Despite Nintendo having recently launched its all-new 3DS handheld in Japan, the console will not hit British shores until 2015.
Why? You might justifiably ask. Well, according to Ninty, the UK market doesn’t need a new console yet, the old one is still selling just fine.
The ailing gaming giant has claimed that 3DS sales in the US and UK are strong enough to survive the upcoming, and highly lucrative, Christmas market without the need for a revised console. In Japan, however, sales of the portable PS Vita rival have been slowing dramatically in recent months, with the new device helping boost Nintendo’s standing in the market.
“The overseas markets are different from the Japanese market in both their stages of popularisation of Nintendo 3DS and their market characteristics,” Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, said during the company’s recent earnings call.
He added: “Neither the cumulative sales figures of Nintendo 3DS in the US nor Europe is more than in Japan despite, based on the historical performance, bigger sales potential.
“In short, Nintendo 3DS is still at an earlier stage of popularisation in these two markets.”
A substantial update, the new 3DS adds a second analogue stick controller, with improved battery life and interchangeable front plates also helping set it apart from its predecessor.
Nintendo has suggested it hopes the new device will help the 3DS find new life in Japan where the original console has reached saturation point.
“In Japan the total number of sales of Nintendo 3DS has reached nearly 17 million in the three and a half years since its launch,” Iwata revealed.
“It is almost the same as the lifetime sales of GameBoy Advance released in 2001, which implies that it is reasonable that the sales of Nintendo 3DS have been temporarily slow moving in the Japanese market.
“This is one of the reasons we needed to bring New Nintendo 3DS/3DS XL to the market this year.”
Would you be tempted by the new 3DS if it came to the UK ahead of the festive period? Let us know via the comments section below.
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Via: TechnoBuffalo