[Wii U, 3DS] Strong overseas numbers help Nintendo stock hit a two-year high

[Wii U, 3DS] Strong overseas numbers help Nintendo stock hit a two-year high
It looks like releasing Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS was the right thing for Nintendo to do because the game has contributed to a massive boost in stock for the Japanese developer.

Bloomberg is reporting that Nintendo's stock has rose to its highest level in almost two years. The jump has been attributed to two key factors.

The first of those factors is, of course, Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The first 3DS entry in the franchise managed to set record high sales on the Nintendo eShop. So far the game has managed to sell 500,000 units in the United States and successfully boosted the 3DS hardware sales up to 225,000 throughout June. This resulted in Nintendo's handheld becoming the best-selling system in the country for the second consecutive month, which spells good news for Nintendo.

I can only imagine that Nintendo will continue to build on the success of the 3DS from here in the coming months with titles like Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (already available in Europe), Shin Megami Tensei IV, Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies, Pokémon X & Y, and Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds as we head towards the holiday season. Hopefully the Wii U will benefit from the upcoming slate of games and allow Nintendo to get their hands on some better numbers than it has been able to produce currently.

The second key factor is attributed to rumours that China is re-assessing their stance on the ban of video game consoles, which would open up a new market for Nintendo to enter. Considering the population of China it would be surprising if Nintendo decided to ignore the potential just begging to be tapped into, but time will tell whether or not the ban is actually lifted.

Either way, Nintendo must be feeling somewhat relieved after months of bad news. They aren't out of the woods yet though.

Thanks Destructoid

Written by: Kyran Morrison

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[Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers

[Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers

How many Wii U games have been pre-ordered? GameStop have a partial answer to that question (partial in the sense that they have confirmed some figures for GameStop pre-orders) and the numbers aren't looking too shabby at all.

Gamasutra has posted a report revealing that 1.2 million pre-orders have been lodged for Wii U software, those are pretty good for the record. The report also reveals that GameStop's 500,000 Wii U consoles were sold out via pre-order almost immediately after the purchase option was made available in September.

Naturally, the increased software pre-order figures can be chalked up to a stronger line-up than the Wii had (which only had a couple of stand-up titles) including New Super Mario Bros. U, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, ZombiU, Assassin's Creed 3, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.

Can the Wii U replicate the Wii's success by unifying the casual audience and winning back the core gamers that felt abandoned during the Wii's lifespan?

Written by: Kyran Morrison

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RE: [Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers

Potentially one of the weakest lunch line ups of games thanks to more ports than Dover

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RE: [Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers
Sparse they may of been, but at least they had a fair bit new content and not a load of games with a number in the title (This post was last modified: 11-18-2012 05:16 AM by DPrinny.) ManaBurnX
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RE: [Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers
>He only has two systems
Laughingnerds.png.

Nar the games thing is the fault of lazy developers, we have gone from tagged on "Waggle" controls to tagged on touch screen controls.

RE: [Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers
I dunno, seems like a pretty solid mix to me. Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, ZombiU, and Scribblenauts Unlimited for new stuff. Black Ops 2, Assassin's Creed III, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Arkham City, Ninja Gaiden 3 to give a strong supporting class if you don't already own them on other consoles. The only thing missing to me (that is preventing me from buying one right now) is that really killer launch exclusive. At least the Wii had Twilight Princess.

XBL/PSN/Steam: GlueGun18
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3DS: 3909-7594-8619

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RE: [Wii U] GameStop confirms that Wii U software pre-orders double the Wii's numbers

(11-18-2012 03:50 PM)LemonManX Wrote:  Except Twilight Princess was better on GCN.

Might nab an ISO (Yes I own a "Special" gamecube) and give it a go.

Id buy it, but its still bloody expensive

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Nintendo tells developers not to share digital sales numbers

by Mike Schramm on Jan 5th 2012 8:15PM

Richard Hill-Whittall is the owner and director of Icon Games Entertainment, and his company has released several games in the last year for various platforms, including WiiWare. He recently shared some sales numbers over on Gamasutra, but was asked by Nintendo to take the numbers for its platforms down. According to Hill-Whittall, Nintendo doesn't allow developers to share digital sales numbers for self-published WiiWare and downloadable DS titles.

That's an interesting tack to take, and Hill-Whittall argues that it hurts smaller developers who might need to make those sales numbers known in order to secure financing or plan out their business. He doesn't see it as surprising, however, because Nintendo doesn't allow developers to change their prices or offer demos or promotions either, which are all tactics that Microsoft, Sony, and other digital publishers have used to pick up lots of digital sales before.

