>>13189253Japan is the most important market followed by Europe (mainly Britain) then comes the US.
This is not due to sales volume but profits. In the USA you have to spend out a lot more money to make your sales, you do things like E3 and big media and advertising campaigns but the price that games sell for is a lot less than in Europe. The costs of advertising media campaigns and big showy convensions is a lot less in Europe and people there actively seek out information rather than waiting for it to be spoonfed to them in big events like E3, as a result it is much more common for nintendo to just issue press releases in Europe than making a big spectacular song and dance about things. That's also because Europe doesn't really do convensions on the same scale as they do in America, we have no E3 equivelent and comicon in the UK is just a room of shops stalls and people who were in Sci-fi shows in the 70s or extras in Doctor Who signing things, so a nintendo press release dosen't have to be massive and spectacular to out compete other press releases at a huge expo or convention which saves a lot of money.
Another factor is the price that people in the UK willingly pay for games and consols, it is huge compared to America. For example when pricing a console some companies like Microsoft and Sony just swap the $ on the price tag for a £ sign. Given the fact that £1 can sometimes buy you up to $2 the price is effectively doubled. The RRP for some WiiU games is £55 (not that anyone was actually mug enough to pay that and the prices soon came down in the shops) which at the best exchange rates would be $110, would you pay that for a game in America? Nintendo thought Brits would! Where does all that extra money go? Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft often mumble something about distribution (although road haulage really is about the same cost in the US as EU) and paying translators that doesn't cover the price difference by a long chalk.
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