Nintendo has shared some details from their latest investment report, the most interesting details relating to amiibo.
Nintendo was able to sell 5.7 million units worldwide by the end of 2014. Amiibo are particularly popular in US, Canada, and Australia. Nintendo believes they launched the product mostly smoothly, but also acknowledged the speculative market. Iwata claims Nintendo once again did not anticipate the effect the speculative market would have to high demand.
63 % of all amiibo sold were bought in the US. Not surprisingly, the three most popular amiibo around the world where Link, Mario and Pikachu. Interesting, though, Link was the top amiibo in all regions save Australia. This may be not necessarily indicate greater popularity of Link over Mario. The Link amiibo happened to have more use in more games than Mario, including Hyrule Warriors, Mario Kart 8, and Super Smash Bros for Wii U.
In Iwata’s speech to shareholders, he reported that Nintendo had to lower projections with lower sales compared to the previous year, but they have returned to an operating profit.
Iwata also shared these sales facts and figures by end of 2014:
· Nintendo 3DS hardware has reached 50.41 million units worldwide.
· 3DS had five double million sellers in Japan in the last six months: Youkai Watch 2, Super Smash Bros for 3DS, Monster Hunter 4G, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, andPuzzle & Dragons Z.
· Super Smash Bros for 3DS has sold 6.19 million units in Japan.
· Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has sold 9.35 million units in Japan.
· Tomodachi Life sold 3.96 million units worldwide.
· Mario Kart 4 sold 4.77 million units worldwide.
· Super Smash Bros for Wii U sold 3.39 million units worldwide.
Iwata also spoke enthusiastically about the future potential of amiibo, of marketing titles like Tomodachi Life and Animal Crossing to a broader market, the higher sales and potential of Wii U digital games, the potential of 3rd party games to be million sellers on 3DS, and the overall potential of more Wii U and 3DS hardware and software sales.
Overall, Iwata was upbeat, even as he stated that he would be discussing QOL and future leverage of Nintendo IP in the next meeting.
What would you like to see Nintendo do next with Wii U, 3DS, and amiibo? Are you looking forward to QOL, or future use of Nintendo IP, such as that rumored Netflix Legend of Zelda show? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
You can read some slides from the presentation below.
