14 DAY TRIAL // Hardware sales in Japan seem to have hit the lowest point in five years, as Japanese sales tracker Media Create reported on Friday.
The low numbers registered were due to stagnant sales of both PlayStation and Nintendo systems during the April 14-April 20 period, following the trend established when Sony's latest creation, the PlayStation 4, started losing Steam and never recouped.
Even in the case of the all-time favorite, the Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL handheld entertainment system, the sales registered dropped to 19,943 for the week, down from over 32k units sold just two weeks ago, as Siliconera reports.
Media Create pointed out that the low sales registered of late could be attributed to the "monthly recommended software campaign," a major new promotional effort that Nintendo announced would begin on April 26.
During the aforementioned "monthly recommended software campaign," buyers of new Nintendo 3DS XL hardware will get a voucher for one free game to go alongside their purchase.
Every month, customers will get to choose between two titles, the first two games being offered during the campaign being Yo-Kai Watch and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
The selection of free games will change on a monthly basis, and users will be able to hold on to their voucher and make a choice until the promotion expires, on September 30.
The campaign is now in effect, introduced just in time for Japan's Golden Week holiday, which began earlier today, April 29.
Media Create stated that the announcement of the campaign most likely led to restrained purchases on the part of regular customers, with those who heard about the campaign being likely to wait until after April 26 to make purchases.
It remains to be seen how the promotional campaign will impact Nintendo 3DS sales in the near future, but the "monthly recommended software campaign" was not the only culprit for the low sales numbers registered.
In addition to this, Japan has just experienced a 3-percent tax increase, and the Golden Week holiday is also a likely factor, as most probably many prospective customers opted to hold out to see whether they would get any attractive discounts during the holiday.
The sales of other hardware platforms were also low during the week, as were those of new releases. Media Create points out to the fact that newly released titles failed to sell more than an aggregate of 50k copies during the week, and that most likely also factors in the poor hardware platform sales.