Highlights from Nintendo's Corporate Briefing - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 29 October 2010 / 7,017 Views
Nintendo's Satoru Iwata recently presented alot of information about Wii, DS and the video game market place in general. Below are the highlights of his presentation.
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Iwata:
Based on NPD data, we have compiled this graph, which shows how many hardware units were sold by each platform holder in each calendar year, starting from 1996, when Nintendo launched Nintendo 64. We can understand that in the three consecutive years of 2007, 2008 and 2009, the hardware sales of Nintendo platforms reached record levels.
Until about the same time a year ago from today, our sales in 2009 were showing significant year-on-year decline. Fortunately, our sales were up in the year-end, and resulted in the right-end bar of this graph.
The 2010 calendar-year results will be determined by the year-end sales, but we do not expect Nintendo’s hardware sales, or the combined unit sales of Wii and Nintendo DS, to go below 15 million (note: through September 2010 combined USA Wii & DS sales are at 7.4m units - and each system will likely sell 7.5m units in 2010 - with 8m or not out of the question for either). Depending on whether you choose to compare Nintendo’s calendar year performance before the 2010 year-end sales season with our own previous records or whether you choose to focus upon Nintendo’s performance and its presence in the industry as a whole, your evaluation of Nintendo must be completely different.
As I informed you in the past, Nintendo has been periodically surveying the transitions of the gaming population. What you are looking at now is the situation in the U.S. The Active Users, described in blue in this graph, are the people who have played with a home console video game machine or a handheld video game device, from Nintendo or another hardware manufacturer, at least once in the recent year. The Sleep Users in yellow are those who used to play but have not played in the last year. The pink Non-Users are those who have never played video games.
I have just received the most recent survey data. Even though the very high Active User ratio of 62% has remained stable even during the most recent summer, you may wonder if our gaming population expansion goal has been at a standstill. By using different colors, let’s identify the ratios of the users of Wii or Nintendo DS or both.
It looks like this. Contrary to the impression you might get from the decreased sales of Wii and Nintendo DS, the number of consumers who are playing with these game systems is actually increasing in the U.S.
Based upon our surveys, these are the transitions of the number of Wii and Nintendo DS users. In the U.S., Wii users are steadily increasing, and in the most recent survey, the total number of Wii users finally topped 100 million.
This graph, based on NPD data, shows the sales transitions of home console hardware in the U.S. from January to September in 2008, 2009 and 2010. In this graph too, the change in Xbox 360 sales can be observed. When we focus upon the hardware unit sales so far this year, Wii and Xbox 360 are almost equal.
Just as we did last year, we are aiming to regain the momentum for Wii at the year-end sales season.
The U.S. home console software transitions look like this.
Due partially to the fact that the U.S. video game market rapidly expanded until 2008, the software sales in the first nine months of both of the following years showed declines.
In order to evaluate Wii’s momentum, we have compared Wii’s sales transition in the U.S. with that of PS2, which so far has been the best selling home video game console in the country. In the bar graph on the left, you’ll see the total sales from the launch through the fourth holiday selling period. The bar graph on the right-hand side compares Wii’s January to September sales for this year with the corresponding first nine months of the relative fifth year for PS2. On the bottom, you’ll see the numbers from both of the bar graphs combined and represented in line-graph form. I hope each and all these charts will convince you that Wii, as a machine set to welcome its fifth holiday sales season, can never be considered to have lost momentum.
As you can see in the upper-left graph, Wii’s cumulative units-sold lead over PS2 until its fourth year in the U.S. market was 23%. For Wii to maintain or extend this 23% lead in its fifth year, Nintendo will need to sell 5.7 million units of Wii hardware in the U.S., but it looks like that there won’t be so much trouble for the company to outnumber this.
This is the sales of home consoles in the European market. Nintendo gathered the data from independent market research companies in European countries to compile these charts and graphs. As for Wii this year, it kept a similar sales pace as last year’s until summer, but the most recent sales are not very pleasing ones. Xbox 360 has increased its sales after the model change, particularly in the U.K. So far in 2010, PS3 has outperformed its 2009 sales and, quite recently, it has been leading the European market.
In this graph, Nintendo has gathered and tallied the home console video game hardware unit sales data for the January to September periods from 2008 to 2010, disclosed by independent research companies in the U.K., France, Germany and Spain. These four countries are assumed to represent 75% to 80% of the total European market, and I’d like to focus upon these figures to discuss pan-European trends.
Until my presentation of last year, we adopted the same scale with the graphs for both the U.S. and Europe. Please note that, for this time, since the gap between these two regions has widened in the last two years, we are applying different scales for the effective view of the each market’s graphs.
