Hello. We're witnessing strange interesting times in the gaming industry, and I thought it was the right time to start a discussion about one of the several scenarios gaming sales are showing right now.
If you're familiar with PAL Charts thread, you probably already know this peculiar situation, but for those who's not aware, here's an extreme summary: UK is currently the territory where Nintendo encounters much bigger difficulties than elsewhere, especially compared with other main European countries. And these difficulties are even more evident when looking at software sales. In fact, in UK Wii U is considered as dead as Vita in US and, at the same time, 3DS, despite being a vital component of the market and with a situation that improved compared to last year, it's still between mediocre and decent. Those who follow charts already know this particular difference, but let's use some numbers and charts for demonstrating this.
First, software sales in November in UK per platform
This comes from our very reliable user working at Gamasutra, jvm. Here's the original article, if you're interested: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MattMatthews/20131206/206417/
As you can see, 360 is clearly the king in software sales in UK, then PS3, with almost half sales, and then 3DS. But 3DS is far, far, faaaaaaar lower. Certainly alive, also increasing compared to last year (it's in the article itself), but still far too distant from the other two consoles. Wii U, instead, obtains to sell just a little more than what part of PS4 launch lineup sold before the release. And One, just in its debut week, almost reached the amount of software sold by Wii U in its first year.
Second, how much it is different from other main European countries.
Unfortunately, the only charts we have as big as UK ones, in terms of positions, are the German ones, but it's still one of the main European markets, recently also on par, if not at least slightly bigger than UK when considering PC. So, let's compare last week in UK with last week in Germany.
UK
3 PS4 titles in top 10, other falling after launch, Xbox One exclusives dropping too, but still many titles for both next and current gen...and what about Nintendo consoles? Mario is only 30th, lower than Zelda's second week, and both Pokémon SKUs are under 30th (even if growing compared to the precedent week). Nintendo suffering a lot, with sensible difficulties for its handheld too.
Germany
Lack of PS4 supply in Germany played a major role, but even considering it, there's a giant difference between the two charts: Mario is still in top 10 in its second week, and 3DS is the platform with the biggest amount of titles in top 50, even more than PC: Bravely Default is in top 30, the last Layton chapter is the biggest seller for 3DS, while both these titles are out of UK Top 40, as well as many titles rising due to Holidays. And this isn't the first time such difference happen, even when compared with France and Italy.
Even without looking at charts, Iwata itself stated how UK has been recently the territory where Nintendo is smaller relatively to the other actors back in one of the recent Investor Briefings.
Third, an anecdotal proof: eShops amount of reviews
Even eShop reviews, despite being a much less accurate index compared to the others, show how UK is a difficult territory for Nintendo. Remember, UK should be among the biggest European market, with France and Germany currently not that distant (until next gen launch, at least one of them was bigger than UK), and Italy and Spain + Portugal being far behind. Now, let's look at the amount of reviews for some specific titles in all these countries (updated to Wednesday; France is updated to Friday)
Super Mario 3D Land
Italy - 16,105
Germany - 44,499
UK - 33,153
Spain + Portugal - 17,703
France - 38,362
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Italy - 217
Germany - 1,015
UK - 499
Spain + Portugal - 348
France - 453
Pokémon Y
Italy - 1,043
Germany - 2,729
UK - 1,535
Spain + Portugal - 912
France - 1,763
Pokémon X
Italy - 942
Germany - 2,312
UK - 1,601
Spain + Portugal - 847
France - 1,586
The reviews don't reflect the reality of the market: between big / massive recent releases and a legacy title like 3D Land, Italy and Spain + Portugal are only half of the amount of reviews in UK, which are usually around the same / lower than France and much / much much lower than Germany. UK should see the biggest amount of reviews. This is a possible indicator of how much Nintendo is behind in UK compared to the other markets.
And here we are at the title of the thread: what can Nintendo learn from UK? What's the lesson the Japanese company need to learn for a future decisive improvement in the territory? IMHO, these are some of the major points that need to be addressed starting from their next handheld
1. Software prices are too high on the handheld front
3DS MSRP is £39.99 / Euros 44.99 ,resulting in £31.99 on Amazon. At the same time, PS3, 360 and Wii U titles' MSRP is £49.99 / Euros 59.99, resulting in £39.99 on Amazon. The difference is way too low between portable prices and home prices, and this is an even bigger con in a market as price sensitive as UK. This is one of the points that need to be corrected as fast as possible: £34.99 / Euros 39.99 as maximum MSRP, which would then result into £27.99/29.99 on Amazon, which would make games much more attractive.
