VGChartz is the source of the graph that shows us 45% of worldwide current gen consoles on the market are Wii. Wii Fit seems poised to push Wii sales past the 50% mark. Do you think the hype surrounding its North American release later this month will spur a slew of new console sales?
Nintendo Co., Ltd., has announced record revenues and profits for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. Nintendo posted sales of more than 1.67 trillion yen, an increase of 73 percent over the prior year. Nintendo also reported FY08 operating profits of more than 487 billion yen, a year-over-year increase of 115.6 percent.
The company also increased projected shipments of the popular Wii™ home video game console for the current fiscal year. During the 12 months ending March 31, 2008, Nintendo shipped 18.61 million Wii console to its distributors and retail customers globally, bringing the worldwide total to 24.45 million since its debut in November 2006. For the fiscal year that began April 1, 2008, Nintendo forecasts global Wii console shipments increasing to 25 million.
Video game sales tracking Web site VGChartz.com is now reporting 22 Wii games have sold one million copies or more worldwide.
LucasArts’ Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is the latest Wii game to go platinum, making it the ninth third-party game to reach this prestigious plateau.
These figures sharply contrast criticism asserting Wii software has poor selling potential. For comparison, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 now hosts 35 million-sellers 28 months after its release, while Sony’s PlayStation 3, released alongside Wii in Nov. 2006, has only 10.
Wii has reached 22 million-sellers in only 16 months, far outpacing software sales of Nintendo’s last console, the GameCube, which had 38 platinum-selling games by the end of its five-year life cycle.
In terms of specific Wii software, Wii Sports remains at the top of the list with more than 20 million copies sold, including non-Japanese pack-in sales. Wii Play follows with nearly 11 million, and Super Mario Galaxy rounds out the top three with more than 6 million copies.
Last week, while the Infendo offices bubbled with giddy Brawl-induced enthusiasm and my colleagues took some brutal smash attacks from the regulars, I was taking a week-long break in sunny San Jose.
Finding a launch-week copy in California was almost impossible, so as soon as I landed in Pittsburgh late last night, I committed to a very important goal. There would be no phone calls, no unpacking. At least not for a while; more than anything else, I needed to get my Smash on.
I drove home, tossed my luggage in the corner and made an impetuous 12:15 AM beeline to a local Wal-Mart, desperate to find a leftover copy of Brawl and to log some late-night hours of Smash. I expected to a find ghost town, an empty department with few, if any, copies and nary a nearby Wal-Mart associate to assist me.
What I found was quite different.
Spring training, wandering samurai, and more animalz!
Wii
Major League Baseball 2K8
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Ninja Reflex
DS
Let’s Ride: Friends Forever
Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery
Chicken Hunter
Eco Creatures: Save the Forest
Imagine Figure Skater
Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer
Ninja Reflex
Pet Shop
Petz Bunnyz
What’s your new game get this week?
“The perfect game.”
Our community often scoffs at the concept. Many argue perfection is unattainable, a Utopian mirage no game developer could ever reach. No game is entirely unblemished; there is always room for improvement, we argue, and there is always a flaw worth criticizing.
It almost seems an unwritten rule of gaming. The words of a writer who describes any game as “faultless” should be read with a certain degree of incredulity, particularly if s/he bestows a perfect score upon said game. Quite simply, there is no such thing as a “perfect 10.”
And as we scrutinize textures and analyze frame rates, reaching beyond the realms of practicality to invalidate perfection and justify a 9.6 review score, an irritated wave of antagonism toward sequels slowly spreads throughout our community. Speaking of unwritten rules, it is almost as if gamers are beginning to treat franchises as they would a passionate fling at the office.
The first time was great, and the second time was even better. But beyond that, things just start to get boring.
A couple budget titles for Wii and a lot of ‘gamez’ for DS.
Wii
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed
Sega Bass Fishing
DS
Bratz: Super Babyz
Brain Assist
Bubble Bobble Double Shot
Disney Friends
Fantasy Aquarium
Homie Rollerz
Mazes of Fate DS
Naruto: Ninja Destiny
Petz Wild Animals: Tigerz
What is up with that letter Z?
In a GDC interview with GameDaily this afternoon, Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat discussed Wii development and revealed some of the surprising praise Ubisoft received from Nintendo for its Nov. 2007 Wii release, My Word Coach.
“We were working in secret on a game called My Word Coach…and we had the chance to show the game to (Nintendo of America President) Reggie Fils-Aime, and he saw the game and said, ‘You got it. You guys got exactly the type of game we want for this machine,’” said Mallat.
