Nintendo has revealed that third party games on the Wii have not performed as well as its own first party titles. President Satoru Iwata said that the upcoming release of the 3DS will aim to change that.
Speaking at yesterday's press conference, Iwata admitted that "it is true that the third party software sales ratio on Nintendo platforms are comparatively smaller in Japan. Wii's third party software ratio is especially low."
Media Create data shows that third party software accounted for about 26 per cent of total Wii game sales. This is compared to the DS, of which the number is closer to 50 per cent - but Iwata said that this was partly due to the handheld's install base.
With additional data from NPD, the executive added that international first-party sales made up 55 per cent of DS software sales and about 50 per cent of Wii sales - 360, PS3 and PSP third party sales each made up less than 20 per cent of total software sales in comparison.
Even so, Iwata conceded that the situation with third parties in Japan is a problem, and that Nintendo has to nip it in the bud with the 3DS. "We need to decrease the concern that only Nintendo software can sell well on Nintendo platforms and third party software cannot sell in the same volume.
"We will not make a trend similar to the one found for Wii in Japan now," he said. "We feel a need to have closer ties with our third party developers from the beginning."
It seems to be working. The 3DS conference re-affirmed heavy support from Konami, Capcom, Square Enix and Level-5, with interest from international publishers such as Ubisoft to boot. Iwata closed with the statement, "together with the third party software people, we aim to expand the sales of Nintendo 3DS, and we will never stop our efforts to expand the gaming population."
Source: GI
Speaking at yesterday's press conference, Iwata admitted that "it is true that the third party software sales ratio on Nintendo platforms are comparatively smaller in Japan. Wii's third party software ratio is especially low."
Media Create data shows that third party software accounted for about 26 per cent of total Wii game sales. This is compared to the DS, of which the number is closer to 50 per cent - but Iwata said that this was partly due to the handheld's install base.
With additional data from NPD, the executive added that international first-party sales made up 55 per cent of DS software sales and about 50 per cent of Wii sales - 360, PS3 and PSP third party sales each made up less than 20 per cent of total software sales in comparison.
Even so, Iwata conceded that the situation with third parties in Japan is a problem, and that Nintendo has to nip it in the bud with the 3DS. "We need to decrease the concern that only Nintendo software can sell well on Nintendo platforms and third party software cannot sell in the same volume.
"We will not make a trend similar to the one found for Wii in Japan now," he said. "We feel a need to have closer ties with our third party developers from the beginning."
It seems to be working. The 3DS conference re-affirmed heavy support from Konami, Capcom, Square Enix and Level-5, with interest from international publishers such as Ubisoft to boot. Iwata closed with the statement, "together with the third party software people, we aim to expand the sales of Nintendo 3DS, and we will never stop our efforts to expand the gaming population."
Source: GI
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