That's the title of the press release they sent us, but if you ask me it's the other way around. Any time a new Pokemon game ships, console sales will spike. I don't pretend to understand why, especially with so many people saying that Battle Revolution was a big disappointment, but I've heard the new DS games are really good. Personally, I take my RPGs without cute animal cockfighting.
Wii and Nintendo DS Sales Fuel Pokemon Momentum
Grown Men and Women Rediscover the Games of their Youth
REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Pokemon(R) games have always been
best-sellers. But the huge popularity of the portable Nintendo DS(TM) and the
Wii(TM) home video game system has put the Pokemon craze into a whole new
category. Just check out these statistics:
-- According to the independent NPD Group, through July Pokemon Diamond is
the best-selling video game of the year on any system, while Pokemon
Pearl ranks No. 3.
-- The newly released Pokemon Battle Revolution already ranks at No. 5 on
the list of best-selling Wii games for the year.
-- Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl for Nintendo DS have sold more than 3
million copies in the United States alone.
-- Pokemon games have helped boost sales of Nintendo hardware. According
to the NPD Group, Wii and Nintendo DS were again the two best-selling
video game systems in the United States in July.
"These hard numbers show that the Pokemon franchise and Nintendo's systems
are striking a chord with players of all ages and drawing in huge numbers of
new players year after year," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's
senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "But
anecdotally we're also seeing that these new Pokemon games are appealing to
older players, the same ones who played the original Pokemon games when they
debuted in the United States almost 10 years ago."
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070315/LATH054-a)
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070315/LATH054-b)
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050516/NINTENDOLOGO)
Grown men and women with kids of their own proudly announce they are
training Pokemon and having a blast doing it. Gamer site
http://www.Penny-Arcade.com ran a four-part comic about the artist's
Pokemania, while Kristin Brandt of ManicMommies.com posted: "I have become
obsessed. I have played for many, many hours (I can't even admit to how many -
- it's embarrassing) ... And I can't seem to stop! There are more Pokemon to
capture, more levels to conquer and more badges to earn!"
The Pokemon franchise has sold more than 164 million games worldwide. For
more information about Pokemon Battle Revolution, Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon
Pearl, visit http://www.Pokemon-Games.com. Remember that Wii features parental
controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For
more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.
Pokemon USA, Inc., a subsidiary of The Pokemon Company in Japan, manages
the property outside of Asia which includes licensing, marketing, the Pokemon
Trading Card Game, an animated TV series, home entertainment, the official
Pokemon Web site and an online retail center http://www.pokemoncenter.com.
Pokemon was launched in Japan in 1996 for play on Nintendo's Game Boy(R) and
has since evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Pokemon was introduced in
North America in September 1998 and today is one of the most popular toy and
entertainment properties in the world. For more information, visit
http://www.pokemon.com.
The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment,
Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and
software for its Wii(TM), Nintendo DS(TM), Game Boy(R) Advance and Nintendo
GameCube(TM) systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.4 billion video
games and more than 420 million hardware units globally, and has created
industry icons like Mario(TM), Donkey Kong(R), Metroid(R), Zelda(TM) and
Pokemon(R). A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in
Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the
Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's
Web site at http://www.nintendo.com.