But they just can't stop at retail: digital downloads aren't as prominent as in other industries (due to many factors, like overall prices), but they're still growing. However, digital versions of retail titles still suffer from having, at release, the same price as retail MSRP (not even Amazon /other online stores). Nintendo already started an attempt in this, by letting GAME.co.uk selling codes for their games at GAME.co.uk prices (usually, lower than MSRP, but higher than Amazon), but they need to improve much further, by letting Amazon selling codes too. And...above all, retail stores themselves. We all know price parity between digital SKUs and retail SKUs at launch is due to not alienating retail, but wouldn't letting retail stores selling download cards be a possible solution to this? Nintendo itself is doing this in Japan, and many retailers have recently expressed their satisfaction for this method. Still, download cards should be lower priced compared to boxed units: it would be up to the customer deciding if picking up the game at highest cost but physical and with immediate pick and play, or going with the download card, cheaper but with the necessity of having to wait the download for playing the game. Download cards have also very, very low inventory costs. And this would also help in the second problem they should address
2. Retail presence is too soft
This is a much bigger problem for Wii U than 3DS, but it's still undeniable that Nintendo suffers starting from retail presence. And it's their fault: sales aren't so big that major retail chains feel they can sacrifice space for Nintendo without too many problems. When Nintendo will release their next platform (be it handheld, home, hybrid, card set or whatever), they'll have to talk with major retail chains in order to guarantee enough shelves space even before sales come in: if they're high, shelves will naturally increase, but without having a good amount of space in store since launch, it becomes more difficult to sell to mass customers.
3. Western support is necessary
Yeah, that was an obvious conclusion, but what I want to say is that it would be good to have Western third party releases on Nintendo handheld as well. Why? Because of how 3DS was just 1/6 of 360 in November and because UK generally seems to be the least receptive market for Japanese content compared to other European countries. We can see this through charts, but eShop anecdotal evidence shows this as well. Let's pick three games with a Japanese style and compare the reviews, remembering the relevance of the specific markets.
Bravely Default
Italy - 28
Germany - 78
UK - 33
Spain + Portugal - 52
France - 79
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
Italy - 105
Germany - 324
UK - 505
Spain + Portugal - 100
France - 177
One Piece Romance Dawn
Italy - 7
Germany - 26
UK - 9
Spain + Portugal - 10
France - 18
BD and One Piece shows UK being way too similar to Italy / Spain + Portugal. Ace Attorney is a title that represents what the reality should be, with UK being the country with the biggest amount of reviews, though. Probably, that's another proof of how price is important: the game's just Euros 24.99, much lower than other retail-like titles on eShop.
Again, UK is much more receptive to Western-core franchises, and next Nintendo handhelds need them as well, in order to offer greater variety and, then, greater reasons of interest for the English customers. This is, by far, the most difficult problem to solve, due to recent Nintendo relationships with Western third parties, even made worse by Wii U. Hardware itself could be another problem, but I believe an handheld with Wii U-like graphics with modern shaders (and, above all, two sticks) could be enough for ports looking pretty good, and at prices much lower than other home consoles. But, as already said, this is by far the biggest problem for them, especially bcause it doesn't depend just on hardware strength.
...And that should be it for starting the discussion. In the next hours, I'll probably add other points that IMHO Nintendo should carefully analyse, by looking at UK situation.
But, before discussing, a big question.
Why is that important for Nintendo to learn from UK?
It's true, in UK Wii U is a new Saturn and 3DS is still so-so, but elsewhere 3DS is good, if not great, and Wii U is...less dead. UK is just one country, there's the rest of the world!
And that's true, I know this perfectly, but...why shouldn't Nintendo do even better where they do well?
Yeah, improving things in UK means improving them everywhere else. Starting from the points I mentioned, wouldn't Western support, better prices and better shelf space make the platforms even more attractive where Nintendo is still important? And this would be even more evident in US, that resemblems UK for some aspects of the market (even if not so much, but still more than the rest of the Europe).
So, after a maybe too gigantic OP (I know), let's discuss: what's your opinion on the matter? What do you think Nintendo should learn from UK, and what they should do?
