Nintendo hardware "has declined"
But Yarnton says everyone suffering similarly; also affirms support for tax relief
Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton has admitted to Radio 4 that the company's hardware sales have "declined," holding the recession partially to blame.
"We've had very good years," he told the BBC. "It's part, I suppose, of the cycle. We're not recession proof. We've probably as an industry been better than other industries.
"We obviously would like to be selling more. It has declined. But the whole market has as well. It's not just ourselves."
He was adamant that it was not game over for Nintendo's current platforms, however. "We think there's still plenty of opportunity for the product. There are a lot of people still waiting to get into gaming. There is a lot of interest from older people, people that normally didn't game."
The 3DS was inevitably held up as a great hope for hardware sales. "I think it's quite a leapfrog, actually. Especially when you look at the other technology out there in TV and movie, where with 3D you have to wear glasses, whilst with our 3D offering you don't have to wear glasses.
Of the competition, he said "There are no real new models coming out. No leapfrogging. They're just derivatives of the original versions they've had. We still with Wii have got a lot of technology we haven't fully harnessed and a lot of development of games coming that I think will still wow people when they see it."
Yarnton also addressed the ever-thorny issue of tax relief for the UK games industry, following one-time advocate MP Ed Vaizey declining to lend open support for it at the Develop conference this week.
"We support it very much. We as an industry want to be on a level playing field, not only on a global basis, where we know there are tax breaks right around the world, from Canada to Korea to Australia, but also with other creative industries, such as the movie industry, where there are tax breaks. There are sound arguments that show with the tax breaks we'll actually create more jobs."
A report from Chart-Track today revealed that UK revenue for Nintendo Wii software was down by 21 per cent, and the DS by 36.
While the PSP and PS2 suffered similarly, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 saw increased software revenue in the first half of this year.