Nintendo is Turning Japanese

...turning Japanese, I really think so.......

Nintendo has definitely seen better days, but its recent overhaul of the Nintendo 3DS has definitely been an improvement as they cut the price, added another circle pad, started busting out some release dates, and revamped its strategy outlook towards the machine. They had a recent 3DS conference in which they played damage control and practically promised that better days are near. With the Vita being delayed until next year, Nintendo wasted no time in bringing out the heavy-hitter franchises of Mario and Mario Kart into the holiday season. In the midst of all this however, there’s a new strategy brewing from the Big N: they are going to attempt to conquer Japan in the next couple of months.


The Wii was a massive hit around the world, but still didn’t find its audience in Japan like the Playstations and the Nintendo DS. Consider this, the PSX sold 21 million in Japan, the PS2 sold 23 million, and the Nintendo DS sold 32 million. Even the PSP sold around 18 million. The Nintendo Wii? 11.8 million. While that is no pure disaster (Gamecube: a miserable 4 million) it still could have been much better. The Wii despite losing steam for about 2 years still had a nice repertoire of great video games, and a variety of them do also appeal to the Japanese gamers.

But…..


The sales of all its big franchises stalled or didn’t improve. Super Mario Galaxy barely etched past 1 million sales, and Mario Galaxy 2 (arguably one of the best games in the recent generation) didn’t even hit that high a number. Zelda: Twilight Princess sold only 600,000 in Japan. Kirby’s latest game? 444,000. Donkey Kong Country Returns? 999,000. And let's not even look at the numbers for Metroid. Each of the games I mentioned had predecessors that sold significantly more copies in Japan. The Japanese audience just isn’t as invested in Nintendo as it used to. And for those of you playing Devil’s Advocate: the New Super Mario Bros. franchise did sell over 11 million copies in Japan and Mario Kart’s last two entries pushed past 7 million copies total.

P.S. Metroid: Other M----130,000 copies.....


I am sure Nintendo is seeing this trend, because their “Turning Japanese” strategy is going full-blast and at a fast pace. Let’s start with the 3DS. They announced a new Square Enix JRPG, a genre that’s almost dead to all us American gamers. They announced a new Fire Emblem, an extremely popular franchise in Japan. The biggest blow to Sony’s Vita is the announcement of two new Monster Hunter games---one port, and a sequel that may or may not be exclusive. Now, we Western Hemisphere gamers know next to nothing about these games but in Japan, they are freakin’ huge. The only reason why the PSP even survived was because of this franchise. Monster Hunters’ PSP games (the four of them) have each sold over 1 million copies in Japan alone (and two of them sold over 4 million) and to this day still remain in the tops of the charts in the Far East Coast (How High reference). With the 3DS getting two entries in the Japanese-friendly powerhouse, this is for sure a great way to attract Japanese gamers to the new handheld.


But the one major player in all this that surprisingly hasn’t gotten that much attention is Dragon Quest. The Wii is getting a 25th anniversary collection of early Dragon Warrior games (which by the way is being handled much better than other celebrations...) and then the news of the next major installment. Dragon Quest X is coming out not only for the Nintendo Wii, but also the WiiU. Not only are they available for both systems, but both games are accessable to the same overworld with cross-platform interaction. Not only that, but its also going to be extremely online-heavy, a move clearly motivated by the mammoth success of the previous adventure on the Nintendo DS.


Like I said before, you don't see how big the impact is until you read the numbers from Japan. Dragon Quest 9 for the DS sold over 4 million copies in Japan alone and remains the fastest-selling game of all time. Dragon Quest 8 for the PS2 sold over 3 million copies in Japan in the first week alone and is the PS2's biggest Japanese sales story in its lifetime. Dragon Warrior VII believe it or not sold more copies in Japan than Final Fantasy VII. That's right, the legendary steampunk classic Final Fantasy VIII can't beat them. Arguably the most popular and game-changing entry in the franchise, Dragon Warrior/Quest III, sold over 6 million copies in Japan across three platforms and became so huge that Enix decided to release future installments on the weekends to not create the widespread absenteeism associated with a new Dragon Warrior release. Yes, it gets that bad.


This isn't big news, this is humongous news. Dragon Quest X will be Nintendo's biggest RPG release not named Pokemon since the SNES days. All Nintendo has to do is practically promise a good marketing campaign and good relations and we can see this game as a major launch title that will also move units in the Wii spectrum. The WiiU will immediately thrive in Japan, and while that country's impact isn't what it used to be, it can still save a system from extinction from time to time (Best example: Playstation Portable). Nintendo has won America again by tapping into the mainstream and basically throwing the hardcore audience off the bridge. With all these revelations, they will pretty much rock the Japanese charts and bring the competitors to their knees.


Bottom Line: The 3DS, WiiU, and the Nintendo community have gotten some amazing news lately as we are seeing much more third-party support and beginning to see a new revolution of Nintendo gaming in the world of Japan. With Monster Hunter and Dragon Warrior, two recent Sony staples, switching sides to Nintendo, the 3DS is inches away from being a rolling stone of sales in the East. And to add to that, the WiiU got its first major player come launch time. So despite your grumblings about the newest machines from the Big N, if they keep getting news like this, then they are definitely here to stay. Monster Hunter will definitely save the 3DS, and I predict an explosive debut of the WiiU if Nintendo and Square Enix manages to release Dragon Quest X in the correct timeframe.


Okay Nintendo, let's now focus on the Western Hemisphere gamers....