Email: Bundles

Hello, Mr. Malstrom!

Nintendo’s goal is of course building an installed base so big that no third party developer wants to make games for the Vita anymore. That’s why they set such high goals for initial 3DS shipments (4m) as well as for the first full fiscal year (16m). And that’s why they dropped the price so drastically, even though a $50 cut would have been enough to sell at least 10m for this fiscal year.

But in the specific case of the Super Mario 3D Land bundle (minor detail: Super Mario Bros. is installed on the 3DS, not on the game card), the inclusion of SMB has probably much more to do with pushing SM3DL rather than the 3DS itself. You know, banking on nostalgia to make 3D Mario sell better. If this bundle does well, Nintendo will certainly credit SM3DL alone for it. Media Create and Famitsu do count bundled games in their charts as far as I know, unlike NPD.

You make a good point about wanting more 3d Mario sales and using SMB NES as a nostalgia bait to get people to get into 3d Mario. A Mario Kart bundle would have been a far better choice. More people are buying the 3DS to get to Mario Kart than they are 3d Land.