A lot of numbers are in and it looks like another year of Nintendo domination. Along with that comes the chorus of forum bodies and comment-posters apathetically singing or debating the death or marginalizing of the core market. Yet a closer look at the numbers and you might be able to read something most people won’t see when they take a look at just what titles they were.
Looking at just these 5 games in these 3 markets 3 of the 5 games are Nintendo with Mario Kart at the top spot. With GTA 4 and COD: World at War on the 3 and 5 spot respectfully. Mario Kart at number one was 24% of sales and Wii Fit was right behind that at 23%. Neither of them were at those 2 same spots in all 3 markets (USA, JAP, UK). Wii fits lowest ranking came in USA at 3 (20% 4.55 mil). The number 1 game here in the states is our own GTA 4 at 5.18 mil (22%). How did GTA do everywhere else? It did great in UK ( 2nd spot with 1.85 mil) but, not so good in Japan ( 256K for 4th out these 5). COD: WOW did pretty well here at 4.46 mill (19% which garnered them 4th). In the UK they broke a mill and were 20% of the sales but the game wasn’t even released in Japan (for obvious reasons). But if it were and say that it got about the same as GTA 4 then you got Smash making a run for its money.
Also what are the positions in the Market? The USA is the biggest with a whopping 63% of total sales with UK at 20% and Japan at 17%. So we already know that USA has the biggest pull in the industry. GTA 4 US sales alone beat out Mario Kart in the other markets.
So what is that telling me? That casual games may not be taking over anytime soon. Sure you could say that not all these titles represent the top Japanese sales but their hardware sales have been slowing down. In addition what is the real casual games here? Wii Fit is made for that market no doubt but some could argue that Mario Kart isn’t. Smash barely has any of the “dem Wii bowling is fun” motion controls and more complicated than what I would call casual. If the US and UK markets are growing then you’ll should start seeing that core games definitely are a viable market and may stave off that popular and sensational mentality of the death of it.
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