This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
This graph shows the comparison between the Wii U software sell-through numbers from 2014 and 2015 in the Japanese market.
Since the two key titles, Splatoon released on May 28 last year and Super Mario Maker released on September 10 last year, had kept up their momentum until the year-end sales season, the total sales figure surpassed that of 2014, when Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U were released.
Splatoon has been showing steady sales for a long time since its release last May. It has shipped 4.06 million units worldwide as of the end of the third quarter of this fiscal year.
It has gradually expanded even among kids and female consumers, and we expect more popularity due to word-of-mouth. We can say a good cycle has been established for this title.
We are also trying various measures from an operational perspective, including holding events in and out of the game, to create opportunities for consumers to continue playing it even long after its release. It has contributed to maintaining high usage rate and public attention.
For your information, the number of participants in Japan taking part in events inside the game called “splatfests” has been consistently increasing since the first one. There were approximately 690 thousand participants in the 10th “splatfest” held on January 23 and January 24 in Japan, which is an all-time high number.
? Approximately 690 thousand of “splatfest” participants are counted based on the number of account used.
This graph compares sell-through transition in Japan from the release week until the new-year holiday sales season for Splatoon to that of a major title released in the same period of the previous year, Mario Kart 8.
Sales of Splatoon have consistently exceeded that of Mario Kart 8 with the exception of the period right after its release. You can also see a substantially bigger sell-through of the title in the year-end sales season.
Splatoon is not losing momentum even after the start of a new year and we anticipate it has the potential to be a long-selling title.
Last September, we globally released a “create and play” type of Mario software, Super Mario Maker , in which you use the Wii U GamePad controller to freely create 2D Mario courses. This title has been showing steady sales worldwide, and has shipped over three million units as of the end of the third quarter of this fiscal year.
A large increase in the number of players for the game following the year-end sales season has led to over 6.2 million different user-created playable courses, which in turn have been played over 400 million times as of January 27.
In order to keep up the high usage rate of the game, we have been periodically updating the software and expanding related services. We have added functions like “parts” with which users can create a greater variety of courses, and also launched a web portal called “Super Mario Maker Bookmark” in which users can more easily search for interesting courses to play.
This graph shows the comparison between the Wii U hardware sell-through numbers from 2014 and 2015 in the Japanese market.
The momentum of the Splatoon and Super Mario Maker games released last year was maintained until the end of the year, which also drove sales of the hardware.
Thanks to the new Wii U hardware bundles with Splatoon or Super Mario Maker preinstalled having launched in the sales season, the total sales of the hardware increased over the previous year.
This graph shows the comparison between the Nintendo-published Wii U software sell-through numbers from 2014 and 2015 in the US and European markets.
Due to the continuous sales of Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, both released in 2014, and two strong titles Splatoon and Super Mario Maker released almost at the same time as in Japan, the software sales exceeded the previous year as well.
This graph shows the comparison between the Wii U hardware sell-through numbers from 2014 and 2015 in the US and European markets.
For the year-end sales season, we made available Wii U hardware bundles with Splatoon and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U for the US market and with Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 for the European market. Thanks to the new bundles, Wii U hardware sales were comparable to the previous year in both the US and Europe. Going forward, we will work to keep up the console usage rate of the many consumers who have purchased Wii U in the year-end sales season and encourage them to purchase another title.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
This graph shows the comparison between the Nintendo 3DS hardware sell-through numbers from 2014 (calendar year) and 2015 (calendar year) in the Japanese market.
In 2014, we were able to invigorate the market a little earlier than last year-end sales season with the launch of New Nintendo 3DS and the release of titles such as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. On the other hand, in 2015, despite a little late start off compared to the previous year, we saw a hardware-driving effect of software such as CAPCOM?CO LTD.’s Monster Hunter X (Cross), and there was momentum as strong as the previous year in the year-end sales season growth.
A new Mario Party arcade game titled Mario Party Fushigi no Challenge World (translation: Mario Party Mysterious Challenge World) is being developed by Capcom, as revealed by this website. The game will be played by six players using touch panels. The game will be unveiled on February 19th at the Japan Amusement Expo in Chiba. Currently, the game is slated to release in the summer. Features will include a variety of playable Mario characters, board games, mini games, and boss fights.
Update: More Wii U/3DS maintenance announced. Add this one to the list:
– 5:30 PM PT (Thursday) – 7:00 PM PT (Thursday)
– 8:30 PM ET (Thursday) – 10 PM ET (Thursday)
– 1:30 AM in the UK (Friday) – 3 AM in the UK (Friday)
– 2:30 AM in Europe (Friday) – 4 AM in Europe (Friday)
Wii U and 3DS have been undergoing significant maintenance this week. This has impacted the likes of online play, rankings, and more. Two more periods of maintenance have now been scheduled.
The first period, affecting both Wii U and 3DS, will take place at the following times:
– 10 PM PT (Wednesday) – 1 AM PT (Thursday)
– 1 AM ET (Thursday) – 4 AM ET (Thursday)
– 6 AM in the UK (Thursday) – 9 AM in the UK (Thursday)
– 7 AM in Europe (Thursday) – 10 AM in Europe (Thursday)
The second period will only impact 3DS and is set for these times:
– 9 PM PT (Thursday) – 10:30 PM PT (Thursday)
– 12 AM ET (Friday) – 1:30 AM ET (Friday)
– 5 AM in the UK (Friday) – 6:30 AM in the UK (Friday)
– 6 AM in Europe (Friday) – 7:30 AM in Europe (Friday)
GameXplain has posted 2 hours of footage from Great Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Combination. The lengthy video can be found below.
Update: Side-note about the five volumes of complete version manga previously announced. It will begin with the Complete Version of Ocarina of Time, out on March 10.
We knew that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would be receiving its own manga thanks to an announcement made earlier this week. An official press release has now been sent out, confirming that it will begin on February 8. New content will be issued bi-weekly.
The series will be published at Shogakukan’s manga app Manga One. If we hear anything about an official translation, we’ll be sure to let you know.
A lengthy gameplay video showing Great Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Combination is now available. Take a look at it below.
“Malo” is touching upon another aspect of Twilight Princess HD with today’s new tweet on the series’ Japanese Twitter page. Today’s message focuses on the Ooccoos.
Here’s the translated tweet:
“…It’s Malo. This is the ‘Auntie’ who would teleport you instantly in and out of dungeons… I can’t unsee her as an alien… Originally she should’ve looked a bit more like human… but what happened here…”
And some concept art:
6.2 million courses have been created in Super Mario Maker thus far, Tatsumi Kimishima has revealed. The Nintendo president announced the news during the company’s financial results briefing a little while ago. He also divulged that 400 million play counts have been recorded, an average of over 64 plays per level.
During Nintendo’s financial results briefing today, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima delivered an update about My Nintendo.
The My Nintendo point program will begin in March in 39 countries. There will be Platinum Points like the prior Club Nintendo and Gold Points for coupons. My Nintendo is starting with a points program, coupon, emails, and web downloads. It’ll expand to friends list, cloud data, and in-store.
Kimishima also reiterated that the first goal is to quickly have 100 million people registered with My Nintendo.
