Japanese Hardware, Software Markets Show Massive Growth
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360,
Japanese publisher Enterbrain has released the software and hardware sales totals for 2006. According to a report from Gamasutra, the publisher is claiming that Japanese video game hardware grew year over year 160%, while software sales grew 125%. The best selling hardware for the year was, of course, the Nintendo DS, moving over 7.5 million handhelds. Software sales charts were also dominated by the DS, which represented 8 of the top 10 titles of the year. Leading the list was Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. The top non-DS title was Square’s Final Fantasy XII for the PS2. Wii Sports made the top 100 in the 21st position, but no title for the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 were represented on the list. Nintendo managed to completely dominate Japan this year, and so far there are no signs of this changing any time soon.
Read More 
| Gamasutra
Gallery: Japanese Hardware, Software Markets Show Massive Growth
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NPD December Numbers: $3.7 Billion, PS2, DS Dominate
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
December’s NPD final numbers have been released, and the video game industry as a whole did remarkably well, selling over $3.7 billion during the final month of the year. According to a GameDaily report, this puts industry growth year-over-year at 27.8%. In hardware, the biggest seller overall was the Nintendo DS, moving over 1.6 million handhelds. This was followed by Sony’s “last-generation” console, the PS2, which sold an amazing 1.4 million consoles sold.
For the current generation of consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 lead the pack at 1.1 million sold through December, followed by Nintendo’s Wii with 604,200 sold and Sony at 490,700. Supply constraints clearly impacted both Nintendo and Sony for their next generation offerings; Nintendo’s worldwide launch stretched console supply impossibly thin, and production issues kept Sony from pushing as many consoles to market as they would have liked. Microsoft has to be happy with their totals, maintaining their lead in the face of new competition, and the continued success of the PS2 helps take the sting out of Sony’s meager PS3 launch.
On the software side, Microsoft’s Gears of War continued to sell well and moved more than 815 thousand units, and clearly helped drive sales of the Xbox 360. Guitar Hero II was a huge seller for the Playstation 2, and the combined sales of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii and Gamecube moved over one million sold; Zelda for the Wii continued to have a huge attach rate with Wii console buyers, selling 519,200 units against more than 600,000 consoles.
Overall, each of the three console manufacturers has something to brag about for the month of December, and while the relative sales are interesting now, this is just the beginning of the next console war; most analysts are predicting that the holiday season for 2007 will be when consumers will see how the competition really shakes up.
Read More | GameDaily
Gallery: NPD December Numbers: $3.7 Billion, PS2, DS Dominate
Nintendo Again Raises Year End Profit Forecasts
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo last raised its profit forecasts for the fiscal year in October, when it adjusted its estimates upwards based on better than expected sales of the Nintendo DS. Recently, Satoru Iwata hinted that another adjustment might be in the future. Today, Nintendo of Japan again raised its profit forecasts by 20% to 120 billion yen, again based on stronger than expected sales of its DS console. The DS and software just continues to surge in popularity; a report on Bloomberg News indicates that the company now expects to sell roughly 23 million DS consoles for the fiscal year with related software sales of 100 million. While Nintendo did not raise its Wii sales projections, the general belief is that the only reason this was not adjusted upwards is that the company does not believe it can manufacture any more units. Overall, the success of the DS worldwide has been nothing short of amazing, allowing Nintendo to build up a war chest for the console wars.
Read More 
| Bloomberg
Read More | Nintendo News Release (PDF)
Gallery: Nintendo Again Raises Year End Profit Forecasts
Square Offers New Final Fantasy XII DS Trailer
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Square Enix, Trailers,
Square-Enix has placed a new trailer for Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS online. There is a small streaming version on the main page of their Revenant Wings site, but inside the trailers section is a larger streaming video. The trailer includes a fair amount of pre-rendered footage, but gamers can also get a glimpse at some of the in-game video, including combat sequences. The trailer was shown previously at the Jump Festa 2007 event in Japan.
Read More | Square Enix Japan
Gallery: Square Offers New Final Fantasy XII DS Trailer
Pokemon Diamond & Pearl US Release Announced
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games,
The latest RPG releases in the Pokemon franchise will be hitting the US this April. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl will go on sale for the Nintendo DS on April 22, 2007. Nintendo will also be offering special Pokemon styluses as a pre-sell premium; details of the program have yet to be announced. The game has been a huge seller in Japan, and with the wireless networking features and integration with other DS and Gameboy Advance releases should have Pokemon fans lining up this Spring.
Nintendo’s full press release continues below, and further information about the game is available at Nintendo’s official Pokemon web site.
Click to continue reading Pokemon Diamond & Pearl US Release Announced
Read More | Official Pokemon Site
Gallery: Pokemon Diamond & Pearl US Release Announced
December 10 Media Create Hardware Sales Numbers Released
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360,
Media Create’s hardware sales numbers for the week ending December 10th have been released, and the Xbox 360 received a considerable bump due to the release of Blue Dragon for the console, moving 35,343 units during the week. This number is the highest the console has seen since launch, and the numbers are respectable but not spectacular. The top selling console this week was the DS Lite, selling 309,630 units. The Wii followed behind with 85,439, and the Playstation 3 came in third with 50,171. One assumes that the Wii and PS3 numbers are heavily constrained by supply. Coming up after the Xbox 360 are the Playstation 2 at 30,460 consoles and the PSP at 28,930 units.
