Nintendo Dominates April 2007 Sales

[*NormalGamer*]

press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=12153

NINTENDO NEWS: NINTENDO RUNS THE TABLE IN APRIL SALES

May 17, 2007

Already riding a streak as America's No. 1 seller of video game consoles, No. 1 seller of portable game systems and No. 1 publisher of video games, Nintendo added more chips to its pile in April-with not just one, but the country's four best-selling games.

According to independent sales data gathered by the NPD Group, the two best-selling games in April were Pok?n® Diamond and Pok?n® Pearl, exclusively for the Nintendo DS? hand-held game system, followed by Super Paper Mario? and Wii Play? for the Wii? home video game system. Combined sales for the two related Pok?n titles exceeded 1.75 million units in just 14 days of availability during the reporting period.

The DS remained the most popular game system of any kind in April, with projected sales of more than 470,000 units. At the same time, the Wii from Nintendo, despite nearly universal sold-out status, was still purchased by twice as many consumers as any other home game console, according to the NPD data. Unit sales of 360,000 Wii systems in April bring the console's installed base in America to nearly 2.5 million in less than six months on the market.

"Nothing is more valuable in the entertainment world than an evergreen franchise," says Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO, Nintendo of America. "These new Pok?n titles have cemented their place alongside the most enduring intellectual properties of the book, music and movie industries. And that appeal will expand even further with the introduction of Pok?n® Battle Revolution to our Wii home console next month."

*NG*: Pokemania has indeed returned.

[gamefreaks365]

I'm very much impressed by what Nintendo has done, but I don't think it's fair to say they "dominated" April. The Xbox 360 is still chugging along, even if its hardware sales are about half that of the Wii. If Nintendo doesn't pick up the third party sales numbers, they aren't going to get the exclusives they need, since developers will have to make games specifically for the Wii and PS3/360. I'm more impressed by what they've been doing in Japan. They held 21 of the top spots in the software charts the other week.

[Pilgrim John]

Actually GF, they are making exclusive Wii third-party titles. Just looking at them all makes me wish I wore bigger pants.
NiGHTS: Journey to Dreams, Dewy's Adventure, Project Treasure Island Z, Alien Syndrome, Soul Calibur Legends, the list goes on. I think we have much to look forawrd to on the Wii.

[gamefreaks365]

I know they are, because they have to. My point is, if they don't get third party sales numbers up (something they couldn't do on GameCube), third parties won't support the system as much as Xbox 360. Look at Spider-Man 3, for instance. Wii had the lowest sales numbers, beaten by even the PS2.

[Richard-RN]

gamefreak: keep in mind that both the Xbox360 and PS2 have much larger install bases than the Wii. PS2 was the top selling console the month God of War II came out--it still has a lot of supporters. While I don't think that either Sony or Nintendo will reach the kind of third party sales the 360 sees on a regular basis (which is pretty insane) I think that as Nintendo continues to see success with the Wii you will see third party software sell better. Tiger Woods has been in the top 20 since release, and Sonic held on for a couple months as well. The Spider-Man 3 situation is misleading. When developers have had some quality time to invest into Wii-specific titles and some of the "killer app" third party titles arrive (I'm thinking Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers/Soul Calibur Legends) then we will be able to more accurately judge how third party sales are doing on Wii.

[Pilgrim John]

My sentiments exactly. Spiderman 3, as a game, just flat-out sucked. The only good thing about it was how well it immersed you into the web-slinging vis-a-vis the Wiimote. So it doesn't make a good example.

[*NormalGamer*]

richardrn said:

When developers have had some quality time to invest into Wii-specific titles and some of the "killer app" third party titles arrive (I'm thinking Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers/Soul Calibur Legends) then we will be able to more accurately judge how third party sales are doing on Wii.

Exactly. Since the DS came out(and later on the Wii after that), many developers weren't experienced enough when they tried to take advantage of the features which is why they're were rushed/unpolished titles.

Hopefully, more time is being taken to put more effort into making Wii and DS games 'balanced'(such as experimenting what works and what dosent work in the game depending on the console/handheld features, considering and testing out original ideas and interfaces that may or may not work depending on the developers vision in how they want their game to peform, etc.)