Nintendo: piracy not behind poor sales

Nintendo has refused to attribute low sales of Wii and DS games solely to piracy.

In a recent investor call, CEO Satoru Iwata explained, "I do not think we should attribute bad software sales solely to piracy.

"Even with piracy, as long as we can create products which can attract attention from many consumers and which can greatly entertain them, that software can make it to the number one position of the hit software sales chart.

"So, we would like to consider it from both perspectives simultaneously. It is true there is always the influence of piracy, but it is important for us to increase the number of our consumers who are willing to shell out their money to purchase our products."

Maybe he's onto something. The phenomenal Super Mario Galaxy 2 shifted 4.09 million copies in its first five weeks on sale. Pokémon Black/White, which recently secured a perfect 40/40 from Famitsu, is rapidly approaching a similar figure in Japan alone.

Then again, maybe he's not. The excellent Metroid: Other M failed to trouble the UK all formats top 10 when it launched last month.

Iwata went on to re-emphasise that Nintendo will be making new efforts to tackle piracy on its forthcoming handheld, the 3DS.

"Of course, as a responsibility of the platform holder, we will tackle piracy. For example, when we launch new hardware, such as Nintendo 3DS, it is a good opportunity to beef up the countermeasures, and we are actually working on that now."

The 3DS launches in Japan on 26th February 2011 before heading to Europe and the USA shortly thereafter.

Nintendo's next big releases include Donkey Kong Country Returns, arriving on Wii on 3rd December, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for the DS a week later.