According to new figures released by Nintendo on Friday, the company sold twice as many Nintendo DS gaming consoles as it did newer Nintendo 3DS devices. The Japanese firm revealed that it sold 386,000 Nintendo DS systems as opposed to just 143,000 3DS units in June, according to MSNBC. It’s likely that the popularity of the DS can be attributed to its lower price point, but the small pool of 3D games could also be hurting 3DS sales; game publishers have yet to release some of the most anticipated 3D titles, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time 3D. The gaming industry hasn’t jumped for the device as much as Nintendo had hoped, either. Although Nintendo said that it moved 400,000 units during its first week of U.S. availability, the firm also said overall sales were weaker than expected.

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In a recent interview with Forbes, Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer Reggie Fils-Aime was asked how his company will market the new Nintendo Wii U console — given that the existing Wii will still be on the market. Fils-Aime responded by noting that the console will not launch until after April 1st of next year — a date we hadn’t heard yet — and that, historically, Nintendo has sold multiple devices side by side. Fils-Aime pointed to the launch of the Nintendo DS alongside the Gameboy Advance, and also said that the Wii was on the market at the same time as the Game Cube. He also discussed cross-platform play, which could allow users to play against one another using different Nintendo machines “We have one key developer with a very strong relationship to Nintendo, the same developer who created Smash Brothers, that is envisioning a Smash Brothers experience that will be cross platform between Wii U and 3DS,” Fils-Aime said. Nintendo took the wraps off of the highly anticipated Wii U during the E3 tradeshow early last month, but has yet to announce a price for the console.

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On Monday, Nintendo released a statement confirming that it will reveal the successor to the original Wii during the E3 Expo tradeshow in Los Angeles — which takes place June 7-9, 2011. The new console, currently codenamed “Project Cafe,” may feature a new “Screen Stream” controller option that will provide each individual gamer with their own touchscreen display, although Nintendo did not disclose any of the console’s new features in its statement. The Japanese gaming firm also announced its earnings for the fiscal year ending March, 2011. Net sales of ¥1,014 billion ($12.35 billion) were down 29.3% year-over-year and Nintendo’s net income fell 66.1% to ¥77.62 million ($946,110). Hardware and software sales for the United States, Nintendo’s largest market, also fell year-over-year. Nintendo sold 15.08 million Nintendo Wii units, 3.61 million of its new Nintendo 3DS devices, and 17.52 million of its Nintendo DS portable gaming consoles in the States. By contrast, the firm sold 20.5 million Wii units in the U.S. last year. Globally, the firm sold 171.26 million Wii units, 120.98 million DS devices, and 9.43 million Nintendo 3DS units. Hit the jump for Nintendo’s earnings release, as well as its official statement on E3.

April 25, 2011

To whom it may concern:

Re: Wii’s Successor System

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

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If Amazon U.K.’s pre-orders are any indication of what’s to come, the Nintendo 3DS could be as big of a hit as it was in Japan when it launched in February of 2010. On its Twitter account Thursday, Amazon UK said that the Nintendo DS has become the most pre-ordered console ever. U.K. residents interested in buying the device can purchase it for £187 ($381 USD). The Nintendo 3DS will launch in the United States on March 27th for $249.99. As its name suggests, the 3DS offers a 3D display, and games are backward-compatible with previous Nintendo DS and DSi titles.

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Nintendo just can’t seem to make an announcement regarding numbers without wowing us these days, and its recent financial call is no exception. Forgetting about the dollars and cents for the purposes of this post, Nintendo released a list of 26 games for the Wii and DS that have sold at least one million copies since April 2008, along with total sales for each title. Let’s have a look at the full list:

Wii

• Wii Sports – 40.5 million
• Wii Play – 20.91 million
• Wii Fit – 14.01 million
• Mario Kart Wii – 13.67 million
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 8.1 million
• Super Mario Galaxy – 7.66 million
• Mario Party 8 – 6.28 million
• Animal Crossing: City Folk – 3.22 million
• Wii Music – 2.50 million
• Link’s Crossbow Training – 2.44 million
• Mario Super Sluggers – 1.21 million

Nintendo DS

• Nintendogs – 21.67 million
• New Super Mario Bros. – 17.63 million
• Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day – 16.82 million
• Pokemon Diamond/Pearl – 16.48 million
• Mario Kart DS – 13.79 million
• Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day – 13.27 million
• Animal Crossing: Wild World: 10.57 million
• Super Mario 64 DS – 7.16 million
• Mario Party DS – 5.49 million
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness – 4.4 million
• Pokemon Platinum Version – 2.4 million
• Kirby Super Star Ultra – 2.19 million
• Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia – 1.80 million
• Rhythm Heaven – 1.71 million
• Personal Trainer: Cooking – 1.68 million

Did you catch that first one? “Wii Sports – 40.5 million.” Damn! Of course this includes game sales bundled with consoles, but this new figure pushes Wii Sports into the number one spot on the all-time best selling games list. Falling to number two is the title that many thought could sit atop the list forever: Super Mario Brothers – with 40.24 million copies sold. Propelled by ridiculous console sales rates, it took Wii Sports only 110 weeks to pass Mario, its seventh cousin four times removed, and 40mm will become 50mm before we know it. To be honest Wii Sports is probably still our favorite Wii game to date, though Resident Evil 4 certainly gave it a run for its money.

[Via DailyTech]

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