A modest selection of new games to get this week:
DS
FIFA Street 3
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Wii
MX vs. ATV Untamed
Pimp My Ride
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
New game get?
Nintendo of America Inc. has asked the U.S. Trade Representative to encourage specific governments around the world to take a more aggressive stance to combat piracy of Nintendo video games and systems. Nintendo filed its comments under a “Special 301″ process, in which the U.S. Trade Representative solicits input from the public to underscore specific areas of concern.
While China remains the primary source of manufacturing pirated Nintendo DS™ and Wii™ games, Korea has emerged as the leader in distributing illegal game files via the Internet. Despite aggressive anti-piracy actions taken by Nintendo, Brazil and Mexico remain saturated with counterfeit Nintendo software. Meanwhile, Paraguay and Hong Kong continue to serve as major transshipment points for global distribution of illegal goods.
(more…)
A couple explorers accompany the next great franchise from Nintendo this week:
DS
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Dungeon Explorer: Warrior of the Ancient Arts
Wii
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Mermaids
Go, Diego, Go!: Safari Rescue
Jumper
London Taxi Rush Hour
I can’t wait to see Professor Layton hit my mailbox this week. How about you?
Capcom announced yesterday a 15 percent raise in expected 2008 operating profit, elevating the company’s forecast to 11.5 billion yen. Capcom expects net sales of 81.6 billion yen and a net income of and 62 billion yen for the year.
The company cited better-than-expected software sales as the reason for the boost, particularly noting the “robust sales” of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. According to Capcom, the exclusive Wii shooter has sold 950K copies worldwide to date.
In a somewhat pleasant surprise, the company’s financial statement also highlighted the performance of another Wii exclusive, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure. Capcom’s internal figures show the critically acclaimed puzzler has sold a respectable 300K units worldwide.
Capcom noted these results were offset by “sluggish growth” of the Wii exclusive We Love Golf and Mega Man Star Force 2 in Japan. Perhaps if gamers were offered an actual Mega Man sequel with the actual Mega Man, “growth” would be less “sluggish.”
Has Super Smash Bros. Brawl smashed, clobbered and otherwise surpassed sales expectations in Japan? Seems so, according to some Final Smash-level rumors pouring out of the Far East this morning:
Cubed3 has a translation of a Japanese blog post referencing a purportedly leaked Famitsu sales report that says the highly-anticipated game sold 500,000 copies, or 80 percent of available stock, on its first day of Japanese release.
The sourcing is admittedly not very concrete, but the number does seem plausible given reports of retail shortages and the game’s strong showing on the Amazon Japan charts. Then again, Super Mario Galaxy only sold 250,000 copies (edit: fixed typo) in it’s entire first week of release, and that was during the highly-charged holiday season.
Regardless of the final number, it looks to outsell Galaxy pretty easily. Does this mean all the punditry was wrong once again about the Wii when it drew all of those “conclusions” about Galaxy’s poor first week sales and what it meant for Nintendo and it’s Wii strategy!? Oh me oh my, maybe it does!
P.S. — Don’t forget to check out Infendo’s exclusive coverage of new Smash Bros. characters at David’s Smash-o-Meter series!
A game that was mere rumor a month or two ago, Assassin’s Creed for DS seems to be the game of the week .. unless you’re into Homiez or Horsez or Zooz.
DS
Paws & Claws Pet Resort
Zoo Tycoon 2 DS
Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
Homie Rollerz
My Horse and Me
Puppy Palace
Real Soccer 2008
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Wii
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore
My Horse and Me
What’s your New Game Get this week?
Industry analysis and corporate hyperbole aside, there is something to be said for logic.
Nothing deductive or philosophical, either. Just simple, basic logic. The kind of stuff kids learn between finger-painting and cookie breaks in first grade. Logic as it operates in the minds of seven-year-old boys; back then, we weren’t exactly sure what impact “cooties” would have on our health and well-being, but our instincts told us - animalistic survival tactics, perhaps? - they were something to be avoided.
Cooties are bad. Girls carry cooties. Therefore, girls are stupid, gross and to be avoided at all costs.
I suppose one could even call it common-sensical. It just makes sense, and it would stand to reason that similar logic should be at work when major third-party video game publishers decide which platform to support with their best development teams. They watch as Nintendo’s Wii outsells both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 on a monthly basis, and as logic provides, they put their most capable teams on quality Wii software to make a profit, develop and sustain consumer loyalty and, ultimately, develop a healthy portfolio for the market’s hottest platform.
Only they don’t.
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