As Director of Marketing for Nintendo, Bill Trinen’s job is to…well…market a product. So, it is no surprise that he is setting us up to believe that 2013 will be a great year for the 3DS. However, is it really doing that bad to begin with?
“We have noticed that in the US in particular, people tend to, at least when it comes to handheld gaming, they tend to shift generations a lot more slowly than they do particularly in Japan. In Japan, once a new handheld system comes out it’s like everybody just goes right to it.”
“GameBoy Advance was the same way; DS was the same way; 3DS now. It does take a couple of years. But then once it does, it really builds steam and so with the lineup that we’re seeing this year, to me it really feels like this is the year that 3DS is really going to take off.”
The 3DS has sold 30 million units (As of December 31st, 2012) and 85 Million pieces of software. Although those figures trail the current DS sales (150 Million Units and 930 software titles YTD), we have to remember that the DS has been out much longer than the 3DS. If we are going to compare the sales, we need to compare the actual sales for the same period. Looking at the same time-frame, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, the 3DS has sold over 1 million more units in its life cycle than the DS did at the same age (US Sales).
“When the NPD numbers come out later this week, you’re going to see life-to-date 3DS game sales surpass 20 million units in the US,’ said Reggie in a short interview with GamesIndustry International. ‘And that’s just physical. It doesn’t include digital sales. … So far in 2013 – through April 15 – 3DS game sales are up 55 per cent versus last year, counting both physical and digital.”
It is interesting to note that Reggie was not as chipper about the Wii U, but is optimistic bout its future: