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Pokemon Diamond And Pearl, Nintendo DS Top Japanese Sales Charts
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360,
The guys at the NeoGAF forums have translated Media Create’s sales numbers for the week ending 10/1. As expected, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl dominated the software chart. Diamond sold slightly better than Pearl. The two combined to sell 1,588,734 units over four days. Three PS2 titles made the top ten, including the latest in the .hack series, and Minna no Tennis. The rest were pretty much the standard stock list of DS titles gamers are used to seeing on the list.
On the hardware side, Nintendo moved 274,389 DS Lite consoles, trouncing the rest of the pack. The Playstation 2 came in second with 31,992 units sold, and the Xbox 360 nearly doubled sales to 2,195; The release of Dead Rising probably contributed to this.
Read More 
| NeoGAF
Gallery: Pokemon Diamond And Pearl, Nintendo DS Top Japanese Sales Charts
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DS Sales Lead Nintendo To Higher Profit Forecast
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
Nintendo raised their profit forecast for the fiscal year by 20 percent, based on rising sales of its Nintendo DS console and a weakening yen. For their fiscal year ending March 31, Nintendo now believes that net income will be approximately 100 billion yen, roughly $851 million US. Nintendo has typically adjusted profit forecasts based on currency exchange fluctuations in the past, but this announcement is the first time in a long while that Nintendo’s estimates have changed based on stronger than predicted sales of a video game console. Nintendo of Japan has been delivering roughly 100,000 to 150,000 DS consoles to store in Japan each week, and the consoles sell out nearly as quickly as they arrive.
Read More | Bloomberg
Gallery: DS Sales Lead Nintendo To Higher Profit Forecast
Latest Japanese Software Sales Charts
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2,
The latest Media Create Japanese software sales for the week ending 9/25 have been released, and basically, the DS continues to dominate the charts. Sony’s Minna No Tennis held on to the top spot, though, continuing the popularity of the series. Final Fantasy III and New Super Mario Bros. took second and third, with essentially 500 sales separating the two. The Nintendo Tingle RPG is still hanging around the top ten. Hopefully, the game will be a surprising success and will encourage a US release.
There was no big shake up in hardware sales this week, either, with Nintendo moving 139,835 DS consoles to take the top spot. The PS2 pulled in second at 32,673, followed by the PSP at 23,118. The Xbox 360 managed to rebound from its sub-1000 showing last week to sell 1,109 units. Hopefully this will see a significant bump come November and December as the new bundles hit the market.
Next week, expect Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sales to hit the charts, and DS sales to jump as special edition consoles hit the market.
Read More | NeoGAF Forums
Gallery: Latest Japanese Software Sales Charts
Japan Again Goes Pokemon Crazy
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games,
It would be pretty safe to say that gamers should expect that Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS will debut at the top of the Japanese software sales list this week. Past releases have shown that new releases of the Nintendo DS will spawn large lines in Japan; a special edition Pokemon DS combined with the latest game in the franchise was enough to draw the Japanese out in huge numbers. At times the lines for the game and special edition DS reached over 5 hours long, with over a thousand gamers waiting in some locations. Nintendo’s Pokemon Centers in Japan also looked to be hosting special events for the game’s release as well. Famitsu has a bunch of pictures of gamers lining up to buy the game and the special edition DS, along with some images of the unusual promotions going on with the new release. The game is scheduled for a release in the US some time in 2007.
Read More 
| Famitsu
Read More | Famitsu
Gallery: Japan Again Goes Pokemon Crazy
BioWare To Produce Nintendo DS Title
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games,
Bioware, producer of some of the biggest RPGs to hit the Xbox and the PC, have formed a handheld development group. According to the report, Dan Tudge will be heading up the new group, formerly head of Exile Interactive. A posting on Exile Interactive’s website indicates that the company is being shut down with Tudge leaving.
The full Bioware press release continues below.
Click to continue reading BioWare To Produce Nintendo DS Title
Read More | Exile Interactive
Gallery: BioWare To Produce Nintendo DS Title
Japanese Sales: PSP Title Takes Top Spot
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PSP,
Media Create’s latest Japanese sales chart has been released, and for the first time in quite a while, a PSP title has taken the top spot on the list. Bandai Namco’s remake of Tales of Phantasia debuted at number one, pulling in just over 66,000 units sold. The rest of the list generally followed previous lists, with Nintendo DS titles taking seven spots, a Gameboy Advance title taking one entry, and Sega’s Phantasy Star Universe taking one spot.
Seeing Phantasy Star on the list is a little surprising, given the horrendous troubles that Sega has had keeping their game servers online, but the prospect of free play until Sega could get everything up to speed may have enticed some gamers. The Tingle RPG made a fairly strong showing, taking the fourth spot on the list, not bad for a game featuring a 35 year-old in a fairy suit.
Read More | NeoGAF
Gallery: Japanese Sales: PSP Title Takes Top Spot
Final Fantasy XII Spin-off Confirmed For Nintendo DS
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Nintendo DS, Role Playing Games, Square Enix,
Following the massive sales success of Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS comes confirmation from Famitsu that a Final Fantasy XII spin-off is being targeted for the handheld. Go Nintendo managed to get a scan from the latest issue, showing a new game called Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wing for the DS. According to reports, the game will focus on the main character from the main game, Vaan.
Read More | Go Nintendo
Gallery: Final Fantasy XII Spin-off Confirmed For Nintendo DS
For those Nintendo DS homebrew developers out there looking for just a little more space for their projects, Natrium42, creator of the PassMe homebrew enabling device has a new hardware hack on his blog. By hacking a GBA Movie Player CompactFlash interface, Natrium42 was able to add a 40 GB hard drive to his Nintendo DS. Now, the solution is hardly an idea portable solution with all the extraneous equipment and power required, but this is an interesting hack. Sure, people could buy the 4 GB Max Media Player for the DS, but this hack is a whole order of magnitude larger.
Read More | Natrium42
Gallery: Nintendo DS Hard Drive Hack
DS / Gameboy MP3 Player Coming to Europe
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, Music, Nintendo, Nintendo DS,
Today, Nintendo officially confirmed rumors that it will be releasing a version of the Play-Yan for the DS, DS Lite, GBA, and GBA Micro… in Europe at least. The device is currently called, creatively enough, the Nintendo MP3 player, and will bring audio playing functionality to the above-mentioned systems. The re-branded Play-Yan will come in the form of a GBA cartridge that features an SD card slot, so that the music capacity of the player will be expandable up to 2 GB or more.
For folks who really don’t want to cart around an MP3 player in addition to their GBA or DS, this might be a good solution. Still, given how cheaply one can acquire a flash-based MP3 player online, we’re guessing this is strictly going to be a novelty for the Nintendo-obsessed. Assuming the cart retails for around $40 US and doesn’t come with a substantial SD card, it’s going to cost you around $150 US ($40 for the player and $100 for a 2GB SD card) to turn your DS into a useful DMP. For that price, you could be picking yourself up an oh-so-sleek Sandisk Sansa with comparable storage and probably better sound quality.
Read More | IGN DS
Gallery: DS / Gameboy MP3 Player Coming to Europe
The guys at the Game|Life blog over at Wired Magazine were able to get their hands on the freshly released Tingle RPG for the Nintendo DS. The game, roughly translated as Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rose-Colored Rupee Land, features the Tingle character from the Legend of Zelda series. According to the preview, this could very well be the best RPG to feature as its main character a 35-year-old man in green fairy tights. The gameplay is unique, and there seems to be a decent amount of humor in the game, as one might expect. It is highly unlikely that the game will see a US release, which could be a shame. While the game itself might have too much Japanese use for an import gamer, a localized version might have been just quirky and unique enough to attract a cult following.
Read More | Game|Life
Gallery: Tingle RPG Impressions
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