Topic: Yes the 3ds has been popular but........

Its no wonder 3rd parties don't like to localize their games!!

http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/42/nintendo-3ds

The best title on the list is a year plus old game and combined NA and Europe didn't even hit a million. As a matter of fact looking at this list I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom doesn't bring over Monster Hunter 4! For those of you holding out hope for the Wii U it really doesn't look good for 3rd party games!

vgchartz is a notoriously unreliable source, so those figures are far from correct, especially for third party games.

To be fair, most of those Nintendo titles in the top 10 had software bundles. Right now on Amazon, you can buy a 3DS XL for $200, or a limited edition 3DS XL with Pokemon X or Y for $200.

@Geonjaha even if they're off by say 100k its still pretty bad for 3rd party titles. Sure this doesn't account for dl titles but still that won't add much!

What's funny is that its the reverse on the Vita. Over there, most of the top ten on that platform are third-party titles.

This is not a good thing, especially with a system that has an install base like the 3DS. If the Vita can pick up steam in the future, it could very well be the preferred platform for third-parties. The Install base may be meaningless if third-parties think their titles will just be ignored by 3DS owners.

So I would not think this is a joke if this is true. Only two 3DS Third-Party titles made into into the top ten compared to 7 on the Vita

Yes, the Vita is struggling now and its has a low install base, but third-parties(especially Japanese developers) may start turning to it if they feel their efforts will just be ignored on the 3DS.

This is very surprising and should be disturbing to Nintendo fans. Why can't third party titles do better on the 3DS?

First party titles are always going to sell by the bucket load. That's the main reason for buying a Nintendo console in the first place. As for the localisation of Monster Hunter 4, they did extremely well with MH3U earlier this year and hyped it up big time in the west and Nintendo fully backed it with promotions and advertising. So I don't see Capcom saying no to localisation of one of their biggest franchises.

Not to mention Vgchartz isn't exactly known for always being accurate. And whether the are or not doesn't really matter where MH is concerned. Nintendo know they're on to a winner helping Capcom publish MH in the western parts and they'll push for a localisation regardless.

EDIT: As for other 3rd party devs/pubs they seem to always drop support for Nintendo consoles after a few years because they know hey can't compete with Nintendo's high flying winners as Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Zelda etc.

Having said that, they still support Nintendo consoles but to a lesser extent due to those games listed above. I really don't see the 3DS losing much 3rd party support for the next few years.

This has always been the case for Nintendo platforms, ever since the Gameboy. It was the case for the DS, too, and even with the PSP doing well enough, we hardly saw any shortage of games. It just means that portables will never be the big place for selling big titles for most major companies, while the nicher games will be able to thrive. Atlus and XSEED have reportedly done well enough on the 3DS, for instance. They just have to develop games with the expectations that it doesn't have to sell Nintendo Numbers, which is apparently easy enough since the 3DS isn't the kind of hardware that demands super-sized teams like the Wii U.

@Caryslan You're ignoring absolute numbers.

Yes, there's more 3rd party titles in the top 10 for Vita, but the number one game is 1st party, was part of a software bundle, and still only sold a million copies. The combined sales of the top 5 3rd party Vita titles (two of which were software bundles) barely surpasses the sales of Monster Hunter 4 alone, a game that has only been released in Japan. Those two 3rd party titles in the 3DS's top 10 completely demolish the seven in the Vita's in terms of sales.

So if you completely eliminate all of the monster 1st party sellers on the 3DS, the system is still doing much better with 3rd party games than the Vita.

^ i agree with what two previous post just said

People do buy Nintendo systems most often for Nintendo titles.

True but...can you name a better source for non-japan sales?

Here's my point. I can't blame Capcom for bringing over Ace Attorney as dl only when the sales of say Resident Evil and Monster Hunter Ultimate can't even break a decent total! I'm happy to play Ace Attorney at all with numbers like those!

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (listed as Monster Hunter Tri) is in the top 10, and outsold the Wii version with only a fraction of the install base.

Resident Evil: Revelations sold more copies on the 3DS than the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U combined.

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good point

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And yet those totals still are not good! Monster hunter in the west just doesn't sell that great. Sure it was devided between WiiU and 3ds sales but still those numbers are awful. As for RE:R if you think those sales are good for the 3ds then so be it. I was expecting way more for what some would consider the best 3rd party game on the system. Plus its almost been out for 2 years now! The fact is if it wasn't for some good sales in Japan we would be getting nothing localized for the system.

I am glad some 3rd parties are happy with the sales of there titles like @Caniswolfred said. I'm more afraid Sega will say that's not good enough for Atlus!

true enough, I left the "?" because I wasn't sure if it was a good point or not though I hope Atlus does better just so Sega won't even think of messing with it.

Capcom makes money on the 3DS, which is more than you can say for them on pretty much any other console. Their only console "hit" in the last couple years was Resident Evil 6, which sold just over 4 million copies to an install base of 160 million. In the last fiscal year, only two other Capcom games even hit a million sales on consoles.

Maybe Capcom wouldn't be in such financial trouble if they just focused on making games for 3DS.

The only note worthy 3rd party title on that list for the west is Kingdom Hearts. Yes I feel like it did well but that's really it. All the rest that did well are still sitting in japan as of now and outside of a few titles I don't see many of those coming over or do I even want some of those.

My point is there is well over 20 million systems sold in the west and not one of the 3rd party games has really come close to selling over a million copies. I don't see that changing anytime soon either. It just shows how different the west and east are when it comes to gaming in this day and age!

Grand Theft Auto V is the fastest selling game of all time, breaking a billion dollars in sales within 3 days. It's 3rd party and multi-platform.

It sold to 13-14% of its install base.

3rd party games don't do horrible on 3DS. It's just that 1st party games do so insanely well. People buy a Nintendo handheld for Nintendo exclusives.

yup but considering @Spoony_Tech's data there are around 20Million 3DS in the west, so 1Million copies sold for a game is only 5% of its install base what's almost 1/3 of the GTAV's average. doesn't look like a huge number to me, yes it is big but it's no absurd.