3DS sales “currently weak” in Europe and NA – Nintendo president

By Debabrata Nath

The sales momentum of the 3DS in Europe and North America is “currently weak,” Nintendo has confessed.

During a meeting with the company’s shareholders, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata admitted 3DS was struggling outside Japan.

“While the Nintendo 3DS has a certain degree of sales momentum in Japan, the momentum in the US and Europe is currently weak,”

“Considering that the US and European markets are larger than the Japanese market in terms of the size of the population, sales in the US and Europe are supposed to be larger.”

At the start of the year, the 3DS averaged 83,000 units sold per week, a momentum which it’s managed to uphold, according to Iwata.

“Sales of the Nintendo 3DS are constant in Japan and in fact we could say the sales volume is exceeding our forecast at the start of this fiscal year.”

However, Iwata admitted things weren’t so pretty when it came to Europe and North America.

“The sales proportion of the Nintendo 3DS is now about 20 percent of the total video game sales in those markets. Thus, solid sales momentum has not been created.

“For those investors who understand this situation, they might think that our earnings situation will not turn around in the way we have mentioned, or they might think it will take a much longer time than we expect to revitalise the profit situation.”

Nintendo recently announced 3DS XL.

Thanks, EG.