New Super Mario Bros. 2 not quite striking digital gold in Japan
Selling digital download versions of its newest games is a bold new concept for Nintendo and with New Super Mario Bros. 2 as the first major blockbuster to follow this new simultaneous release model, surely this resulted in the Nintendo Network pulling in a nice additional surplus. Right?
Not exactly.
While company president Satoru Iwata told The Wall Street Journal, "This initial offering going forward, we've gotten a good reaction going," the Japanese sales of the digital copy might be a bit lower than what you or I or more importantly, Nintendo may have been expecting. According to Iwata, the sales of the digital copy only add up to 5% of the game’s total Japanese sales.
But at least this slight setback won’t be forcing Nintendo to reconsider the creation of Nintendo Network, as the company still sees plenty of potential in the service after the digital copy of Demon Training (the sequel to Brain Age) rounded up 20% of that game’s total sales. Although Iwata said this was largely due to the convenience of being able to play the game’s daily challenges without having to swap cartridges.
Hopefully, Nintendo learns from Demon Training’s example and begins to give gamers who buy the digital copies some sort of advantage over those who buy retail. Although preferably, this advantage should be a discounted price, or perhaps a packaged piece of bonus content.
Will the digital sales of NSMB2 be larger in international markets than they were in Japan? Considering the digital copy is selling at the same price (or at a higher one if you live in the UK) as the cart, I’m thinking that’s not the most likely scenario. Although the extra 50 Club Nintendo Coins could help its case.
More wicked cool stories and video from around the web. Got tips for us? Tips@ScrewAttack.com
g1 DISCUSSIONS
WinfredScopa54
What i don't understood is actually how you are not actually much more neatly-favored than you might be now. You're very intelligent. You realize thus considerably with regards to this matter, made me in my opinion consider it from a lot of varied angles. Its like women and men aren't fascinated until it is one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your personal stuffs outstanding. All the time deal with it up! Continue Hiya, I'm really glad I've found this info. Today bloggers publish just about gossips and web and this is actually frustrating. A good website with exciting content, that is|that's what I need. Thank you for keeping this site, I'll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can't find it.
DarronTippy55
Very interesting subject, thank you for putting up. vigrx Purely to follow up on the up-date of this theme on your website and want to let you know simply how much I loved the time you took to produce this beneficial post. Inside the post, you really spoke regarding how to actually handle this problem with all ease. It would be my own pleasure to get together some more suggestions from your web site and come as much as offer other people what I have benefited from you. Thanks for your usual excellent effort.
darkhyrulelord
Hold up, you can have silver Luigi? Anyway, I'll hope that they will strike some gold with some future games.
Smael123
they should do this with out of print ds games
Iamsang1616
Well, with brain training, it's something you do for oh say, 5 minutes a day, so downloading it would make some sense. NSMB2 is expected to be played in long sessions.
cdjgamer
really digital costs them less so they make some profet off it 3ds xl is selling well and the non digital isnt going to be as high since someone with pick up nsmb2 with a 3dsxl
Fox
If Nintendo wants to push digital distribution they need to make it cheaper, not more expensive for the consumer. Nintendo saves money since they don't have to make carts, package them, ship them, or have the retailer take a cut. Why not pass some of those savings onto the customer? Sony has it right with the Vita, sell games digitally 10% cheaper than retail and tax free.
Ferret75
This is what happens when they make the digital version cost more instead of less.
HyperGamer
The only incentive to buy digital for me is if I get it at a cheaper price. Seeing as they are the same price as retail id much prefer to have a physical copy
CatholicPat
Is this really a surprise? Who the fuck would think that making the digital version more expensive would mean more sales? Derp.