Nintendo Crushes In March

April 4, 2003, 9:49 am EST
Total comments: 8

Check out the initial sales numbers for Zelda, Pokemon and the GBA SP.

Strong Sales Surge for Nintendo

Overwhelming Demand for Zelda, Pokemon and Game Boy Advance SP Driving U.S. Video Games Market

REDMOND, Wash.--April 4, 2003--Riding the crest of three hit product launches, Nintendo of America Inc. currently claims the best selling console game, the best selling portable games, and the best selling hardware system in America.

Since coming to market within a week of each other in late March, The Legend of Zelda(R): The Wind Waker(TM) for Nintendo GameCube(TM),

Pokemon(R) Ruby Version and Pokemon(R) Sapphire Version for Game

Boy(R) Advance, and the new flip-top, front-lit Game Boy(R) Advance SP portable system have leaped to the top of their respective sales charts.

The new Zelda game set a Nintendo record with more than 600,000 copies pre-sold to consumers before its March 24 launch date, and retailers now are quickly burning through the entire initial North American shipment of 1.1 million games. In the same period, sales rates for Nintendo GameCube hardware have jumped 20 percent.

With more than 4.4 million copies of Pokemon already shipped in Japan, more than 2.2 million games have now moved through to North American retailers, showing conclusively Pokemon is back with an exclamation point. The companion Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire titles have dominated portable software since their launch on March 17.

Finally, 800,000 Game Boy Advance SP units have blown through to North American retail, matching equally raucous receptions in Japan and Europe.

"While no one will know the champion of this season's college basketball tournament until next week, the winner of this spring's video game tournament is Nintendo," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc. "Game Boy Advance SP, Zelda and Pokemon represent a three point play that players and retailers dream about."

"At what is traditionally a slow time of the year for video games, Nintendo has seized the sales initiative," says Richard Simone, video game buyer, Toys "R" Us. "With their blockbuster products Game Boy Advance SP, The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon, they're a big part of why video games are one of the truly bright spots at retail."

As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd. of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home video game systems. The systems include Game Boy(R), Nintendo(R) 64, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 1.6 billion video games worldwide, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario(TM) and Donkey Kong(R) and launching such franchises as

Zelda(TM) and Pokemon(R). As 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, www.nintendo.com.

Talkback

ruby_onixApril 04, 2003

Quote
In the same period, sales rates for Nintendo GameCube hardware have jumped 20 percent.

This would be on top of their hardware sales having jumped 110% last month, wouldn't it?

Grey NinjaApril 04, 2003

ZELDA IS TEH SYSTEM SELLER!!!111!!!

Of course we already knew that though right? I can't wait to see what Final Fantasy will do this summer.

DjunknownApril 04, 2003

Now THAT's good news. 1.1 million in only a few days, that's the home run hitter!

Sorry Grey Ninja, FF won't be stateside this summer, it appears to be set around the holiday season. The Japanese release is sometime in July. But it'll be a good gauge to see how Square's return to Nintendo will fare.

AzuleApril 04, 2003

Will Capcom now change their mind?

And yay, Zelda!

SilverBack1138April 04, 2003

Azule, hehe. I was kinda surprised about Capcom even making such a statement. It seems that Nintendo fans have been embrasing Capcom's games on the GCN. I know I've been buying a good amount of them. Well, let's hope that this tread of Nintendo success keeps up.

GamefreakApril 04, 2003

Zelda has not sold close to 1.1 million in the US. Nintendo has shipped 1.1 million copies to retailers (the initial shipment anyway, they should be shipping more soon for the next wave), but only about 700,000 of those have actually been sold (according to Matt Cassamassina and his connections at IGN).

Notice how Nintendo is also careful when they say that 2.2 million units of Ruby/Sapphire have "been moved" through the US.

Well we'll see when the next official sales report comes for NPD or TSRTS or TRSTS or whatever they are called...

AzuleApril 04, 2003

Either way, it's doing better than SMS. That should tell you something.

mouse_clickerApril 05, 2003

"but only about 700,000 of those have actually been sold (according to Matt Cassamassina and his connections at IGN)."

For one, I seriosuly doubt Matt's sources, and for two, he said he had ehard it sold 50,000 non-preorders so far, not 100,000.

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