Nintendo France: some more sales data (games, consoles, amiibo), more
Last week, the French newspaper Le Parisien published an interview with Philipe Lavoué from Nintendo France, who gave some additional sales data for France, along with details about the company in general. First, he reveals that Nintendo France has roughly 50 employees: this is not a lot, but it’s perfectly normal for a subsidiary which does not directly develop or localise games.
In 2015, the company sold ~4 million games, with 6 titles in the Top 20 (including Splatoon, which was one of the most popular). Philippe Lavoué reveals that Nintendo holds the record for the highest number of consoles in France, with the Wii and Nintendo DS:
- Nintendo DS: 10.5 million
- Wii: 6.4 million
As for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, their sales are significantly lower (especially the Wii U):
- Nintendo 3DS: 4 million
- Wii U: 740 000
Nintendo’s strategy remains unchanged: make it so that Nintendo characters and IPs become available everywhere, not just on game consoles. So far, amiibo is their most successful endeavour, with over 1.4 million units sold since launch (+ 400 000 units since January).
Philippe Lavoué also talks about the players in general, and note that nowadays, pretty much everyone plays: from kids to parents, and even grand-parents. They’re also many more women, who amount for roughly half of all players.
He’s quite confident in the future of the dedicated game console market, and believes that the potential userbase for game consoles is just going to keep growing in the upcoming years. He even mentions a new platform (most definitely NX, though it’s not named in the interview), but as you can imagine, he doesn’t say anything about it.
Of course, he’s also aware that Nintendo needs to adapt itself to the evolving market, which is why there is this need for Nintendo content to be available not just on consoles, but also smartphones, at theme parks, etc.. According to him, mobile devices are not really enemies, but rather allies that help Nintendo reach even more people.
Source: Le Parisien
Thanks Zenit (Puissance Nintendo) for the heads up!
