New Super Mario Bros 2 was a big release for Nintendo as it marked the first time the company has released a “full” retail game for download.
And it was a release that was mired in controversy, as many gamers criticised the price Nintendo was asking for the game.
Some Japanese sales data has come in, and here’s the good news: Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata has confirmed that so far, digital sales accounted for five per cent of total sales.
This might sound like a small number, but it’s a good start. Given that the digital release spooked retailers (the game was discounted on day one – perhaps a first for a Nintendo game – in Australia), Nintendo’s going to want to grow that number further for future releases, but even with a “high” price point there is clearly an appetite for downloadable Nintendo retail games.
A good start. Nintendo, who makes a large portion of their console's software themselves, and the coming of the Wii U. I think it's best to protect this relationship they have with the retailers at this point in time.
That's probably the best thing about this news at this stage – losing less than five per cent of sales (the Americans and Europeans have less of a digital culture compared to the Japanese, I would expect numbers to be lower outside of Japan) will likely not upset retailers too much. Especially when the second hand games start coming in for resale.