Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed during the company's DS press conference that there have been 7 Nintendo DS titles that have sold over a million units in Japan. Four of the seven include new IPs in previously unestablished software genres.
- Nintendogs was the first million seller, to date reaching over 5 million units worldwide.
- Animal Crossing Wild World has sold over 2 million units worldwide.
- Brain Training accounts for 1.8 million sales.
- Gentle Brain Training has achieved 1.2 million in sales.
- Tamagotchi: Corner Shop has sold over 1 million units.
- In Japan alone, Mario Kart DS has sold 1.2 million units.
- Finally, the sequel to Brain Training has already accomplished a million sales in less than a month.
Soon joining these seven will be Super Mario 64DS with 930,000 in sales and Wario Ware Touched with 980,000 currently sold. As can be seen, the majority of sales have come from Nintendo's new "Touch! Generations" series of titles. Nintendo intends on furthering this series with an additional five releases over the coming months. New titles in the "Touch! Generations" series include:
Mar. - Original "Point-and-Speak" Phrasebook - (2,800 yen)
This series is described as reference manuals for travelers visiting other countries. There will be five different releases including one for Thailand, Korea, China, Germany and America.Mar. - Kanji Sono Mama DS Rakubiki Jiten - (4,800 yen)
The software provides a dictionary of kanji characters. Users write on the touch screen and then the second screen will provide you with definitions.TBA - DS Bimoji Training
This title gives users a chance to practice their kanji writing. Players mimic the characters appearing on the top screen with their stylus.Apr. - Tetris DS - (3,800 yen)
This title will support online play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.TBA - English as Speak! DS Cooking Navigator
The title will give users the ability to navigate a cook book of recipes. The software can speak to users as well users can use their voice to interact with the interface.For those interested in more traditional gaming, the following is a list of upcoming Japanese Nintendo DS software. Click on links for a gameplay image.
Mar. 02 - Nintendo DS Lite
Mar. 02 - Children of Mana - Square Enix
Mar. 02 - Shunkan Puzzloop - Nintendo and Mitchell (3,800 yen)
Mar. 23 - Pokemon Ranger - HAL Laboratory (4,800 yen)
Mar. 30 - Xenosaga Episode I & II - Namco
Mar. 30 - Contact RPG - Grasshopper and Marvelous
Apr. 06 - Tenchu Dark Shadow - From Software
Apr. 13 - Tales of the Tempest - Namco
May ?? - New Super Mario Bros. (4,800 yen)
Jun. ?? - Nintendo DS Browser - Opera (3,800 yen)
TBA - Final Fantasy III - Square Enix
TBA - Winning Eleven 9 - Konami
TBA - Super Robot Great War DS - Banpresto
TBA - Dynasty Warrior 4 - Koei
TBA - Mario Basketetball 3vs3 - square Enix
TBA - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Square Enix
TBA - Dragon Quest Monsters - Square Enix
TBA - Gyakuten Saiban 4 - Capcom
TBA - Tamagotchi's Tamagotchi - Bandai
TBA - Mushi King - Sega
TBA - Oshare Princess - Sega
TBA - Sealed Heat - Mistwalker
TBA - 1Seg Digital TV Card
Iwata revealed over 900,000 users have used Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to create a total of 22 million connections. In the coming months, Winning Eleven 9, Mario Basketball 3 vs 3, and Dynasty Warrior 4 will all be compatible with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service.
Furthermore, Iwata stated the Nintendo Wi-Fi Stations are currently set up in 800 retailers around Japan with a goal of 1000 total installations by Spring. There have currently been 11.4 million downloads using this service.
Nintendo claims that whereas Game Boy Advance took 30 months and PlayStation 2 took 32 months to achieve 10 million in sales, the Nintendo DS achieved that in a little over a year. Nintendo is confident such brisk sales will continue.