Obviously, not everyone will want to share sales data, and Nintendo itself must see this data as valuable information to be protected. A restriction on sharing the data, says Hill-Whittall, could be fatal for a smaller developer like his, especially if they rely on Nintendo's platform alone.

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October NPD: 3DS rising, a good month for games with 'Bat' in the title (Update: BF3, Batman, RAGE numbers)

by JC Fletcher on Nov 11th 2011 6:50PM

Microsoft claims another month on top for the Xbox 360, with 393,000 units sold for the NPD's October sales period, 20% up year over year and, in the words of MS Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business Aaron Greenberg, the system's "biggest October ever." Following up is ... the 3DS, randomly bouncing back two months after its price drop, with "over 250,000" sold, according to Nintendo.

Try to look shocked when we tell you that Battlefield 3 topped the software chart. The top six games on NPD's sales chart are all October releases, with Batman: Arkham City, NBA 2K12, Rage, Just Dance 3, and -- believe it or not -- super-hardcore, unfriendly RPG Dark Souls all placing. Find the full top ten after the break.

Top 10 best-selling games (US) for October 2011: Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC) - ~2 MillionBatman: Arkham City (360, PS3) - 1.5 MillionNBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)Rage (360, PS3, PC) - 550KJust Dance 3 (Wii, 360)Dark Souls (PS3, 360)Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)Forza Motorsport 4 (360)Gears of War 3 (360)FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS)

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September NPD: Madden, Gears, Dead Island are hits (Updated with Nintendo hardware numbers!)

by JC Fletcher on Oct 13th 2011 8:25PM

It should come as no surprise that Madden NFL 12 beat everything else in NPD's software chart for the month of September, unless you're really not into sports games and forgot it came out. Second place is also pretty expected, with the massive rollout of Gears of War 3 massively rolling into people's homes. Third place, however, is a bit more interesting -- Dead Island, from semi-obscure publisher Deep Silver, outsold almost everything else based on the strength of that trailer and the word "zombies." Find the top ten after the break.

In hardware, Microsoft reported Xbox 360 takes the top hardware spot once again, touting 438,000 units sold in the month. Nintendo reports sales of 360,000 3DS units in the five week September reporting period, as well as 240,000 Wiis and 145,000 DS systems. Sony has not released official sales numbers for the PS3 or PSP.

In larger trends, total industry sales are down 6 percent year over year, with a mere $1.16 billion changing hands in September.

Top 10 best-selling games (US) for September 2011: Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)Gears of War 3 (360)Dead Island (360, PS3, PC)FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, 3DS)NHL 12 (360, PS3)Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC)Resistance 3 (PS3)Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine (360, PS3, PC)

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[Multi] Americas Sales Chart, Aug 28-Sept 3: Vick-like Numbers for Madden

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SOFTWARE TOP 20
1) Madden NFL 12 (X360) - 686,095 (686,095)
2) Madden NFL 12 (PS3) - 570,876 (570,876)
3) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (X360) - 92,410 (338,358)
4) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3) - 48,874 (181,233)
5) Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 42,330 (12,518,877)
6) Just Dance 2 (Wii) - 33,257 (5,399,498)
7) Madden NFL 12 (Wii) - 32,322 (32,322)
8) Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 27,703 (13,955,403)
9) Call of Duty: Black Ops (X360) - 24,667 (9,169,246)
10) Wii Sports (Wii) - 21,844 (41,353,672)
11) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) - 21,495 (490,254)
12) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC) - 21,074 (58,492)
13) Zumba Fitness (Wii) - 20,503 (1,728,986)
14) Just Dance: Summer Party (Wii) - 20,169 (123,014)
15) Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 17,154 (9,118,095)
16) Pokemon Black/White (DS) - 16,912 (4,091,891)
17) Kinect Adventures! (X360) - 15,557 (7,246,754)
18) Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) - 15,312 (2,577,191)
19) Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3) - 15,168 (5,718,640)
20) NCAA Football 12 (X360) - 13,813 (558,786)

HARDWARE
Nintendo 3DS - 92,485 (1,551,939)
Xbox 360 - 76,353 (32,902,982)
PlayStation 3 - 70,584 (20,595,535)
Nintendo Wii - 50,624 (41,784,037)
Nintendo DS - 44,938 (55,866,090)
Sony PSP - 25,095 (22,393,636)
PlayStation 2 - 15,257 (56,103,993)

