14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo, the creator of the Wii and DS gaming devices and of franchises featuring characters like Mario, Zelda and Kirby, has announced that 2010 has marked a decline in the overall amount of games it has sold on all major market.
In the home market of Japan, the combined software sales for the Wii and the DS stood at 54.7 percent of all gaming sales, which is about 11% lower than during 2009.
On American markets the company's presence has gone down to 49.1 percent, which is a 4.5$% drop over the previous year, while the decrease in Europe is 6.6 percent, reaching a total for 2010 of 44.6%.
The decreases come just as the overall worldwide gaming market is seeing a decline which started in 2009, linked to the overall economic crisis.
The company is linking its decline to major franchises that had very good launches, like Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the Japanese market and Call of Duty: Black Ops on North American and European markets.
Satoru Iwata, who is the president of Nintendo and the map shaping the strategy for the company, has stated, “Before the launch of, many in the industry anticipated that this software would not outsell the previous version, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However, in the end, the software yielded an even better result than the previous version and contributed to the entire software market.”
Nintendo has still managed very good sales for its most important titles and the company sees a rebound during this year, with much riding on the launch of the new Nintendo 3DS handheld, which is set to offer three-dimensional gaming experiences without the use of any specialized glasses.
Nintendo has announced that two Zelda based titles, one of them being Skyward Sword, will be released in 2011, and that a new Kirby based video game is being prepared for the Wii.