Nintendo does it again, as they manage to utterly dominate the competition for yet another month. The latest NPD sales figures for May show Nintendo's DS and Wii topping the charts, with a surprise third place contender in Sony's PSP handheld (likely due to a price drop). The hardware break down is as follows:
Nintendo DS: 423K
Nintendo Wii: 338K
Sony PSP: 221K
Sony PlayStation 2: 187K
Microsoft Xbox 360: 155K
Sony PlayStation 3: 81K
Aside from the hardware sales, Nintendo's software also kicked some tail climbing to the top of the charts. Not only were the obvious poking men on the chart, but also some Nintendo software you might not otherwise have thought could have sold so well in May. The software figures are:
Reader Joe sent us his entry in the Nintendo Short Cuts Showcase competition and we have to give it to him and his friends. Having a Track and Field pad for a cape and a hollowed out NES for a mask are just too good. He's like a deformed combination of Batman and Captain Planet.
Nintendo UK guy-in-charge David Yarnton dropped some sales figures on us all, revealing global sales for Nintendo's hardware, as well as European and UK-specific numbers. As you can imagine, both the Wii and DS have done extremely well on both the global front and in Europe and the UK.
Yarnton explains that Nintendo's projected sales were well under the actual sales figures for the region, stating "Yes, we set targets originally and we have definitely exceeded those. They are continually being re-assessed all the time."
For how many hours we've spent playing the game (heck, we still play it on the Virtual Console almost daily), we can't say that we could clear world 1-1 with our eyes closed. Oh no, that honor is held down by the Japanese gamer above, who busts out the DS and shows us all how to do it. And, you know what? He doesn't make it look easy ...
Nintendo reported a final revenue of 966.5 billion yen and operating profits of 226.0 billion yen for the year ending March 31, 2007 today, managing to break previous records set by the company and completely stump the staff on how much that money would weigh if it were all laid out on one massive scale. We're pretty sure it would weigh more than a tractor trailer filled with bears riding scooters. In other words, it would be completely ridiculous.
The majority of this huge surplus in cash money for Nintendo comes mainly from the DS, which has sold over 23 million units and 123 million games over the last year. Of course, that's not to say the Wii hasn't done its part, managing to sell 5.84 million consoles in the less-than five months since its launch. Games for the system have sold a combined 29 million copies. Given these numbers, Nintendo must be expecting a lot from both systems over the coming year, right?
Yes, they do, stating that they expect the Wii to sell a total of 14 million consoles and 55 million games during the fiscal year beginning April 1, 2007. Nintendo also expects the DS to continue its strong sales, stating that they expect to sell 22 million dual-screened systems and 130 million copies of software for it. This brings the company to a projected consolidated sales increase nearly 18 percent to 1.14 trillion yen and operating profits growing nearly 20 percent to 270 billion yen.
Just for those of you keeping score, the Wii dominated hardware sales in January, did pretty well in that same month with software sales, then performed a repeat performance in February. Nintendo has gotten themselves a hat trick now, as they dominated the competition for a third month in a row with both the DS and Wii. GameDaily.BIZ has the skinny on exact figures from the month, which we've gone ahead and posted past the break.
We'll admit, we haven't gotten that far in Super Paper Mario yet. That's why the above picture intrigued us so. Sent in by reader David, it hints at a future update that could allow Super Paper Mario and your DS to interact in some way. In which ways could the game and DS interact? We have no idea and, frankly, are incapable of even speculating at the moment, but if you want to see it for yourself, in-game, check around the kitchen on the first floor of Flipside. We just cannot conceive how the two would play nice together.
Any readers want to take a guess?
Update: Looks like the game won't have any DS functionality, as our Poppa site Joystiq, along with the comments, say otherwise. We want to believe though!
[Thanks, David! That's an awesome name, by the way.]
During the Q3 2007 Preliminary Financial Results Conference Call for Activision, CEO Mike Griffiths has confirmed that Guitar Hero is headed to Nintendo platforms. Now, he doesn't confirm which platforms, instead choosing to be vague in his confirmation. Mike goes on to say "The key difference in our strategy versus the prior cycle, is that in addition to full support on Sony and Microsoft platforms, we will aggressively target the Nintendo platforms consistent with our multi-platform strategy and Nintendo's expected growth. In fiscal 2008, we will double our offerings on the DS and the Wii, including Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero."
One would think that he meant Guitar Hero would be headed to the Wii and the DS would receive the company's other franchises, however it isn't beyond possibility. Look at Elite Beat Agents and tell us that Guitar Hero couldn't work in a similar fashion on Nintendo's handheld. It could work, right?
Coming in at over 50% of platform sales for the Month of December, Nintendo's handhelds and consoles kicked butt all over Europe this holiday season. The information comes via Chart Track, who also say that Nintendo's DS was the top selling platform for all of 2006. For those with a keen eye, this means that Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is the top-selling game system in every major gaming territory (with the other two being the US and Japan, natch).
How many of you in the region picked up a Nintendo product over the holidays?
First we had a Wii being played on a GBA SP, now we have it on the DS Lite. It seems hooking the Wii up to strange screens is all the rage now. With the brighter screen, the DS Lite is obviously the best choice for playing your Wii on an almost completely useless, tiny screen. Still though, as we said with the GBA SP, it at least makes for a cool video. Check it out past the post break.
Nintendo is headed to the Korean game market in 2007, deciding to release their first ever Korean language consoles in the Wii and DS Lite. The DS Lite will arrive first to the region on January 18th, followed by the Wii late next year. This isn't the first time Nintendo's products will be available in the region, however.
Earlier, Nintendo's games and consoles were available to Korean gamers through a distributor, although they were only available in Japanese. Nintendo's Satoru Iwata says they "plan to actively support Korean game software developers who have great expertise in developing online games and support their advances into foreign markets."
In looking to bring the fun and quirky Flash-based game to Nintendo's gaming systems, inXile Entertainment is hoping to exceed the success of the game on the internet. They plan on releasing the adaptation by spring including some sort of multiplayer aspect, but one must ask exactly what they are planning on doing to justify the cost of the title beyond that?
Considering one could just access the student-created application online whenever they want, why would DS and Wii owners, in their right mind, purchase inXile Entertainment's adaptation? Also, considering that the Wii browser's free trial starts very soon, why wouldn't Wii owners just play it that way?
Nintendo does it again, as they manage to utterly dominate the competition for yet another month. The latest NPD sales figures for May show Nintendo's DS and Wii topping the charts, with a surprise third place contender in Sony's PSP handheld (likely due to a price drop). The hardware break down is as follows:
