Who knew collecting and battling simply-named creatures would be a multi-billion dollar formula? The immense sales record of the Pokemon franchise continues with the Japanese launch of the Nintendo DS-exclusive Black and White installments. Already boasting 1.88 million pre-orders prior to launch, Japanese consumers bought another 2.55 million units across both versions in the first week on shelves, making it one of the fastest selling titles of the year, region, and franchise, as well as the absolute fastest selling DS title in Japan’s history. Both Pokemon Black and Pokemon White are expected to release in the West during the Spring of 2011.
The Japanese love their Pocket Monsters.
Puns aside. I read else where that Nintendo and Game Freak put in some nifty anti-piracy measures that prevented any PKMN to gain EXP if it was a pirated copy. After that pirates complained that these measures existed (and the Japanese think that “foreigners” reading manga online is bad).
Well I am interested to see how the actual game turns out. I also wish that these games could just be released simultaneously in all regions at the same time, and watch sales figures for the best selling RPG go through the roof (first week sales, and potentially first day sales for RPGs).