Nintendo’s Bill Trinen believes 3DS will “take off” this year
Japanese gamers and western players have different tastes. Call of Duty may sell millions of copies overseas, but will only make a small dent in the Japanese market.
That’s just one example of how the two audiences differ. In the case of new handheld purchases, Nintendo’s Bill Trinen believes that Japanese consumers tend to pick up new handhelds quicker than in the US, which is why we’ve seen slower growth of the 3DS in the states. Now that the portable has a quality library and lots of new software to look forward to, however, “3DS is really going to take off.”
“We have noticed that in the US in particular, people tend to, at least when it comes to handheld gaming, they tend to shift generations a lot more slowly than they do particularly in Japan. In Japan, once a new handheld system comes out it’s like everybody just goes right to it. GameBoy Advance was the same way; DS was the same way; 3DS now. It does take a couple of years. But then once it does, it really builds steam and so with the lineup that we’re seeing this year, to me it really feels like this is the year that 3DS is really going to take off.”
