Zelda, Mario Kart & Super Mario Odyssey Attach Rates Greater Than 50%
Forbes recently chatted with the President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé and he revealed some interesting tidbits of information. Although the Switch was plagued with production shortage in the beginning months of its availability (from March through August), supply has been increased to allow for most retailers to have stock on the shelves for Christmas. If you’re still having problems finding one, Reggie suggests to look at several retailers:
“The best advice is to look across the full landscape of retail. I did that this morning, and at least here in the Pacific Northwest, you could go to a GameStop location near me and find the hardware. I looked online, and Target.com had Switch available. Some retailers might have it available in their physical stores, but not online. The trick is really to just look around. Do a little bit of homework. There is supply out in the marketplace right now. If a consumer wants a Nintendo Switch and they see it on the shelf, they need to buy it then and there, because as we get closer to Christmas it’s going to become more challenging to find. I would not advise a consumer who wants a Nintendo Switch to wait until the 23rd or 24th, because you risk being disappointed.”
Speaking of Nintendo Switch, the install base is now over 10 million worldwide. This has a lot to do with its unique hybrid nature, but also its robust lineup of must-have games. Some of these are first party titles, and incredibly some of Nintendo’s games have over a 50% attachment rate, as Reggie points out:
“In this industry… if you’re able to get a game to attach to one out of every five systems, you’re doing pretty well. Nintendo has four titles that are attaching at a better rate than that. Splatoon 2 is attaching to hardware at about 25%, and Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey are all attaching to hardware at better than a 50% clip. Those top four games are all continuing to sell exceptionally strong, and I expect those four games will sell exceptionally well throughout the life of the system.”
The Switch is selling like gangbusters, but the 3DS isn’t slouching either. The options range from the budget original 2DS at $79.99 to a mid-range New 2DS XL at $149.99, and the deluxe New 3DS XL at $199.99. Thanks to strong sales of the Pokémon franchise and other new games like Metroid: Samus Returns, the 3DS family of systems continues to sell well. In fact, it’s on track to possibly beat last year’s sales numbers!
It’s safe to say Nintendo is riding high this holiday season. It historically does most of its business during November and December, and with ample supply of consoles and games they should have a banner year.
[Source: Forbes]
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