The DS Lite just continues to absolutely dominate console sales in Japan. Microsoft has to be somewhat happy with the bump in sales in Japan. Considering that the Blue Dragon bundle is an insanely great deal on the hardware and software included, the company may be paying a heavy price for this improvement in sales. If Microsoft can ride the wave to further success the cost might be worth it for the company, but if this is a temporary blip, one has to wonder if anything can turn around the console in Japan.
Read More | Media Create
Gallery: December 10 Media Create Hardware Sales Numbers Released
Dragon Quest XI To Be On Nintendo DS
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Square Enix,
Square Enix recently held a press conference to detail the next iteration in the Dragon Quest series. IGN reports that the company has announced that Dragon Quest XI will be the first in the franchise to appear on a handheld system, the Nintendo DS. According to IGN, the full title will be Dragon Quest 9: Hoshizora no Mamoribito or Dragon Quest 9: Protectors of the Sky. Gamers were assured that the title would not be a side-story, and the pedigree of the development staff would seem to bear that out. Level 5, developer of Dragon Quest VIII, is developing the new game, and series creator Yuji Horii is overseeing the title. Kouichi Sugiyama will once again provide the music for the game. Overall, this is a huge announcement for the DS; the Dragon Quest series is immensely popular in Japan, and the safe platform for the game would have been the Playstation 2, like its predecessor. Announcing the next release in the series for the Nintendo DS shows just how popular the handheld has gotten in Japan.
Read More | IGN
Gallery: Dragon Quest XI To Be On Nintendo DS
NPD: Year-Over-Year Sales Up 34%
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,
NPD today released its official game sales numbers for November, and the numbers are showing amazing growth. Next Generation reports on the figures; year-over-year sales increased 34% to $1.7 billion. For this generation’s consoles, the Xbox 360 lead the pack with 551K sales. Nintendo’s Wii followed with 476K units, and the Playstation 3 trailed with 197K units. Supply issues hampered sales for the Playstation 3 and the Wii, and slightly under 200,000 consoles sold, Sony’s inability to provide consoles for their launch became apparent. Overall, though, last generation’s Playstation 2 continues to rack up huge sales, moving 664K consoles for November.
In the handheld arena, the Nintendo DS continues to absolutely dominate, selling 918,000 units in November. The Game Boy followed with 641,000 sold, and the PSP brought up the rear with 412,000 units sold.
On the software side of things, Gears of War took the number one spot, moving 1 million copies during the month. Final Fantasy XII sold 896,000 units, continuing that series’ success, and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold 412,000 copies, perhaps constrained a bit by Wii hardware supplies.
Overall, the industry is showing excellent year-over-year growth, and all three console manufacturers have something to smile about in November.
Read More | Next Generation
Gallery: NPD: Year-Over-Year Sales Up 34%
Iwata Believes Nintendo May Beat Earnings Estimates
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo DS, Wii,
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently spoke with Reuters after the launch of the Wii in Japan. In this interview, Iwata indicated that stronger than expected sales for the DS may help take Nintendo past their previous earnings estimates. There was some worry from both Nintendo and market analysts that the launch of the Wii might leech away sales from the DS; so far, it looks like that hasn’t happened. Instead, the momentum Nintendo has accumulated with the DS may be driving the popularity of the Wii up through a halo effect, much like Apple experiences with the iPod. It is still too early to tell if that is the case; consoles usually will see strong numbers at launch. Until the market has time to shake down, it will be hard to see how the DS and the Wii affect each other’s sales.
Read More | Reuters
Gallery: Iwata Believes Nintendo May Beat Earnings Estimates
“I’m Not Dead Yet!”: Tomb Raider Legends Ships For Gamecube
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Adventure, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, Release Dates,
It’s been a busy week ladies and gentlemen - Sony’s Playstation 3 will be released in a matter of hours, and the Wii will follow shortly in two days. You’ve got a lot to keep track of - reviews for the new systems, choices on which consoles to pick up. With all that going on, it’s no wonder that you probably didn’t notice that Tomb Raider: Legends shipped today for Nintendo’s Gamecube, DS, and GBA platforms. While the GC iteration follows quite a few months after the PS2 / Xbox 360 iterations, the game received fairly high scores across the board, and might be a great bargain-bin buy for folks looking to get every last hour out of their soon-to-be-obsolete Gamecube. And, with Wii’s backwards compatibility for GC games, you won’t be wasting your money.
Eidos seemed to learn that it pays to support Nintendo when Lego Star Wars sold phenomenally on the GC. Here’s hoping that Eidos decides to support Nintendo in their current console iteration!
Read More | Tomb Raider.com
Gallery: “I’m Not Dead Yet!”: Tomb Raider Legends Ships For Gamecube
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