris1964
Sales-Age Genius
(Today, 12:53 AM)

[sixteen-bit]

Best online system and interface.
Best looking and runnin CoD.

[Pureauthor]

Well, releasing more games in the west might help.

[Bullza2o]

NOA needs to localize and advertise more games.. Do it Reggie (fatal frame 2, Pandora's tower, FE Awakening)

[Mpl90]

Quoting Chris about Iwata's words, what should they do? MARIO ON IOS!!!!OMG!!!11111!!!

No, seriously.
Reduce the retail price ( but this is a whole industry problem )
More bundles with other games ( Revelations, Kid Icarus, NSMB2...)
Revision when it's time
Better Western support ( something it seems we'll see at this E3)

EDIT: Aw, yeah, the quotes are from Gibson's Twitts, and some of them are confusing / not so clear. Investor meeting report, instead, IS clear.

[GhostTrick]

Release more games ! Localise japanese games more often !
Where's my Monster Hunter 3G with online play ?


Also, where are my CastleVania and Contra 3D ? ?!:'(

[ElTopo]

Well, releasing more games in the west might help.

This. Far too few games in the West (including Europe), don't leave consumers in the dark about localization (MH3G) and don't take that much time to bring the games over.

[1-D_FTW]

They should smoke up and keep dreaming.

I was going to reply "get realistic", but as usual, second post nails it best.

[udivision]

NOA needs to localize and advertise more games.. Do it Reggie (fatal frame 2, Pandora's tower, FE Awakening)

You don't seem to understand. They want their profits to go up.

[HoosTrax]

The whole reason I bought a DS Lite to begin with was:

1) Pokemon (even the newest titles are still developed for DS and not 3DS afaik)
2) Castlevania exclusives (which have been lost to PSN/XBLA, thus no new ones on 3DS)

I don't see a really compelling reason to upgrade.

[Keyouta]

NoA, NoC, and NoE need to localize and bring over more games.

[Diddy Kong]

Earthbound, Monster Hunter, FE

[fernoca]

They also said that:

Claimed overseas 3DS support was rising, will catch up to japan by E3 so not worried about jp v. international performance

So maybe they know something, but because of their constant NDA and stuff wont't say much...or just meant something else. :p

At the same time, while I like the Nintendo Direct videos, most has been targeted to Japan. With announcements, release dates, etc.; while NOA doesn't catch up. So, I wonder if the last decision ultimately falls onto Reggie. He was quite vocal during the ealry Wii years at not allowing stuff like Disaster: Day of Crisis; so maybe he still has his own mentality and idea of what the "audience" is in the US. At the same time, I think Iwata once was disappointed that Brain Age wasn't selling more in the US and that they should focus onto selling it more...so..

Maybe they just need to communicate better and sped (and spent on) translation process, so that all regions get as much games as possible under the shortest amount of time. Don't know why Iwata in once sentence is wondering about sales, when in the other he says that there's no definitive date or plans for Fire Emblem 3DS outside Japan.

When it comes to third-parties is the same. Japan is the one that apparently courts developers ; while barely NOA is shown courting the likes of Activision, Bioware, WB, etc. Heck, they have a great relationship with Activision because of Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Skylanders (specifically Treyarch and Vicarious Visions) and yet NOA seems to just sit there and wait for those teams to come up with ideas.

[JoshuaJSlone]

3x seems optimistic. The last three home consoles did it, but that's because N64/GCN didn't do well in Japan, and Wii stalled there relatively early.


Other than the recent home consoles GBA comes closest, which is probably due to it taking longer to get replaced by DS in NA. If we move the comparison to, say, the end of 2004...

Yeah, much closer.

[Aostia]

I was replying: going iOS!
But then I read the OP, so...

They should decrease the retail price of the games, in my opinion, and publish a real 3DS esclusive Pokemon game.

[Antioch]

Seriously though, they need:
A continuously strong 3rd and 1st party line-up, in Nintendo Directs it always looks like Nintendo has a huge line-up of games for the Japanese market, but nothing comparable in terms of western appeal

Strong (both in quality and sales potential) 3rd party exclusives, RE:R is a good start, maybe GTA would be a good next step (like how Chinatown Wars was a timed exclusive)

Convince the mainstream and casual markets that 3DS offers portable games that surpass any iPhone games and are worth the extra cost. Basically they need a new hit, a new IP that is unprecedented and has some sort of obvious hook, but also isn't possible on other handhelds.

[Frankfurt]

Make it worthy of 3x the sales?

[The_Darkest_Red]

Is it wrong if I interpret this as, "why NoA is awful"?