If you're familiar with PAL Charts thread, you probably already know this peculiar situation, but for those who's not aware, here's an extreme summary: UK is currently the territory where Nintendo encounters much bigger difficulties than elsewhere, especially compared with other main European countries. And these difficulties are even more evident when looking at software sales. In fact, in UK Wii U is considered as dead as Vita in US and, at the same time, 3DS, despite being a vital component of the market and with a situation that improved compared to last year, it's still between mediocre and decent. Those who follow charts already know this particular difference, but let's use some numbers and charts for demonstrating this.
First, software sales in November in UK per platform
This comes from our very reliable user working at Gamasutra, jvm. Here's the original article, if you're interested: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/MattMatthews/20131206/206417/
As you can see, 360 is clearly the king in software sales in UK, then PS3, with almost half sales, and then 3DS. But 3DS is far, far, faaaaaaar lower. Certainly alive, also increasing compared to last year (it's in the article itself), but still far too distant from the other two consoles. Wii U, instead, obtains to sell just a little more than what part of PS4 launch lineup sold before the release. And One, just in its debut week, almost reached the amount of software sold by Wii U in its first year.
Second, how much it is different from other main European countries.
Unfortunately, the only charts we have as big as UK ones, in terms of positions, are the German ones, but it's still one of the main European markets, recently also on par, if not at least slightly bigger than UK when considering PC. So, let's compare last week in UK with last week in Germany.
UK
3 PS4 titles in top 10, other falling after launch, Xbox One exclusives dropping too, but still many titles for both next and current gen...and what about Nintendo consoles? Mario is only 30th, lower than Zelda's second week, and both Pokémon SKUs are under 30th (even if growing compared to the precedent week). Nintendo suffering a lot, with sensible difficulties for its handheld too.
Germany
Lack of PS4 supply in Germany played a major role, but even considering it, there's a giant difference between the two charts: Mario is still in top 10 in its second week, and 3DS is the platform with the biggest amount of titles in top 50, even more than PC: Bravely Default is in top 30, the last Layton chapter is the biggest seller for 3DS, while both these titles are out of UK Top 40, as well as many titles rising due to Holidays. And this isn't the first time such difference happen, even when compared with France and Italy.
Even without looking at charts, Iwata itself stated how UK has been recently the territory where Nintendo is smaller relatively to the other actors back in one of the recent Investor Briefings.
Third, an anecdotal proof: eShops amount of reviews
Even eShop reviews, despite being a much less accurate index compared to the others, show how UK is a difficult territory for Nintendo. Remember, UK should be among the biggest European market, with France and Germany currently not that distant (until next gen launch, at least one of them was bigger than UK), and Italy and Spain + Portugal being far behind. Now, let's look at the amount of reviews for some specific titles in all these countries (updated to Wednesday; France is updated to Friday)
Super Mario 3D Land
Italy - 16,105
Germany - 44,499
UK - 33,153
Spain + Portugal - 17,703
France - 38,362
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Italy - 217
Germany - 1,015
UK - 499
Spain + Portugal - 348
France - 453
Pokémon Y
Italy - 1,043
Germany - 2,729
UK - 1,535
Spain + Portugal - 912
France - 1,763
Pokémon X
Italy - 942
Germany - 2,312
UK - 1,601
Spain + Portugal - 847
France - 1,586
The reviews don't reflect the reality of the market: between big / massive recent releases and a legacy title like 3D Land, Italy and Spain + Portugal are only half of the amount of reviews in UK, which are usually around the same / lower than France and much / much much lower than Germany. UK should see the biggest amount of reviews. This is a possible indicator of how much Nintendo is behind in UK compared to the other markets.
And here we are at the title of the thread: what can Nintendo learn from UK? What's the lesson the Japanese company need to learn for a future decisive improvement in the territory? IMHO, these are some of the major points that need to be addressed starting from their next handheld
1. Software prices are too high on the handheld front
3DS MSRP is £39.99 / Euros 44.99 ,resulting in £31.99 on Amazon. At the same time, PS3, 360 and Wii U titles' MSRP is £49.99 / Euros 59.99, resulting in £39.99 on Amazon. The difference is way too low between portable prices and home prices, and this is an even bigger con in a market as price sensitive as UK. This is one of the points that need to be corrected as fast as possible: £34.99 / Euros 39.99 as maximum MSRP, which would then result into £27.99/29.99 on Amazon, which would make games much more attractive.
