Nintendo may be a household name in Japan, but the company has yet to find success in many other Asian countries, least of all China. Rampant piracy has prevented Nintendo from pursuing a traditional release model in the country. Instead, it has opted to create a joint venture company in China called iQue that distributes heavily modified versions of its products.

The advent of downloadable full games is changing Nintendo's perspective on Asia, however. "Being able to offer download sales means that the company now has additional options in the countries where we have not been able to construct sufficient distribution channels, and where we have been challenged with enforcing copyright infringements or where the price points of packaged software are not suitable," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said.

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Nintendo has been vocally opposed to the DLC model employed by third party game publishers. "When we sell a game, we want the consumer to feel that they've had a complete experience," Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said a few months ago. "We're unwilling to sell a piece of a game upfront and, if you will, force a consumer to buy more later."

However, while Nintendo promises not to engage in the practice itself, the company cannot block third-parties from doing the same on their platform. "If third-party developers would like to adopt this form of micro-transaction, and if this kind of business relationship between the developers and consumers is commonly accepted in Japan, we have no intention to decline it," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said.

Read more: DLC plans are 'up to each developer' »