Toadthemushroom
Member
I thought this was an interesting story. I found it via Perfectly-Nintendo.
Cube Creator 3D existed as a spin on Minecraft, filling a Minecraft-shaped gap in the 3DS's software library. But when it finally launched early last year, it didn't sell all that well in North America. But a publishing agreement with Arc System Works to bring the game to Japan resulted in a sales large enough to save developers Big John Games. It ended up selling ten times as many copies on the Japanese 3DS eShop than the North American/European one, a far larger proportional difference than that of the two regions' install bases.
What's cool is that NCL have noticed this and have met with both the game's Japanese publisher and Big John Games to discuss future prospects, and possibly NX game development. This makes sense. Wii U actually had the largest indie games lineup at launch of the three current gen systems, and Nintendo tends to work in secret with those self-publishing (independent) developers or publishers it knows best, before opening up development to the wider community. It'll probably involve their upcoming game, nonetheless.
This isn't the first game to sell better in Japan than other regions - if I remember correctly SteamWorld Heist sold better in Japan, as did Gunman Clive. One of the two games sold more in Japan than all other regions combined. So it makes sense that Nintendo snapped up Shovel Knight exclusively for the region. More interestingly, they've been doing the same with other top-tier Nintendo-focused efforts like Little Inferno, Affordable Space Adventures, Year Walk and Swords and Soldiers II, though probably to fill gaps in the Wii U's lineup in the region rather than for sales.
It also highlights again the proactive effort NCL puts in to shining the spotlight on third party games, and how they've maintained a healthier market for third party games in Japan when compared with other regions. I've seen Cube Creator 3D get prominent eShop promotion on several weeks, for instance. And more recently the Nintendo Japan website has hosted a blog called Nintendo Topics, which highlights all kinds of games on 3DS and Wii U and the upcoming fifth-year anniversary sale on the eShop features tonnes of third party games from a whole bunch of publishers.
NoE, meanwhile, are more interested only in their own games or games they distribute or publish, like Monster Hunter and Level-5 stuff. Though to their credit they did promote SteamWorld Heist and Persona Q to a greater degree than the norm.
Cube Creator 3D existed as a spin on Minecraft, filling a Minecraft-shaped gap in the 3DS's software library. But when it finally launched early last year, it didn't sell all that well in North America. But a publishing agreement with Arc System Works to bring the game to Japan resulted in a sales large enough to save developers Big John Games. It ended up selling ten times as many copies on the Japanese 3DS eShop than the North American/European one, a far larger proportional difference than that of the two regions' install bases.
What's cool is that NCL have noticed this and have met with both the game's Japanese publisher and Big John Games to discuss future prospects, and possibly NX game development. This makes sense. Wii U actually had the largest indie games lineup at launch of the three current gen systems, and Nintendo tends to work in secret with those self-publishing (independent) developers or publishers it knows best, before opening up development to the wider community. It'll probably involve their upcoming game, nonetheless.
This isn't the first game to sell better in Japan than other regions - if I remember correctly SteamWorld Heist sold better in Japan, as did Gunman Clive. One of the two games sold more in Japan than all other regions combined. So it makes sense that Nintendo snapped up Shovel Knight exclusively for the region. More interestingly, they've been doing the same with other top-tier Nintendo-focused efforts like Little Inferno, Affordable Space Adventures, Year Walk and Swords and Soldiers II, though probably to fill gaps in the Wii U's lineup in the region rather than for sales.
It also highlights again the proactive effort NCL puts in to shining the spotlight on third party games, and how they've maintained a healthier market for third party games in Japan when compared with other regions. I've seen Cube Creator 3D get prominent eShop promotion on several weeks, for instance. And more recently the Nintendo Japan website has hosted a blog called Nintendo Topics, which highlights all kinds of games on 3DS and Wii U and the upcoming fifth-year anniversary sale on the eShop features tonnes of third party games from a whole bunch of publishers.
NoE, meanwhile, are more interested only in their own games or games they distribute or publish, like Monster Hunter and Level-5 stuff. Though to their credit they did promote SteamWorld Heist and Persona Q to a greater degree than the norm.
