With the PlayStation 4 poised to launch in Sony’s home country in just a few days, Nintendo is understandably beefing up its own offering in an attempt to persuade Japanese gamers hungry for something new that the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS have the best offerings. The Japanese launch of the PlayStation 4 is on February 22 and on that day, Nintendo will be offering significant discounts for some of its largest titles in the region.
From February 22 to February 23, Japanese shoppers will be able to save 20 to 30 percent on all Donkey Kong titles, including the newly released Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. We learned yesterday that the game only sold about 36,000 copies during its first week on sale in the region, so it’s not surprising to see Nintendo drop the price so fast in the face of new competition.
The following week Nintendo will be peddling discounts on The Legend of Zelda series, including the newly remade Wind Waker HD. Following that, sales on Mario games including Wii U virtual console releases will be available.
It’s an understandable move by Nintendo, as the Wii U will finally have a new competitor console to compete with, instead of nearly 7 year old hardware. The Xbox One has not launched in Japan yet, but sales in Japan are usually so insignificant that we’ll be surprised if a similar effort is drummed up for the Japanese launch of the Xbox One.
It will be interesting to see how Japanese gamers react to the launch of the PlayStation 4, given the bevy of titles that will be available to them.
