The performance of Nintendo's latest Zelda title in Japan has been lacklustre to say the least. Are gamers getting tired of the series? Are “traditional” games fading in Japan? How will the upcoming DS Zelda perform?

It is fair to say that Twilight Princess is one of the most eagerly anticipated games of all time in the west, thus prompting Nintendo's decision to hold back and launch their new Wii console with a Zelda title for the first time in history. This decision has proven to be a good one with unprecidented attach ratios of around 75-80% across America and Europe, but what about Japan?

The current situation stands at 350,000 copies of Twilight Princess on a hardware base of over 1.2 million - less than 30% attach ratio. Sales of the title will of course continue into 2007 and beyond, but even the most optimistic estimates would say the game will end up somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000. Comparing to sales of previous major console Zelda titles, this is a bit of a disappointment, and a clear downward trend can be seen:


1986 The Legend Of Zelda NES 1.69m
1987 Adventure Of Link NES 1.61m
1991 Link To The Past SNES 1.16m
1998 Ocarina Of Time N64 1.46m
2000 Majoras Mask N64 0.74m
2002 Wind Waker GC 0.86m
2006 Twilight Princess Wii 0.60m (est)