[aliencowz7]

I think the gap could at least be closer together if they had a better % of games localized, and also more frequent games from established 3rd party series and developers. Beyond that I simply think handhelds wont ever be as popular in the U.S as they are in japan due to everyone being so much more spaced out here. We don't really have the same setup they do with train and bus travel and everyone being packed so much closer together.

[redlemon]

Don't know really. Nintendo of Europe already do this to a degree but offer to localise and publish Japanese games which they think would sell well in the west. They struck big with layton and such moves could improve 3rd party relations with Japanese developers at least.

In terms of western support I think the e-shop is key. since larger western publishers have never shown much interest in dedicated handhelds they need to court smaller developers and convince them they can be a success on the e-shop. Reduce the certification times since that seems to be a general complaint with devs and a major cause of game delays between regions when it comes to digital. Allow sales and even though it wont have much effect in the short term give them the option to lower the price on older titles.

[lunchwithyuzo]

NSMB2 and the digital push are a good start. 3DS redesign, lower game prices and better western developer support seem like the next things to tackle.

I'm honestly a bit surprised 3DS is a year old and doesn't have a single fps yet. You'd figure it would at least have COD/007 by now?

[Mondriaan]

Maybe they could start by changing the focus of NoA from being focused on emphasizing profitability/bang for the buck (which is the reason that Xenoblades localization was a NoE project) to being focused on market growth.

You're not going to get growth to 3x Japan from that, though. Damage is already done.

[1-D_FTW]

Is it wrong if I interpret this as, "why NoA is awful"?

I try not to follow Nintendo threads too much anymore, but I thought the quotes were originally talking about how Nintendo had 15 of to 20 games in the sales chart in Japan vs. 5 of top 20 games in the US.

Which, if that's their goal, abandon the US and try and find another country that only plays Japanese games. Good luck.

[depward]

Release MonHun with online; get those PSP MonHun fans buying a 3DS (admittedly, it won't be a huge number but it's something).

What sells in the West? FPS. Figure out how to target those folks.

[hardcastlemccormick]

-Tweak the existing 3DS design so that it's more solid. Just a small refresh.

-The constant stream of games that the Japanese 3DS is getting? Replicate that. Games games games games. Localize everything. You have no excuses; get it over.

-More games on VC and eShop. More demos. More content. Load all of this crap onto the demo units in stores, and say, "this stuff is all available on the eShop!" with a little pamphlet showing a funny tutorial, prices and lists of games.

-When you have this stream of content, just the 3D Show to advertise it. Push the show harder, make more episodes, and make them funnier. If they're struggling, you're not releasing enough game content. Get that host lady to guest star on other advertisement shows on Disney channel or whatever.

-Kill off the DS even more than it has been killed already. Every store around me has a ton of DS units lying around. Get rid of them; they confuse people. Make the 3DS the main Nintendo display in the store. Reduce the DS game stock to some smaller shelves. The games don't move that many units in comparison to how much you'd want the 3DS to succeed, so make it easy for people to understand the (single?) product line.

-Lower retail prices of most games to $30. Trumpet that to the heavens.

-Release a "Nintendo Selects" budget line now for $15. Throw Pilotwings and Street Fighter 4 in there, and aggressively put those titles on sale next to the system for around $8. Keep doing this to old games that aren't Mario. If you have enough new games spilling out, this will only expand the price range.

[Karsticles]

Here's what I think would make 3DSes sell through the roof without much, if any, harm done to Nintendo:

1) 1st party Wii VC games added to the eShop, and a way to link accounts between the Wii and 3DS so that if you buy a game on the Wii, you can play it on the 3DS. Basically, lots of free games for Wii owners that have been active VC users, giving 3DS purchasers more ways to enjoy the system.

2) Sell 3DS games with a number of "copy play" registrations. Basically, let me save my 3DS games like they're a digital download to a SD card, and give games coding that lets me play the game without the cartridge 5 times before the 3DS needing the cartridge put in again as a "refresher". If this sounds weird, the idea is that if I buy, say NSMB2, I can put it on an SD card so that my wife can play with me without having to buy two copies of the game. This holds me back from a lot of game purchases. If Code of Princess comes over, while it looks fun, I don't want to spend ~$80 for one game. And why should I? I could play it with multiple people for the cost of 1 game if it were on a console.

The limited cartridge usages prevents people from scamming Nintendo by spreading copies around, but it also acts as an improv "demo system" and a way to play your games away from home if you don't want to lug a bunch of games around. Alternatively, if I buy one copy of a game, let me link it to an account and download it onto any 3DS I own for $10 more. I'd be willing to pay that for my multiplayer, but not the purchase of 2 whole games. Also promotes the family-friendly image.

