3DS sells under 400,000 in US debut
New system outsold by original DS during March; falls short of analyst expectations
The 3DS handheld sold under 400,000 units during its US debut, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
Speaking to USA Today, Fils-Aime said he was pleased with the opening sales for the system which launched on March 27.
However, the new console was outsold by the original DS systems, including the DSi and DSiXL, which shifted 460,000 units during the month, thanks in part to the launch of Pokemon Black and White - titles with combined sales of 2.5 million.
Analyst Cowen & Company had predicted the system would shift around 750,000 units in the US, and the system sold less than the more conservative 500,000 prediction of Wedbush Morgan.
"We staged supply so it would not sell out," said Fils-Aime. "We had product going direct to store and we also had product in retailers (distribution centers), so they could easily replenish when they had stores running low on inventory.
"That strategy is why you didn't see massive sellouts on Nintendo 3DS. Obviously, a sell-through of 400,000 units in one week is exceptional. And the fact that we achieved that without people being worried about massive stockouts and shortages just underscored how we properly executed our supply chain."
European sales of the 3DS came in at 303,000 units in its opening month, including 113,000 in the UK and 50,000 in Germany.
Don't forget, the DS didn't set the world on fire in the early days either....and that did have a Mario title to launch with.
I'm tired of tired launches where you're buying into "potential" rather than seeing examples of top-shelf work that points to even better titles in the future. As much as Nintendo was pushing the 3D effect, it' just not well served in the initial set of games enough to warrant a buy. Had the system launched with Zelda, Kid Icarus, Resident Evil and perhaps a few more key genres (a solid racer, shooter, classic RPG, a better fighter and some well-done puzzle/casual games), the numbers might have been a bit higher (that is, if more than that 400K had the bucks to spend on those games)...
Instead, there are a bunch of mostly "OK" titles that show it's better to wait a while to drop that cash until something blows the naysayers out of the tank and makes them want to rush out and own one.
maybe Nintendo wanted to open the door for 3rd party on this one. They can't be happy when their hardware is constantly dubbed as hostile territory for 3rd parties, because such a perception only helps Nintendo's competitors. It has to be the goal of Nintendo to attract all the best 3rd party IP as well. If everybody just bought the new Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, then all Nintendo would achieve is creating angry third parties and a stronger PSP exclusive lineup; e.g. Monster Hunter.
The same happened to a degree with the Wii motion plus, which was also attempted to be released in a very 3rd party friendly way. As important as Nintendo's first party success was for their finance, going into the future they will want more of a share when it comes to major third party IPs. If that means only releasing soccer mom games at the launch of a console and holding back on their own juggernauts for later, then that is a relatively small price to pay. We might see the same thing happening on the Wii successor.
Nintendo can only do so much. It is a huge move on Nintendo's part to even leave the software battlefield to the third parties. The third parties have to come up with the system sellers themselves. When the 3DS was announced all the 3rd publishers name-dropped their biggest franchises without hesitation, meaning Nintendo successfully sold them on their new system and the new game release strategy. In all likelihood the time between access to a dev kit and release was not enough to come up with a Resident Evil game, or a Metal Gear Solid, certainly not a Square RPG. Meaning third parties defaulted back to titles which can be handled in a short development cycle, such as a Fighting game conversion and racing game with established courses.
Nintendo will learn from that and when the next home console comes around I bet developers will have had much more time to develop a game. The next Wii will potentially be released with a Fifa game, the next CoD, some fantasy RPG and a Need for Speed. Nobody will then ever dare insult Nintendo as being hostile towards 3rd parties or unfriendly towards "hardcore" players. It will be things like that determining which manufacturer will be big on the next console cycle and I see Nintendo improving a lot of things they were criticized before.