US Wii Sales skyrocket, overtake DS, lays waste to rest

The July NPD results are finally in and it seems the analysts need to a do a bit more analysing before publicizing their sales forecasts. The Wii completely obliterated everything, even overtaking the Nintendo DS which is still selling at a hot pace. Sony’s “”price drop”” for the PlayStation 3 did nearly nothing for it, with the broken and still then normal priced 360 selling 170,000 compared to 159,000. Guess that 3 year warranty bolstered some support. More Inside The PSP and PS2 continue to take up the slack of the PS3. While PS3 sales are not bad by any sense, it would have to be below even Sony’s expectations. NCAA Football charted best before the Madden crush of next (this) month. Pokemon, Wii Play and Mario Party 8 continue selling well and Guitar Hero 2 plods along to round up the top 10.

Software

• 1. NCAA Football 08 Xbox 360 (EA) – 397k
• 2. Guitar Hero Encore PS2 (Activision) – 339k
• 3. Wii Play Wii (Nintendo) – 278k
• 4. NCAA Football 08 PS2 (EA) – 236k
• 5. Mario Party 8 Wii (Nintendo) – 177k
• 6. NCAA Football 08 PS3 (EA) – 156k
• 7. Pokemon Diamond DS (Nintendo) – 144k
• 8. Transformers: The Game PS2 (Activision) – 143k
• 9. Guitar Hero 2 PS2 (Activision) – 138k
• 10. Guitar Hero 2 360 (Activision) – 108k

Hardware

• Wii: 425,000
• Nintendo DS: 405,000
• PlayStation 2: 222,000
• PlayStation Portable: 214,000
• Xbox 360: 170,000
• PlayStation 3: 159,000
• Game Boy Advance: 87,000

Nintendo’s PR

DID YOU KNOW? NINTENDO MOMENTUM PAYS NO HEED TO INDUSTRY PRICING SHIFTS

Aug. 23, 2007

Wii emerged as the months best-selling video game system of any type in the United States and achieved its highest weekly sales rates since December, despite pricing shifts in the industry, according to the independent NPD Group and internal Nintendo figures. Wii and Nintendo DS remained the two best-selling video game systems in the United States, with Nintendo hardware outselling all other systems combined.

But behind every great game platform are a lot of great gamesand thats certainly evident from Nintendos momentum:

* Nintendo remained the top U.S. game publisher for the sixth consecutive month.

* So far this year, Nintendo titles claim six of the industrys top 10 best sellers, including the top three: Pokemon Diamond (overall No. 1) and Pokemon Pearl (No. 3) for Nintendo DS, and Wii Play (No. 2) for Wii.

* Nintendo DS, with more than 300 titles available, has the largest game library for any current generation system.

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* Wii has added new titles (averaging nine per month since launch) at a faster rate than any other new home system.

* Including an ever-increasing library of classic titles available for download on the Wii Shop Channel, American owners of Nintendo DS and Wii will have a combined selection of nearly 800 games to choose from by year end.

* Nintendo expects momentum for both systems to continue, given the Aug. 20 launch of Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day for Nintendo DS and the upcoming Aug. 27 launch of the hugely anticipated Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii.

For more information about Nintendo, please visit www.nintendo.com