Notes:
- The 1.303 million copies of Madden NFL 12 sold in its debut week are down 7% from last year's Madden, although sales were up on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.
- Assassin's Creed has become the 12th Xbox 360 game to sell 5 million copies worldwide.
- Donkey Kong Country Returns has become the 17th Wii game to sell 5 million copies worldwide.
- Next week's major debuts: Dead Island (PC, PS3, X360)

Debuts:
- Madden NFL 12 (X360) - 686,095 (#1)
- Madden NFL 12 (PS3) - 570,876 (#2)
- Madden NFL 12 (Wii) - 32,322 (#7)
- Madden NFL 12 (PSP) - 13,721 (#21)
- Bodycount (X360) - 10,301 (#28)

TOP 10 PREORDERS
1) Gears of War 3 (X360) - 1,585,767
2) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360) - 959,004
3) Battlefield 3 (X360) - 548,517
4) Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC) - 413,543
5) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360) - 400,761
6) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) - 363,336
7) Assassin's Creed: Revelations (X360) - 299,041
8) Battlefield 3 (PS3) - 243,595
9) Mass Effect 3 (X360) - 211,702
10) Batman: Arkham City (X360) - 209,518

Written by: Mike Glubish

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eSports draw record viewership numbers at Gamescom

gamescom 2011: World's best professional gamers attract a record number of viewers

First participants of the Intel Extreme Masters 2012 World Championship determined – League of Legends and StarCraft 2 professional matches as the main public attraction in the Energie³ ESL Arena - ESL breaks last year's records

Cologne, August 26, 2011 – First live event of the global league of the video game champions (Intel Extreme Masters) and the kick-off of the new season of the German Championship in computer games (ESL Pro Series) were the main attractions of the Energie³ ESL Arena (hall 9) at gamescom 2011 – world's largest entertainment trade fair taking place in Cologne, Germany. Once again, Electronic Sports League (ESL) presented in Cologne competitive gaming on the highest level attracting to the hall throughout the whole trade fair hundreds of thousands of visitors. The number of viewers following the matches live in the Energie³ ESL Arena throughout five days of trade fairs doubled those from the last year. Also the number of streaming sessions on ESL's web TV service, ESL TV, surpassed last year's record by a factor of five. In addition to the world class tournaments the enthusiasts of games could witness in hall 9 the debuts of such upcoming titles like TrackMania 2 (Ubisoft), Guild Wars 2 (NCsoft) und Transformers Universe (Hasbro).

In the Energie³ ESL Arena at gamescom world's best gamers from Europe, Asia and America met to compete in the Global Challenge Cologne – the first live event of the Intel Extreme Masters season 2011/2012. PuMa from Korea placed first in the StarCraft II competition after defeating his fellow citizen, MC, in the final. In League of Legends team Counter Logic Gaming won against Team Solo Mid. Both StarCraft 2 players, as well as both League of Legends teams advanced to the grand finale of the tournament - the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, which will take place in 2012 in Germany. The prize money of the gamescom competition was 53,000 US Dollar, which is a share of 635,000 US Dollars – a total prize purse of the league in season 2011/2012.

Gamescom was also the first stop of the ESL Pro Series Winter season 2011, the German national league in video games. At the first Intel Friday Night Game the best gamers from all over the country were fighting for the first important points on their way to the league finals, which will take place in December this year. The event featured competition in three disciplines: FIFA11, TrackMania Nations Forever and Counter-Strike: Source.

The Energie³ ESL Arena hosted also the finals of the ESL Major Series VIII in League of Legends, the ESL Brink Championship, AirRivals European Championship, Sennheiser StarCraft 2 Cup and 'Deutschlands bester Gamer' competition – a tournament organized in co-operation with the BILD Computer Spiele, one of the biggest gaming magazines in Germany. The tournament involved a three-way battle in FIFA11, Shift 2 Unleashed and HALO: Reach. Hundreds of players took part in online qualifiers that determined the best twelve players, which took part in the grand final played on the main stage of the Arena. The winner of the competition is Danny 'kuSKy' Engels from team SK Gaming.

