European shovelware alert: three new DS titles released every two days
Rate of effluence jumps 65 percent from 2007
We've all seen them, blocking up the shelf space in GAME, taking valuable webspace on Play.com; they are the stinking wave of Me-Too DS clones from publishers trying to make a quick buck.
And they might have got away with it too, if it wasn't for all the other pesky publishers trying to make a quick buck.
Yes, like classic Game Theory in maths, the non-branded DS software market only exists if no one actually releases games into it. So the more Love Your Ponyz, Kute Kitten and Pop School Ice Skating Princess games are pumped out, the less market there is.
But enough background. Let's hit some numbers
Nintendo's financials for its first nine months of FY08-09 (the period April to December 08), nicely breaks down the number of new DS games released.
In Japan, 345 new titles were released, which is about 1.2 every day. In the Americas, it was 303 new titles, or around 1.1 per day.
In Europe (or 'Other' as Nintendo politely calls us) however, it was a massive 418 new titles, or 1.5 per day. And demonstrating the huge acceleration in the process that’s occurred in 2008, during the same period in 2007, 'only' 253 new titles were released in Other - an increase of 65 per cent.
In contrast, total DS software sales in the region were up, but only by 15 per cent (from 62 million to 72 million), suggesting that most of the new DS games released have sold much less well than those released in 2007 - i.e. there’s been less quick buck for everyone.
Silly old publishers.