But they just can't stop at retail: digital downloads aren't as prominent as in other industries (due to many factors, like overall prices), but they're still growing. However, digital versions of retail titles still suffer from having, at release, the same price as retail MSRP (not even Amazon /other online stores). Nintendo already started an attempt in this, by letting GAME.co.uk selling codes for their games at GAME.co.uk prices (usually, lower than MSRP, but higher than Amazon), but they need to improve much further, by letting Amazon selling codes too. And...above all, retail stores themselves. We all know price parity between digital SKUs and retail SKUs at launch is due to not alienating retail, but wouldn't letting retail stores selling download cards be a possible solution to this? Nintendo itself is doing this in Japan, and many retailers have recently expressed their satisfaction for this method. Still, download cards should be lower priced compared to boxed units: it would be up to the customer deciding if picking up the game at highest cost but physical and with immediate pick and play, or going with the download card, cheaper but with the necessity of having to wait the download for playing the game. Download cards have also very, very low inventory costs. And this would also help in the second problem they should address
2. Retail presence is too soft
Had to bump this thread, as we are a couple of weeks from Christmas and I popped into a Tesco for the first time in ages. It's a massive Tesco Extra. A major, major supermarket in our area. Probably the biggest in a 30-odd mile radius. And this is the extent of their Nintendo display. Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS all compiled into one convenient, easy-to-navigate shelf space:
This is a much bigger problem for Wii U than 3DS, but it's still undeniable that Nintendo suffers starting from retail presence. And it's their fault: sales aren't so big that major retail chains feel they can sacrifice space for Nintendo without too many problems. When Nintendo will release their next platform (be it handheld, home, hybrid, card set or whatever), they'll have to talk with major retail chains in order to guarantee enough shelves space even before sales come in: if they're high, shelves will naturally increase, but without having a good amount of space in store since launch, it becomes more difficult to sell to mass customers.
3. Western support is necessary
Yeah, that was an obvious conclusion, but what I want to say is that it would be good to have Western third party releases on Nintendo handheld as well. Why? Because of how 3DS was just 1/6 of 360 in November and because UK generally seems to be the least receptive market for Japanese content compared to other European countries. We can see this through charts, but eShop anecdotal evidence shows this as well. Let's pick three games with a Japanese style and compare the reviews, remembering the relevance of the specific markets.
Bravely Default
Italy - 28
Germany - 78
UK - 33
Spain + Portugal - 52
France - 79
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
Italy - 105
Germany - 324
UK - 505
Spain + Portugal - 100
France - 177
One Piece Romance Dawn
Italy - 7
Germany - 26
UK - 9
Spain + Portugal - 10
France - 18
BD and One Piece shows UK being way too similar to Italy / Spain + Portugal. Ace Attorney is a title that represents what the reality should be, with UK being the country with the biggest amount of reviews, though. Probably, that's another proof of how price is important: the game's just Euros 24.99, much lower than other retail-like titles on eShop.
Again, UK is much more receptive to Western-core franchises, and next Nintendo handhelds need them as well, in order to offer greater variety and, then, greater reasons of interest for the English customers. This is, by far, the most difficult problem to solve, due to recent Nintendo relationships with Western third parties, even made worse by Wii U. Hardware itself could be another problem, but I believe an handheld with Wii U-like graphics with modern shaders (and, above all, two sticks) could be enough for ports looking pretty good, and at prices much lower than other home consoles. But, as already said, this is by far the biggest problem for them, especially bcause it doesn't depend just on hardware strength.
...And that should be it for starting the discussion. In the next hours, I'll probably add other points that IMHO Nintendo should carefully analyse, by looking at UK situation.
But, before discussing, a big question.
Why is that important for Nintendo to learn from UK?
It's true, in UK Wii U is a new Saturn and 3DS is still so-so, but elsewhere 3DS is good, if not great, and Wii U is...less dead. UK is just one country, there's the rest of the world!
And that's true, I know this perfectly, but...why shouldn't Nintendo do even better where they do well?
Yeah, improving things in UK means improving them everywhere else. Starting from the points I mentioned, wouldn't Western support, better prices and better shelf space make the platforms even more attractive where Nintendo is still important? And this would be even more evident in US, that resemblems UK for some aspects of the market (even if not so much, but still more than the rest of the Europe).
So, after a maybe too gigantic OP (I know), let's discuss: what's your opinion on the matter? What do you think Nintendo should learn from UK, and what they should do?
rice discussion between systems, but in the end when people see 3DS games for £39.99, Wii U games for £49.99, and then Vita games for £29.99-£34.99 and PS3/360 games for £39.99, the Nintendo games are going to look grossly overpriced.
