Nintendo fails Korean market
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 3:43pm by Jake
With over 25 million Wii units sold it’s not difficult to see why Nintendo would want to take their waggling juggernaut completely global. The latest campaign into foreign markets is the monster mmorpg country that is Korea. Nintendo has pushed commercials, billboards, and even got big time Korean celebrity, Won Bin to deliver the Wii experience to gamers. Unfortunately since its launch on April 26th the Wii sold a measly 35,000 in South Korea. Korean gamer, Jang Jae-heung explains why…
“Hard-core gamers don’t like to buy Wii because the Korean version can only play Korean version software titles, which so far are few,” said Jang Jae-heung, a 30-year-old gamer. “Many want to play popular Japanese titles. This is important because it is hard-core gamers who lead the gaming market trend.”
I’m sure Nintendo’s stubborn hold on region locking is a big factor, but is that really an excuse? Should Korean gamers leave their Starcraft infested PCs and try some console gaming, or are they on to something?
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Interesting how they determine the market by one person’s input.
I mean, I’m sure they’re right on a couple of ideas, but I’m guessing it’s because Koreans can’t hack the Wii format and make illegal copies for all hardcore gamers instead.
(Of course, I have no idea how rich Koreans are…)
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
…did Jang just admit that region-encoding is bad for (overall) sales?
AND WILL THIS GIVE US MOTHER 3?!
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Why couldn’t it be an excuse? If they need everything localized and that’s not being prioritized it’s not strange that sales are bad. Would you by a console which had almost no games and no indication of that changing?
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
[...] decidedly poor reception for such a well received console worldwide is supposedly down to Nintendo’s ultra-strict [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Ouch bad move. I know a couple guys from South Korea and almost all of their games are in Japanese. What’s the point for region locking such a small market anyways.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Star scraft for the Wii problem solved!
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
@Run line 10:
Bad typing, bad idea.
Also a tad bit stereotypical, aren’t we?
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hmm…I’m calling this the Microsoft effect. It’s the effect Microsoft experiences when trying to sell in japan, only instead of using a porn star they used a different celebrity, but it still wasn’t good enough. (improper name, but I like it)
If it really is the region lock or lack of good games, Nintendo should just flood them with the nuke that is every first party game they’ve released along with the other top quality Wii games released in Japan.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hey Joltman, stereotype or not, let it flow
, Wii need Starcraft Wii. Well anyway I want it, now that I’m thinking about it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Too little too late I guess.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Oh COME ON! I keep seeing the story posted as a negative. Sure, Nintendo didn’t sell through their entire 50k Wiis in its FIRST MONTH, but…
“Despite such disappointments, Wii is still outperforming its rivals, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation3. About 150,000 Xbox 360s were sold in its first two years while 50,000 PlayStation3 were sold in its first year, local game magazines estimate”.
It isn’t as if they are doing horribly.
Let us see how much of a bigger impact they are making one year from now.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Nintendo sold in one month 1/3 of the total LTD 360 sales and the same as the PS3 has sold LTD during the past TWELVE MONTHS. If Wii sells the same for 3 more months it will easily pass the 360 and make the gap between Wii and PS3 pretty much definitive.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
[...] (via Intendo) [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 10:04 am
thats nonsense.. wii is almost tops in the korean market off that one month. and it will be in the next two months.. there are wii shortages and nintendo is being smart, asian markets are copying and creating their own wii’s .
June 14th, 2008 at 11:00 am
They already have hacked Wiis for sale in Yongsan, they’ve been there for a long time. Also there are easier ways to hack your own now which are readily available.
Localization is a huge issue. The average Korean person does not want to play a game in Japanese, for various reasons. However, Japanese > Korean translators are readily available, and that process is actually less complicated than putting a game in English.
Starcraft II with great motion controls and great online multiplayer. Done deal.