3) Ease up on eShop title restrictions. I know a few developers have been rejected by Nintendo, and it's just ridiculous. If Nintendo is willing to let someone try and charge me $5 for a dressed-up clock download, it should let me have the chance to buy crappy games as well. Follow in Valve's footsteps, it's a wise decision.

Other than that, the obvious "more games" kind of stuff.

[Wiggler]

Early on in the life of the 3DS I was starting to get the impression that Nintendo was pushing for more and more western developers to take on some of their own franchises (like Pilotwings Resort) and then have them do even more while Nintendo pumped out more and more of their own original ideas, such as Steel Diver. I was getting a sense that they were expanding greatly to the point where they'd be pumping out one game after another in the western market. That way there's no dead gaps between 1st party game releases and the 3DS becomes a must-have system due to the sheer amount of quality software being released on a regular basis. I don't know if that's what they're doing or if I just got the wrong impression.

[Nirolak]

I can't edit the title on my phone to my knowledge but I did add the direct quote to the OP.

Regardless I feel answering the question for either multiple should ideally generate the same set of potential improvements for discussion, since increasing sales notably is the primary goal.

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

They need third-party support the 3DS isn't going to get and to make casual games they aren't making to come close to that so it's not going to happen.

[bigtroyjon]

I can't edit the title on my phone to my knowledge but I did add the direct quote to the OP. Regardless I feel answering the question for either multiple should ideally generate the same set of potential improvements for discussion, since increasing sales notably is the primary goal.

Here's the briefing if you want to look at some of the other stuff
One explanation he gave

Also, unlike Japan, the United States still has a relatively large market for the Nintendo DS.

[ReXXXSoprano]

Make the 3DS region free.

[Derrick01]

You don't seem to understand. They want their profits to go up.

But obscure japanese games are all the rage in america!

[bluehat9]

MORE Mario!

Golf, basketball, bowling, football, soccer, smash bros, paint, chess, rpg, picross, etc.

Game prices back to $30, but with new advertising that makes the cases actually look different from old DS games.

[tinfoilhatman]

Lol yea right, good luck getting American adults to purchase dedicated hand held gaming devices.

As usual Japanese company totally out of touch with the west.

[radioheadrule83]

Honestly I think they need a couple of big western games and to continue bringing the price down, while completely phasing DS out. It will always be cheaper and more flexible in being competitive than Vita, but they should get third parties on board with big franchises before they migrate elsewhere.

Demon training and software like that is probably more important but if you want to raise the machines profile, I think more western support is key.

I want to see something like Assassins Creed, Darksiders or Call of Duty on it. I don't care if Vita has those and does them better, 3ds should have those kind of brands for the core.

I think if they added a xenon flash and increased the resolution of the cameras, they'd be much more attractive as a 3d content sharing platform. The camera is gimped!

Speaking of sharing, when Nintendo Network launches, 3ds needs its biggest and best ever firmware upgrade.

[electroplankton]

Well, games for sure but why not push the multimedia aspect? Agreements with movie majors to promote the 3D stuffs, something like exclusive trailers and contents for the next Hunger Games.

[ffdgh]

remove region lock and localize more games?
add gba games to the eshop already....youtube 3d app

[A Human Becoming]

I think it it's the advertising campaign. The 3DS has everything it needs to succeed in the market. The Vita hasn't shown itself to be a threat yet either.

[SolarPowered]

-Region Free 3DS or Localization of Japanese titles(I really want the new Fire Emblem)
-New 3DS model(a second analog may be in the works and I'd preorder if true)

I want MK7, Fire Emblem, Revelations and other titles like a 3DS focused Pokemon, but I don't want to buy a model with meh battery life, fewer game choices and slightly inferior control options(I would buy a remodel with 1 stick if worst comes to worst) and a worse battery life.

I know the DS really blew up because of the lite and the software that came with it. The 3DS interests me more than any Nintendo handheld before it, but I'm not buying multiple models. Damn... I almost want to order Revelations just so I can put it in storage until I get my 3DS XL.

[Perfect Cha0s]

We just need more games. The 3DS has a library of good games, but it doesn't have the same sense of delving into a massive sea of games that the DS has had for the past few years.

Of course, that's due to the 3DS being little over a year old, but you aren't going to set the charts ablaze selling N64 remakes and Mario Kart. More SM3DL and Kid Icarus style games, please!