Unlike in the U.S., we do not see the noticeable increase in Xbox 360 sales in Europe. When we make a year-on-year comparison, Wii showed a decrease and both Xbox 360 and PS3 showed increases, but the fact that Wii has been the best-selling home console hardware with the largest share has not changed.
And, this is the transition of home console software unit sales in the January to September periods for the last three years.
As with the hardware, the software for Wii showed a year-on-year decrease. When we look at the home console software market in Europe as a whole, it appears to be at a standstill by keeping almost the same levels for the three years.
The size of the European home console software market is a little more than half of that of the U.S. In terms of its hardware installed base, slightly higher software sales should be expected, but when we see the situation from a different perspective, we can still see room for expansion with such efforts as increasing the social acceptance of video games there.
PS3 appears to have taken the PS2 market share. With that and other reasons, in the first nine months of this year, Wii’s software market share in Europe was a little less than that of PS3.
DS continues to do well in Europe too:
This graph shows the unit sales transitions of handheld hardware in Europe. Nintendo DS hardware showed year-on-year declines for two years in a row. The ratio of the decrease varies by country. A notable decrease was found in the U.K. and in Spain, and the ratio of the decrease is relatively smaller in France and Germany.
We are now seeing the transitions of the handheld software unit sales in Europe. The European handheld software market had once rapidly grown to a level which could be compared with that in the U.S. However, while the home console software market has been able to maintain a similar market size over the past two years, the handheld software failed to do the same in Europe. Some say that such devices as MagiCom, which promote illegal copies of software, are mainly responsible for these changes happening in the European handheld software sales. And recently, court rulings against these devices, by recognizing their illegality, have been issued in succession in Europe.
The fact that, with the proliferation of such devices, Europe has become the market where illegal copies have spread most widely among all the advanced nations in the world must have affected the change in the size of the entire European market. However, given the fact that some Nintendo DS software titles are selling very well in Europe even today, it is too premature to conclude that the illegal copies are the sole reason.
This chart combines the software sales for both home consoles and handheld devices. As I said, the handheld software showed a decline while the home console software kept level with the previous year. As a result, the entire software market in Europe saw a decline.
Nintendo still maintains healthy share of EU sw according to Iwata:
This graph compares the January to September unit sales of home console hardware in Japan from 2008 to 2010.
About a year ago, the year-on-year decrease in Wii hardware sales was much talked about. So far this year, slightly more sales have been realized than last year. PS3 also has shown a year-on-year increase so far. When we look at the January to September sales of this year, the Wii hardware market share was 46% and the PS3 hardware market share was very close at 45%. However, the year-on-year increase so far for both hardware consoles was largely thanks to the larger sales increases found earlier this year. And now, unlike last year, neither company is scheduled to launch a title which is expected to sell two million units or more. There is no room to be optimistic.
This chart shows the transitions of home console software unit sales in Japan. The current Japanese market is smaller than that in the U.S. and in Europe. On the other hand, when we make a year-on-year comparison, this year so far has shown an increase, unlike the situation a year ago.
The share of Wii software increased to 50%. The increased share of PS3 software was able to almost cover the decrease in PS2 to reach 42%.
Let’s now compare the unit sales of handheld hardware devices from the beginning of 2008, 2009 and 2010 until the most recent week in each respective year.
As I just explained, since Nintendo DS sales were below their 2009 level until the latest iteration of the Pokémon series was launched, Nintendo DS hardware unit sales so far this year have not been able to outnumber those of the previous year.
For the same nine-month periods of the recent three years, we will now compare the Japanese handheld software unit sales.
As I have already explained today, by the end of September in 2009, several hit titles were driving the Japanese handheld market. On the other hand, for this year, since Nintendo DS did not have any corresponding smash hit titles until the launch of “Pokémon Black” and “Pokémon White,” the sales so far this year are below the 2009 level. As for PSP, unlike the overseas markets, new titles have been launched one after another in Japan, and PSP’s sales so far this year are above its sales in 2009.
In such circumstances, Nintendo DS decreased its share in the Japanese handheld software market, which is very different from the U.S. and Europe, where Nintendo DS has been keeping approximately 80% or more of the market share.
What you are seeing now is the transition of the entire Japanese software market, including both home console software and handheld software. Unlike a year ago, the Japanese software market showed a small year-on-year increase.
SW market share in 2010 is as follows so far:
Nintendo also spoke about the number of Wii and DS million-sellers (shipped units through September 2010) each platform has.
