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    Nintendo's Investor Briefing Q1 2015 Review
    Topic Started: Feb 24 2015, 04:12 PM (332 Views)
    Brendan
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    Pokémon Trainer
    To those uninformed, Nintendo of Japan had an investor briefing last week. Below is a review of what was basically announced at said briefing:

    Nintendo to Introduce Free Software With NES and SNES Experiences Activated Through amiibo

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    Iwata stated in his introduction of the Investor Briefing that all of the plans and ideas cited throughout 2014 are still very much on the agenda:

    "While we will further our endeavors to increase our Nintendo 3DS and Wii U businesses in the next fiscal year, we intend to simultaneously challenge ourselves with new endeavors which include our plan to take advantage of smart devices, more aggressive use of Nintendo's character IP and our new QOL improvement platform business. I am limited in what I can discuss about these efforts now, and I do not think I can successfully convey a big and comprehensive picture of our projects just by sharing with you some fragmented information on these multiple challenges."

    In the first half of this year free software will become available in which you tap an amiibo on the GamePad to choose from a selection of NES and SNES titles. Your access is for a limited time in a particular game scene, but subsequent taps of the amiibo will change up the section of the title that's playable, allowing you to cycle through trying different parts of the experience. It sounds like a snappy NES Remix-style approach - albeit without wacky tweaks to gameplay - that'll aim to combine amiibo and retro samples to encourage you to buy Virtual Console games. It's possible that details of how the amiibo types effect choices, and how it'll work fully in practice, will emerge in the coming weeks.

    In terms of broader amiibo statements, Iwata has acknowledged that demand has often outstripped supply, reiterating that where possible more stock will be manufactured. Words of caution around manufacturing capabilities, however, suggest that we shouldn't expect all rare or popular figures to be heavily replenished.

    The graph below is interesting, however, as it shows which areas have been dominant in terms of amiibo shipping. Though stock issues are perhaps at their worst in the US, it's actually North America that's had 63% of shipments, with EU at 23%, 11% to Japan and 3% to Australia.

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    New Nintendo 3DS Launch Sales in the West Surpass 3DS XL Equivalents

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    Moving onto the 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS, Iwata has highlighted positive sell-through rates for the platform and, particularly, its games - the statistic of six two million+ selling games in a year was raised once again, in addition to impressive (but previously announced) overall sales for titles such as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. As expected the Nintendo President has taken the opportunity to highlight New Nintendo 3DS launch sales for North America and Europe. In the first 2-3 days about 335,000 units were sold in the territories, and as you can see in the graph below sales far surpassed the equivalent numbers for the 3DS XL. The previous iteration is often credited with providing a vital second boost to the portable's 'family' in Fall 2012.

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    The special edition models, themed around The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, are reported to have largely sold out, with systems as a whole performing strongly over the launch weekend. This certainly tallies with circumstantial evidence on the retail scene in different countries:

    "I have received reports that pre-orders for this limited-edition hardware went so well that many retailers closed them before the launch date and the hardware almost sold out on the launch date."

    The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Comfortably Out-Sell Predecessors at Launch

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    Joining the New Nintendo 3DS as notable releases on 13th February, in North America and Europe, were The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, both very different titles seeking to deliver big sales for their respective franchises. The UK chart results, as a small example, were certainly positive, and Nintendo's now issued early sales data to show impressive numbers and, perhaps more importantly, stronger performance than their immediate predecessors.

    Helped along by the buzz around new hardware and bundles, the graph below shows how these titles performed in their launch weekend in comparison to The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Though US figures for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate aren't formally available, Capcom has stated that it's selling "more than three times as fast as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in quick estimation".

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    Satoru Iwata once again referenced his "Same-Generation Hypothesis between the users of Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire" as likely playing a role in Majora's Mask 3D selling so well. The theory is sound, gamers that played the original entries as children are now working adults with disposable income, and will be drawn to the games as result.

    Satoru Iwata Highlights Growth of Wii U Sales in the West

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    Satoru Iwata only devoted a relatively short segment to the Wii U, largely reiterating previous statements around plans for 2015. He did provide some sales comparisons, however, covering the opening period of the year and then a separate analysis of the all-important Holiday season. To start with the earlier part of the year, Mario Kart 8 in particular is cited for driving improved sales, with sell-through percentages of hardware and software comfortably surpassing 100% and therefore showing an increase over the equivalent period in 2013.

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    Sales in the Holiday period also brought an increase over the 2013 equivalent in most areas, though the Wii U hardware struggled badly in Japan.

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    The narrative Nintendo's pushing with the Wii U is of steady and stable improvement, with perceptions and sales of the system and its games gradually improving. The statistics largely back this up, and it'll be interesting to see how the 2015 slate of games performs for the console.

    Card Format amiibo Confirmed to be Heading our Way This Year

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    Satoru Iwata confirmed that a cheaper range of amiibo will be made available this year in the form of cards containing an NFC chip. This pins down previous comments from Shigeru Miyamoto that this was a possibility:

    "In contrast to the current figure-shaped amiibo available, we will make amiibo in the form of cards this year as one of our future plans as Mr. Miyamoto mentioned at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in October."

    This is exciting news for amiibo fans who have struggled to obtain some of the more collectible figurines. This alternative method of unlocking amiibo content in games will surely also be attractive to those on a tight budget.

    It was also revealed that the new amiibo business has been very lucrative for Nintendo, with 5.7 million units shipped worldwide by the end of last year. The demand seems to have surprised the management at Nintendo of Japan, who marveled at the premium prices which some amiibo had been selling for on eBay.

    The regional top sales ranking chart of each amiibo figure were also shown. This doesn't perfectly represent the popularity or demand for each character because some amiibo were out-of-stock in some regions, but the regional differences in the sales trends certainly make interesting reading. Clearly Link is a fan-favorite all over the world, except for Australia who obviously have something of a soft spot for the portly plumber.

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    The chart below showing amiibo figures with a high retail sell-through rate in each region also makes for quite interesting reading. Some of the amiibo listed here are sold out and as a result very difficult to obtain. Iwata noted:

    "It is difficult for us to promise to continuously ship all of the amiibo figures. We will, however, consider additional production in cases such as when an amiibo figure sells out shortly after launch, an amiibo is indispensable to play a certain game, and when we receive a lot of requests for an amiibo figure from consumers and retailers."

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    Lastly, to round off this overload of amiibo related information, Iwata revealed that Nintendo still plans to release an external NFC reader/writer to enable 3DS owners who haven't yet upgraded to "New Nintendo 3DS" hardware to use amiibo within games such as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. This add-on device is now planned for a Summer release.
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    Robo
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    I'm so glad Nintendo is doing much better financially! This year is looking really good for video games as a whole.

    I wonder why the regular New 3DS is outselling the XL? The 3DS XL far outsold the regular model, didn't it?
    ('‿') | PSN: Gorsed
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    Brendan
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    Pokémon Trainer
    New 3DS probably sold more than New 3DS XL because:
    1. It's cheaper
    2. FACEPLATES
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    Wolf
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    Next stop, the Twilight Zone
    They need to figure out the amiibo supply issues before committing to more ideas.
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