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Iwata: Animal Crossing: New Leaf ships 600k first week in Japan, over 200k downloads
- Thread starter Hobby
- Start date
slaughterking
Member
I wonder if both the 600k and 200k figure include download cards. It's not really clear from the OP, so it's hard to say if they actually sold 800k or "only" somewhere between 600k and 800k.
Either way, it's very impressive.
Either way, it's very impressive.
I think the cards coupled with most store's bonus programs drove to better adoption via card rather than straight eShop.
They have that benefit given the route Nintendo is going with DD services, which is nice for the retailers.
Sammy Samusu
Member
Even idols are playing Animal Crossing!
ReyBrujo
Member
Sammy Samusu
Member
They better spend that money!
Exterminieren
Banned
We've had vague percentages from Iwata about NSMB2 and Brain Training, but this is the first solid number, I believe.
A card sold at retail stores which has a code that lets you download the game.
A card you buy in store that uses point of sale activation, giving you a download code for the game.
What was that percentage for Mario initially? 5%? If that's held it would mean NSMB has sold about 80k digitally. So AC destroyed that.
Well AC is the sort of game that benefits a lot from being always in the system ready to be played.
slaughterking
Member
Must be nice to be a Japanese 3DS owner.
metalslimer
Member
Haha, I think Animal Crossing is actually going to outsell NSMB2. EAD4 newbies on blast. I can't wait for this to come over as looks like a really good effort from them.
frankie_baby
Member
Its to appease retailers who maybe miffed about losing sales to digital, retailers are then also free to set prices so its likely to be cheaper than buying directly from the eshop, though so far at least prices I believe have tended to be higher than physical copies
Opus Angelorum
Member
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Japanese consumers traditionally are retailer shoppers. Offering these cards could be a way to encourage/promote digital downloads to those consumers. And it keeps the retailers happy, as frankie_baby pointed out.
frankie_baby
Member
In the short to medium term that's a pretty safe assumption, longer term nsmb2 may possibly take the title back
metalslimer
Member
I really don't think so unless New Leaf has terrible legs (in comparison to Wild World)
frankie_baby
Member
I expect both to have very good legs though I expect Mario's will be slightly better than AC's a few years from now
metalslimer
Member
Probably but NSMB2 isn't going to reach 4.5-5 million which I think is a possibility for New Leaf over time. NSMB2 is far too below either of the other two games to have a chance even with longer legs.
frankie_baby
Member
We've yet to see how nsmb2 will do over the holidays to pass judgement just yet on its long term sales
metalslimer
Member
Uh it's holiday sales would have destroy anything we've ever seen to make up that kind of deficit. It's pretty much a lock that it's not reaching 4 million in Japan. Holidays don't magically fix things like that. It will certainly get a boost but not to the extent you're thinking.
Competition leading to lower prices. As an example, E-shop titles tend to cost 45 euros, yet the majority of games in the UK market tends to go as low as 18 pounds (22 euros) in a few weeks, sometimes not even that long (I recall picking games for that price at release).
I would love if shops here actually sold those, I find it's the best of both worlds, competition and digital content.
Visualante2
Member
Props to Sony for doing custom art for their download codes. A really pleasurable retail experience, in comparison to Nintendo's phoned in "let's just put a game box on a card" when you don't even get a box out of it.
frankie_baby
Member
Well it should get a little bump next week from the limited edition bundle (might even have been bumped up slightly this week from probable huge hardware sales), then with holiday sales should be at least 1.8 by the end of the year maybe nearer 2 million, 4 million in the end maybe a struggle but its still conceivable it'll get there
metalslimer
Member
Is this actually a thing? And by thing I mean do people seriously give a crap about a card they are going to throw away after using it's art?
Not really. It goes against every piece of sales data we have.
frankie_baby
Member
If shops here did download cards prices wouldn't be as incredibly low as shops get a smaller margin on download cards than physical copies
Visualante2
Member
It's about making you want to pick it up. Which actually matters quite a lot when you have such little real estate.
Stacked up against each other these cards are really colourful and pop off the shelf and make you want to pick it up and read more, I don't know if they have screenshots/blurbs on the back. I'd guess so.
That makes sense if we're talking about cards worth currency (20 euros cards), but there's no reason why Nintendo couldn't distribute game-specific cards with the same margin as they do physical copies, especially considering that, even with the same margins, the costs of production and distribution would be lower allowing Nintendo for to save money.
I'm not saying that's the actual case at the moment (I'm unaware of the actual margins), simply that there's no reason for that to be the case with game-specific cards.
It's about making you want to pick it up. Which actually matters quite a lot when you have such little real estate.
Stacked up against each other these cards are really colourful and pop off the shelf and make you want to pick it up and read more, I don't know if they have screenshots/blurbs on the back. I'd guess so.
Haven't seen those here in Portugal, very eye pleasing. Are they UK only?
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Are 3DS card downloads sold overseas or Japan only? Because I want AC as a download only...
Extremely!
Just yesterday I completed both new puzzles and FINALLY obtained every hat on the Find Mii quests.
Even though it probably won't account for anything, I'm also trying to get 300 Playcoins saved up in time for the Wii U release on December 8th.
frankie_baby
Member
It's about making you want to pick it up. Which actually matters quite a lot when you have such little real estate.
Stacked up against each other these cards are really colourful and pop off the shelf and make you want to pick it up and read more, I don't know if they have screenshots/blurbs on the back. I'd guess so.
Quite nice though that's a downloadable game anyway, showing the game box on a card is probably quite an effective way (especially to the digital luditites in japan) to show its the same full game
frankie_baby
Member
Just japan so far I think, we don't seem to have them in the UK at least yet
Dr. Feel Good
Banned
So go on the ESOP and download it? Why do you need a card that gives you a code?
MrCookiepants
Member
So AC is one of those "handheld franchises" now. What's most impressive is that it's utterly destroying NSMB2, which pretty much cements that game as a total flop.
Since the game is sold out even if someone wanted to buy it physical he has to download it. When there is card supply we'll see how trully relevant DD is.
It's not clear if 3DS LL AC systems are also included in the download number. Nintendo shipped many systems and the 200k number would be artificial in that case.
DragonSworne
Banned
So is that 200k digital purchases on top of the card sales? I'm assuming so.
They wouldn't count card sales in the digital sales.
They wouldn't count card sales in the digital sales.