Andre Yoskowitz
21 Apr 2013 12:05
Nintendo long stayed away from digital sales, but that changed last year as Nintendo fell behind rivals.
President Reggie Fils-Aime now says digital downloads are bringing healthy profits to the company, and the figure is still trending higher.
"We have 15 Nintendo-published titles available, both physically and digitally [on the 3DS]," says Fils-Aime. "So far in 2013, of those 15 available in this format, 11 percent of sales have come through full digital downloads of those games."
Some games are more successful than others, such as Fire Emblem Awakening. The game has sold 240,000 units, 80,000 of which have been in digital.
The exec was outright giddy about the prospects of the 3DS, which has seen strong sales, in hardware and software: "When the NPD numbers come out later this week, you're going to see life-to-date 3DS game sales surpass 20 million units in the US. And that's just physical. It doesn't include digital sales. ... So far in 2013 - through April 15 - 3DS game sales are up 55 percent versus last year, counting both physical and digital."