Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has taken a starkly different stance than others in his industry when asked about slowing software sales, citing lack of innovation instead of piracy as the main cause.
The executive was posed the question during a call about the company’s revised financial forecast, which was revised to the downside thanks to slow software sales on both the DS and Wii.
Both consoles have just about hit saturation on the global scale.
Singling out an individual game, Iwata says innovative hits like “Art Academy” have sold well everywhere, including in nations where piracy has ravaged sales.
One such country is Spain, which is infamous for piracy levels that far exceed other Western European neighbors.
“Nintendo DS software could not make it to the hit software sales chart in the country for sometime,” Iwata said, via GI. “However, when we launched the Nintendo DS software Art Academy in Europe this summer, which shows you how to draw pictures, it was ranked number one on the software sales chart covering all the videogame platforms in Spain. If one software can attract many people and can become a social topic, that software can sell regardless of piracy.”
Of course, Iwata made sure to make it clear that piracy is indeed a problem, just not the biggest problem.
“As a responsibility of the platform holder, we will tackle piracy. For example, when we launch new hardware, such as Nintendo 3DS, it is a good opportunity to beef up the countermeasures, and we are actually working on that now. On the other hand, I do not think we should attribute bad software sales solely to piracy. Even with piracy, as long as we can create products which can attract attention from many consumers and which can greatly entertain them, that software can make it to the number one position of the hit software sales chart, “ he concluded.
Result for: saturation
According to the latest figures from market research firm NPD Group, U.S. videogame industry sales took a dive in August, falling 10 percent year-on-year (YoY).
Overall sales fell to $819 million USD, with software revenue collapsing 14 percent and hardware falling 5 percent.
Almost reaching the point of saturation, the Nintendo Wii saw its lowest sales since November 2006, falling 12 percent to just 244,300 units sold for the month.
The perennial hardware leader, the Nintendo DS line, fell 38 percent to 342,700 units sold. DS sales have now fallen in each month since April.
Dead-in-the-water handheld PSP sales dove 43 percent, with Sony selling just 79,400 units for the month.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 rose to the top, seeing 66 percent growth thanks to the release of their updated, slimmed down console. Microsoft sold 356,700 units for the month. The Sony PlayStation 3 saw 7.6 percent growth YoY, selling 226,000 units for the month.
Says Anita Frazier, senior analyst for NPD: “This month reflected the lowest sales for August since 2006. While all categories are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the industry is down to a greater extent.”
Result for: saturation
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