Photos of the events in the Energie³ ESL Arena at gamescom 2011 available at www.turtle-entertainment.de/Dateien/Photos_gamescom2011.zip

"Hundreds of thousands of eSports enthusiasts came to the Energie³ ESL Arena to experience eSports on the highest level with its spine-tingling moments," said Ralf Reichert, the Managing Director of Turtle Entertainment, the organiser of ESL. "The response of the visitors in our hall was overwhelmingly possitive. Gamescom has proven once again that eSports has thousands of enthusiastic followers, not only in the world but also in Germany," he added.

This year's gamescom was visited by about 270,000 people, including thousands of eSports fans. Energie³ ESL Arena attracted over 223,000 visitors who were able to watch world's best gamers in action and enjoy the latest blockbuster video games presented by our partners. Those unable to come to Cologne could follow us live every day on ESL TV, the eSports web TV channel. During our events at gamescom, the program managed to attract an audience five times bigger than last year.

Final results of the Intel Extreme Masters 2011/12 Global Challenge Cologne:

StarCraft® 2 ($21.000)

1. Place: Lee Ho 'PuMa' Joon (KOR)
2. Place: Jang Min 'MC' Chul (KOR)
3. Place: Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz (PL)

League of Legends ($32.000)

1. Place: Counter Logic Gaming (US)
2. Place: Team Solomid (US)
3. Place: Fnatic MSI (EU)

Final results of the Intel Friday Night Games:

TrackMania Nations Forever: gaLLo vs. g00x 2:0

Counter-Strike: Source: n!faculty vs. ESC ICY BOX 15:15

FIFA11: MYM vs. Acer 4:0

The winners of the remaining competitions in the ESL Arena:

- ESL Major Series VIII (League of Legends): SK Gaming vs. TSM 2:0

- ESL Brink Championship: team Epsilon vs. sGs 4:2

- Deutschlands bester Gamer: Danny 'kuSKy' Engels

- AirRivals: Mando

- Sennheiser StarCraft 2 Cup: Eugin 'Strelok' Oparyshev

Turtle Entertainment GmbH
Turtle Entertainment was founded in 2000. The company quickly grew to be the European leader in the sector of electronic sports (eSports). The Electronic Sports League (ESL), operated by Turtle Entertainment, is active in 37 different countries worldwide. The league portal www.esl.eu reaches above ten million visits a month generated by more th an 2,5 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via IPTV channel ESL TV since 2007. The headquarter has 160 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Important business partners of Turtle Entertainment are global corporations such as Intel, Alienware, ASUS, adidas, Volkswagen, Nokia, Trend Micro, Sennheiser, Windows 7, Sidewinder, SteelSeries and gamed.de.
Further information is available at www.turtle-entertainment.com

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Conduit 2: by the numbers

by Andrew Yoon on Feb 23rd 2011 4:18PM

Sequels aren't always guaranteed to be better than their predecessors, but they'll always be bigger. David Pellas, designer director of High Voltage's Conduit 2, broke down many of the new features included in the Wii-exclusive shooter. Some of the additions rectify surprising omissions from the first game: the ability to sprint, alternate fire for weapons, and a proper sniper rifle. Embarassingly, the first game missed any female NPC skins for multiplayer -- an issue that has been rectified in Conduit 2.

Some of the added features are far more significant: the addition of split-screen multiplayer (with a brand new Horde-inspired co-op mode!), for example. The experience is fleshed out with an in-game store system that allows you to purchase new weapons and don new perks with a persistent character across both single and multiplayer. Finally, the campaign adds a feature most FPS games are missing today: boss battles.

Does all this newness amount to a better game? That's up to debate, of course. But no one can argue that Conduit 2 -- when broken down into numbers -- is a far more significant game than its predecessor.

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Pachter: Xbox 360 outsold PS3 two-to-one in December; Nintendo reveals numbers

by David Hinkle on Jan 10th 2011 11:00PMWedbush Securities games industry analyst Michael Pachter's magic crystal ball predicts another month of Xbox 360 dominance in the NPD charts. His latest report to IndustryGamers says to expect sales of Microsoft's console to be more than double that of its biggest competitor, the PS3, for December. Prognosticating that the Xbox 360 sold 2.5 million units last month, he's betting on a 91 percent boost in sales over November for Microsoft. As for the PS3, Pachter figures it sold 1.2 million units in December, a 12 percent dip compared to its performance in November.
As for actual real numbers, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata revealed in an interview with Nikkei (via Andriasang) that the Wii sold over two million units in December. The DS reportedly performed on par with the same period in 2009, which would be somewhere around three million units.
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