Nintendo saw a 29% drop in sales from their last financial year, but continue to forecast promising sales for their platforms in spite of two of them in decline. Iwata said Nintendo expects to sell 13 million Wiis for the rest of this fiscal year, plus 11 million in DS hardware and 16 million 3DS. The older platforms are expected to continue a nice trend mainly through sales of Nintendo's long-standing bestsellers like the New Super Mario Bros. series.
During a press conference before the actual briefing, Iwata made to the media regarding the Tohoku earthquake disaster's effects on Nintendo's business. In general, he doesn't see game system sales improving in the country until autumn.
As for the 3DS, the events of the earthquake naturally slowed the sales of the handheld and its games and likely contributed to overall sales coming just under Nintendo's forecasts (though obviously, Iwata didn't entirely blame the disaster). Iwata called this a sort of "starting from zero," suggesting that a renewed marketing campaign for the 3DS might be in the future.
Iwata presented a look at game sales in Japan, America, and Europe. One commonality among the big Wii titles was Ubisoft's Just Dance and especially , which continued kicking ass in sales through March, topping the chart in the US and remaining in the top 10 in most of Europe. Iwata pointed out the blockbuster sales for JD2 that outsold the first game in half the time, and by extension, other dancing games like Ubisoft's Michael Jackson the Experience and Majesco's also became bonafide hits.
Granted, these games aren't exactly must-haves to the more discerning gamers, but it looks good at an investor briefing, and their performance is nothing if not fascinating in these declining months of the Wii. And if you're wondering why Iwata likes making an example out of Just Dance 2, well, Nintendo themselves will be publishing it in Japan later this year.
Iwata was unsurprisingly coy about any further details on Nintendo's next console, announced (rather, pre-announced) just a couple of days prior. The company line so far is that Nintendo "will offer something new [in the market of] home game systems." Our translation: Wait for E3.
It's no big mystery why Nintendo is setting up the Wii's successor for next year; the Wii is just not as exciting as it was. It happens to every console, but in Nintendo's case, Iwata it to a lack of developers being able to "surprise customers" with the Wii as it was now.
We'll take "surprise customers" to mean "be innovative," which the Wii had not exactly proved too often during its life -- yes, games like and were great, but were still pretty traditional.
Though 2011's lineup of Wii software is questionable around the world (just look at Nintendo's ), Nintendo themselves intend to release at least one Wii game every month -- in Japan, anyway. This includes the recently-announced , Activision's , Wii Play: Motion, Just Dance 2 and Rhythm Heaven (which can only be played with buttons; no motion control of any kind here), plus , a new Kirby game, and hints at more unannounced games later in the year.
Perhaps E3 will reveal a few more Wii titles for the American market worth caring about, but so far, Nintendo of America's lineup is woefully bare, with just the aforementioned Wii Play sequel and a new Mystery Case Files game being the only previously-unknown games announced.
Nintendo's been keeping track of the public's reactions to the 3DS -- everything from the system itself to the sales numbers to the games. Iwata expressed concern that the company hasn't done as much to really drive home the value and the overall coolness of the device (in their eyes, of course). Besides encouraging people to really utilize the depth slider if you can't process the 3D properly, Iwata shared his intent to get people to want to buy a 3DS now rather than later, by more properly communicating the extra features of the device besides just "3D" and "new games."
From our own anecdotal evidence, it seems that AR Games and Face Raiders make a crucial first impression on people who actually try a 3DS, but the launch games haven't made quite the same impact. In America, TV ads for the 3DS seem more focused on Steel Diver and Super Street Fighter IV, and though those are fine games, they're not exactly the big hooks Nintendo needs in the short term.
In the interim, Nintendo is still planning on pushing the major 3DS firmware update in May, which will launch the 3DS web browser and the eShop download service, which will feature a free , the previously-announced , and perhaps more.
You can view the entire Financial Results Briefing from Iwata at Nintendo's site .
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