With the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch receiving new releases each week, Kamiko remains to stand out among the crowd.
Aside from a positive critical reception, CIRCLE Entertainment CEO Chris Chau has much to be proud about. Skipmore’s game, which took just four months to develop, has proven to be a popular release, with more than 110,000 copies sold worldwide in three months.
Japanese sales are attributed to 25 percent with Europe and Australia at 27 percent, but it is the United States with the lion’s share at 48 percent. However, while the publisher has scored success in the west, Chau is looking to see how they can improve their sales performance in Japan and China.
“Kamiko was developed by Skipmore and Kan Kikuchi – they are a two-person team that spent four months on its development. It’s an original title and [Nintendo] Switch exclusive,” Chau explained to Nintendo Life.
“The game has sold over 110K copies in the Switch eShop around the world, and was published by Flyhigh Works with assistance from CIRCLE Entertainment.”
He continued: “In terms of sales percentages, Japan is 25% (and it was #4 in Japan for the first half year of sales), US is 48%, EU+AU is about 27%. The game has sold in Japan about 3 months, US/EU/AU it’s 2.5 months. So far the US is the biggest market, however, the Eastern market still has a lot of users we can’t ignore.
“We are usually thinking about why some local titles perform better than Western titles in Japan, and we think most of the reasoning comes back to game pricing, localization and local PR. Of course, it’s case by case, but regardless I think the Eastern market deserves attention from developers. Also, we know many Chinese gamers may purchase a Switch from Hong Kong, so we’ve suggested to the developers that they should consider a Chinese language pack.”
