Iwata talks about how big ‘N’ wants to grab more ‘female’ sales for their 3DS handheld via new games
Nintendo’s Financial Briefing has now gone live in English, and while not extensive, it has plenty to glean from for Nintendo’s direction for the coming year.
Nintendo’s fiscal-year-end report is out and as bits of it gets translated into english, we find out that sales of their 3DS console even with the New 3DS version launched, are going down, so Iwata thinks it is time yet again to push out more new games that will increase the Nintendo Girl Power and grab those remaining girls that still might be on DS, or new young daughters that have recently appeared in the world and are missing out on the true awesomeness power that a girl will have when she has cute new games to enjoy on her 3DS.
According to Satoru Iwata, sales have stagnated, at least in Japan, as the platform sits at 19 million units. However, he believes it has room to grow, and women are the key to their future.
On the other hand, regarding the Nintendo 3DS hardware, four years since its release, we are seeing a certain level of positive results by the release of New Nintendo 3DS, but we still have not been able to break free from the period beyond the popularization of the Nintendo 3DS in which the performance leveled off. I believe that the key to revitalizing the Nintendo 3DS business in Japan is by intensifying its appeal to even more generations of female consumers.
This year, we are planning to release titles that offer high potential to appeal to female consumers, and we would like to further strengthen our approach to reach a female audience covering wider generations.
Iwata specifically cited Girls Mode 3 (Style Savy), the new Rhythm Heaven for release in Japan in the summer, and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Maker for the fall as games that will “appeal to female consumers”.
Long-time Nintendo financial watchers have heard this before. Back in 2011, when the 3DS was needing a kick-start into the holidays, Nintendo initiated a series of moves to entice females to the 3DS platform. The Misty Pink 3DS was a start, but software like Style Savy Trendsetters (US name), Nintendogs + Cats, and the promise of Animal Crossing and Tomodachi Collection, both off the horizon. This move was partly influenced by the high ratio of women who had played the DS, but hadn’t upgraded to 3DS.
So be warned if you are boy, that recently had a baby sister growing up and coming into the gaming age, make sure you hide your 3DS or claim it is broken, or she will be beating your ass down to play some hot new games on it, until you can muscle up to your dad or mom and explain to them that they need to buy your sister her own 3DS handheld to game on as it just not fair, at least you know you got Iwata to blame for it when your baby sister ends up beating your ass in Super Mario as her gaming skills will soon get better now.