As for Wii, the number of Wii titles which had shipped more than a million units increased by two from first-party developers, which include Nintendo and the Pokémon Company to reach a total of 24 and by three from third-party developers to make it to 60. One year ago, or at the end of September 2009, the total number of Nintendo DS million-unit sellers was 60. Since Wii was launched two years later than Nintendo DS, this means that the 60 third-party titles were able to become million-unit sellers on Wii one year earlier than on Nintendo DS. Among those who are watching only the Japanese market, there must be people who feel that only software from Nintendo can sell well on Wii, even though they may feel differently about Nintendo DS. When we combine the corresponding data for the third parties’ hit titles from all around the world, however, the third party developers are yielding million-unit sellers faster on Wii than on Nintendo DS. Just looking at Wii, since there are as many as 60 titles which have sold one million units or more, each one of them must have a hard time to stand out even in the top sales charts. It may be hard for the general impression of people to change unless Wii third-party software from well-established franchises shows up in the top positions of the software hit charts one after another. In this regard, the company must make further efforts. For Nintendo 3DS, I expressed our willingness at Nintendo Conference 2010 to cross this hurdle at an early stage.
With that, I’d like you to see what the software hit charts around the world look like so far this year.
One unique characteristic that I want to note here on Nintendo platforms is the availability of the titles with long tails. If only the newly-launched titles could sell on our platforms, especially on Wii, it could be said that we have a comparatively weaker software lineup than around this time a year ago. However, we can see the sales potential in the software titles that were launched last year or before then. I’d like you to see this graph.
The chart above depicts total sales vs. sales over time of top hits in the USA market. Wii games tend to sell for an exceptionally long period of time when they become big hits in the USA market.
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More highlights can be found here, including a demo of the 3DS Nintendo Channel / Usage Stats information.
Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com
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that is way too much to read.....
@kopstudent89
Yeah and those 2. Almost forgot bout those.
Well, it seems Nintendo has won a lot of money in the last years alright.
I hope on the next generation they manage to offer great and innovative 1st party titles and manage to get the "hardcore" multiplatforms in their consoles.
That's a heckload of charts. O_O What the heck. :-P
if the highlights from the briefing is this long, imagine how long the briefing is
Nintendo gets an A+ for their Excel and Powerpoint skills in my book! lol
I'm blind. The colors!!
OT: Nintendo is... wel... open with their data.
I can't wait to see how Fling Smash will do
"And now, unlike last year, neither company is scheduled to launch a title which is expected to sell two million units or more. There is no room to be optimistic."
So they think DKCR won't sell 2 million in Japan? They certainly seem to be pessimistic about their hopes for the holidays in that region. I'm happy that Nintendo is so generous with this data. They're certainly more open about it compared to MS and Sony.
@linksaf
And a certain Wii fit? along with the continued success of wii play
I guess this puts to bed the discussion around whether Wii Sports should be included on the software sales charts - it's nowhere to be seen on Nintendo's own presentation!
The reason 2008 had the most Wii hardware and Software was because of brawl and MkWii?
@davidvalbu
Super smash bros... ha!! :P
wow at nsmb wii. only second to mw2 for first 3 months of sales
It seems like all Wii hits are all about Mario and Wii something.
So for Europe this only has data from France, UK, germany and Spain and not Scandinavia, italy or Eastern Europe?
Very interesting read. Seems like they are counting (hoping) a lot on good performance in the US. I'm afraid they may get a shock - just like (it seems) Move hit in Europe, I believe Kinect will hit especially in the US.
What fascinating stuff here.... My head hurts!
This is what I was looking for yesterday. Thank you Jacob :)
@trestres, and anybody knows the reasons why they dont sell well...
Summary: Microsoft is doing pretty good in Europe. Much better than we're led to believe.
Nintendo also showing they have a lot of clout left. Though they are counting a lot on holiday sales in the US. We will see.
Too...................many............................charts! It's interesting that it's usually just Nintendo that RELEASES these charts. The other 2 may or may not do more research than Nintendo does, but they sure aren't as open with their's!
Very interesting stuff. I also like how they use tails for games that sell well over a long period instead of legs.
Seems like a lot but when you realize how much of all the SW sold is really 1st party SW, you cannot blame 3rd parties for not making barely anymore Wii games. Graphs are a little misleading cause they are not showing 3rd party games for separate. Either ways 3rd party games are abysmal for the Wii so it's been 3rd parties fault all the way.
An interesting read. It seems like Nintendo is expecting high Wii sales in US, moderate in Europe, and not a lot of hope for great sales in Japan this holiday. The comparison to the PS2 in US really illustrates how the strong the console is in the country, and how much more room Nintendo has to expand in Europe.
A lot is two words.
wow, that's a lot of data =p
