You may have thought that Pokemon games were on the down and out. Heh, Nintendo is so lame. Pokemon is so lame! Can't believe they're still making those games!
Believe it. Pokemon Black and White went on sale in North America on March 6th. No other set of Pokemon games has sold as many units as Black and White did in one day.
The record was previously held by Pokemons Diamond and Pearl which sold 780,000 units on the first day when it was released in 2007. Pokemon Black and White, by comparison, have a combined sales record of 1.08 million units in its first day. Nintendo Senior Director of Corporate Communications Charlie Scibetta said:
These sales numbers illustrate the continued strength of the Nintendo DS family of systems. Already established as the nation's best-selling video game platform of all time, the installed base of more than 47 Million makes it the ideal hand-held for developers to reach a huge gaming-focused target audience.
During his GDC keynote, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talked about the way the original Game Boy and other Nintendo products encouraged a different kind of social gaming. Pokemon has clearly had a huge role in that process.
Black and White seem like the closest we'll ever get to a full-on Pokemon restart. As terrified as I am about getting hooked again, it's appealing that the older Pokemon can't be accessed until the newest ones are conquered.
Make sure you take your copy of Black and White to PAX East if you happen to be heading to Boston this weekend. I guarantee there will be a ton of TRADAN and BATTLAN at the expo.
