Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC Sales In Japan Are Doing Well

The CESA (Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association) is the group that organizes the Tokyo Game Show in Japan every year and represents the industry as a whole in the region. This year, CESA chairman, Shin Unozawa, discussed revenue from downloadable content and free-to-play software in his keynote at the show.

Among others, Unozawa highlighted one particular game of interest—Nintendo’s Fire Emblem: Awakening on the Nintendo 3DS, released in April—to illustrate the benefits of DLC revenue for companies. Unozawa joked that he coerced Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, into giving him sales data relevant to his keynote.

First off, Unozawa revealed that over 75% of Nintendo 3DS owners in Japan have connected their device to the Internet. Back in January, Iwata, said that this number was 60%.

With regard to Fire Emblem: Awakening in particular, you may recall that Nintendo released the initial batch of DLC for the game for free. Marth, who was made available as a downloadable character alongside the game’s Japanese launch, was free to download until about a month after release. After the promotional period ended, his DLC pack was priced at 300 yen (about $4).

Following Awakening’s launch and the initial Marth DLC, Nintendo made several other additional missions and characters available for download as well, each one priced differently, in the months that followed. How did work out for them?

Pretty well, it turns out. Unozawa shared sales figures that showed that 1.2 million units of paid Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC have been sold thus far. These DLC sales have brought in revenue of 380 million yen (about $4.8 million).

Retail revenue from Fire Emblem: Awakening is about 2.4 billion yen ($30.6 million). DLC sales accounted for an additional 15% of revenue.

Sales slide courtesy Impress Watch.