14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Nintendo has announced that it has plans to double the overall sales of titles for the 3DS handheld during the current fiscal year, although it still has some problems generating enthusiasm for the device on Western markets.
Speaking to investors Satoru Iwata, the chief executive officer and the president of Nintendo, has stated, “From this fiscal term, we will be in the harvest time for the software sales of the Nintendo 3DS.”
The company leader has more conservative estimates than for the third year of existence for the original DS, mainly because “the momentum of the Nintendo 3DS overseas has not reached anticipated level, unlike the domestic market.”
For the current fiscal year Nintendo says that it will sell 73 million copies of 3DS games, which is significantly more than the 36 million it has managed during fiscal 2012.
The company has not said exactly how it plans to deliver the significant increase, but a lot probably has to do with the new digital strategy, which will allow any gamer to get his titles both in virtual and retail form starting with August of this year.
Nintendo has also confirmed that it expects to see a drop in sales for the original DS handheld from 60 to 37 million during the same period.
The August 2011 price cut for the 3DS was a problem for Nintendo and it led to the company posting its first clear losses in its history.
Increased sales of the game catalog and a return to profitability for each handheld sold will mean that Nintendo expects to see a solid profit for the fiscal year that ends on March 31, 2013.
The company presumably also has plans to make the 3DS more attractive to gamers in the United States and in Europe, where the device has performed worse than in Japan.