Former Nintendo of America marketing lead says higher-ups "chided" them for not selling as many casual games like Tomodachi Life as Europe

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Former Nintendo of America marketing lead says higher-ups "chided" them for not selling as many casual games like Tomodachi Life as Europe News By George Young published 27 January 2026

Europe is apparently the home of the casual Nintendo gamer

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The former head of social influencer content at Nintendo of America, Kit Ellis, claims he was often "chided" in company meetings for not selling as many casual games, such as Tomodachi Life, as Nintendo of Europe.

A Twitter user compared the engagement of posts announcing the upcoming Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Direct from the official Nintendo, Nintendo of America, and Nintendo of Europe accounts. The user notes that both the Japanese and American posts have earned tens of thousands of likes, while the European announcement has just a tiny percentage of this engagement.

Ellis worked at Nintendo of America for 13 years from 2009 to 2022, and is best known for creating and hosting Nintendo Minute, a YouTube channel where he played and promoted Nintendo games. He responds to the tweet with some insight from his time working for the American branch of the gaming giant.

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Interestingly, this is the type of game where NOE often sells more than NOA. We'd often be chided in meetings and asked why we couldn't sell more casual games as well as they did.January 26, 2026

Ellis' account matches the original Tomodachi Life's official sales figures. The first 3DS entry in the series sold more than 6.7 million copies according to Nintendo's official figures, and while VGChartz only includes figures up to 5.8 million sales, at that time only a million copies were sold in North America, compared to Europe's 2.65 million.

Europe has a slightly larger population than North America, but this still shows that Tomodachi Life was more popular in that region a decade ago.

Step aside, Animal Crossing: Loveably weird life sim Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is getting a dedicated Nintendo Direct this week

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. CATEGORIES Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch 2 Platforms Nintendo George YoungFreelance News Writer

Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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