Twenty years have passed since the release of the first titles in the Pokémon series, which has sold over 200 million units worldwide. We are preparing to bring you the next titles in this series, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, launching in winter 2016 (holiday 2016 in the U.S. and late 2016 in Europe). I just mentioned that the Virtual Console Pokémon titles have been selling well, and excitement for Pokémon has been building, especially in North America, Nintendo’s largest market. We aim to use this momentum to drive the launch of these new titles by making this one of our top priority titles for the fiscal year ending March 2017 and maximizing sales worldwide.
This slide shows announced 3DS titles launching in Japan in April 2016 or later, including titles planned for future release. Due to our wide installed base, there are many titles, including major titles, from third-party software developers. Furthermore, there are many other unannounced titles, both first-party and third-party, that are proceeding with development.
This slide shows announced 3DS titles launching in the American and European markets in April 2016 or later, including titles planned for future release. As in Japan, there are many more titles planned for future release, and other unannounced titles that are currently in development.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
For the Nintendo 3DS, our strategy over the fiscal year ending March 2017 will be to revitalize the platform by launching major titles, and to reach broader demographics worldwide, including females and young consumers.
The installed base in Japan is fairly saturated compared to other countries, meaning there is reduced opportunity to sell Nintendo 3DS hardware to new consumers. Our efforts will focus on sparking discussion and maintaining momentum among current owners of Nintendo 3DS hardware.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
Worldwide, the four Virtual Console titles – Pokémon Red, Green, Blue and Pikachu – have been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. More than half of these downloads came from the American market. Since the start of the calendar year, Pokémon has been the subject of much attention in America, and sales are showing a favorable trend. Although these are downloadable software titles, download codes sold through retail stores have been a high proportion of sales in Japan. We believe that we have successfully created a chance to appeal to the nostalgia of consumers who played these titles when they first came out.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
Next, I will describe our progress in download sales. This graph shows our download sales by quarter over the last four fiscal years. Despite coming after the holiday season, the fourth quarter had the highest sales of any quarter over the fiscal year ended March 2016. The total for the entire fiscal year was 43.9 billion yen.
The large increase in the fourth quarter this year is due to the release of downloadable content for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U in February and downloadable content for Fire Emblem Fates that was released in the U.S. in March.
We have focused on expanding the digital business, both to keep up with changes in the industry and as a new business opportunity. This shows that we have made steady progress in the digital sphere.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
Next, we will cover the amiibo business. Over the fiscal year ended March 2016, we shipped about 24.7 million amiibo figures and about 28.9 million amiibo cards, a huge increase over the prior fiscal year.
By providing a continued presence for Nintendo characters in stores, we believe the amiibo platform has created great benefits for all of Nintendo’s platforms.
These are the sell-through trends for Splatoon series amiibo in Japan.
Even after the start of the calendar year, the Splatoon series amiibo have continued to sell well, with sales approaching one million units in Japan alone.
This graph shows the total sell-through by quarter in the U.S. for several of the characters that were released with the initial launch of amiibo in November 2014.
Like software titles, some amiibo characters are also becoming evergreen, showing stable long-term sales with little seasonal fluctuation.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
The driving factor behind Wii U hardware sales over the fiscal year ended March 2016 was Splatoon, released in May of last year. Strong sales have continued into 2016, leading us to ship 4.27 million units worldwide in this fiscal year. This title started off with early appeal among core gamers and has gradually spread to the young consumer and female demographics, providing an excellent illustration of Nintendo’s strengths.
The number of participants for the in-game events called “Splatfests” has been steadily increasing since the first such event.
The 13th Splatfest, held from April 23rd to the 24th in Japan, saw around 790,000 participants, a record number.
With a total sell-through of 1.49 million units in Japan at the time the 13th Splatfest was held, this means that more than half of the software owners participated in this event. It is no small feat for so many users to be playing a title almost one year after launch, not only in Japan, but across the globe.
We have already expanded this IP beyond the game with a variety of products and events, and we will continue to take advantage of Splatoon’s massive popularity to support products and events and create tie-ins with external partners.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
The number of Wii U systems sold worldwide has surpassed 12 million.
Although this installed base is not as large as we have seen with past home consoles, we had a major hit in 2015 with Splatoon, and we have continued to sell units in Japan.
This graph shows the Wii U software sell-through in Japan from the start of the year through last week, compared with the same period over the last two years. Splatoon has continued to sell well since the start of the calendar year, and we launched The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on March 10th and Pokkén Tournament on March 18th, spurring higher sales in this period than in the same period in the last two years.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
This slide shows the major Nintendo 3DS titles and the total units shipped worldwide. The amounts shipped over the fiscal year ended March 2016 are indicated in the red boxes.
Even titles that were released quite a while ago have seen sales of around one million units this year. The Nintendo 3DS has a rich selection of evergreen titles that are popular with consumers, and we believe that the lineup offers plenty to enjoy for consumers who have purchased the hardware recently as well.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
At the last financial briefing, we discussed the strong performance of the Nintendo Selects discount titles, which were launched in October in the European market. This sales performance has not seen much impact from seasonal variation, as these titles have continued to sell well since the start of the calendar year.
The red bar in the graph shows the total sell-through for the eight Nintendo Selects titles, while the gray bar represents the total sell-through for the same titles over the same period one year before.
The Nintendo Selects titles have achieved total sell-through of over 700,000 units. By changing the value prospects for the consumer, we have been able to reach a wider audience, even for titles that had seen a lull in sales.
We have also launched similar promotions in Japan and the U.S. In Japan, the title is “Happy Price Selection.” Compared to the sell-through for the same period in the prior year, sales have increased greatly and the ratio of female and young consumers has risen, expanding the audience for these titles.
Nintendo feels it is important to provide good value to our consumers without devaluing the overall price of our software. Therefore, we will not overuse these types of promotions, but we do feel these discounts can provide an excellent chance for consumers to find fresh discoveries among our rich back catalog. These promotions will be part of our efforts to maintain the popularity of the Nintendo 3DS platform in 2016 and beyond.
This information comes from Nintendo’s investors briefing as stated by president Tatsumi Kimishima…
This graph shows the Nintendo 3DS first-party software sell-through in Europe, compared with the same period over the last two years.
In Europe, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon was released in February, and Nintendo Selects was kicked off last October. These titles continue to perform well, but the sales trends for first-party software as a whole remain slightly under the trends for 2014. We plan to release Fire Emblem Fates in Europe in May.
Tomodachi Life has been a major title that recently surpassed two million sales in Japan. In the European market, this title was localized into various languages, and was launched in June 2014.
Since then, we have seen excellent long-term performance from this title, and it has gradually closed the gap over the last two years, recently surpassing the sales in Japan.There are few titles competing in this space within the industry, and we believe that bringing out the full potential of this kind of title, which appeals to female consumers, will help our products be enjoyed by wider consumer demographics.
