Nintendo Claims Strong Game Boy, 'Zelda' Sales

[Guest MrRant]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS) said on Friday it shipped 800,000 Game Boy Advance SP handheld devices since late last month and was on track to sell more than 1 million units of its new "Legend of Zelda" game.

 

Nintendo said it sold more than 600,000 copies of "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" before the game's March 24 launch, and retailers had nearly sold out the initial shipment of 1.1 million units. Games that sell 1 million units are considered major hits in the industry.

 

Strong sales of the new Game Boy Advance SP are critical for the company as its flagship GameCube console player has underperformed company expectations.

 

Moreover, many industry watchers saw "Zelda" as the best hope in the first part of 2003 to boost sales of GameCube, which has fallen into third place in the U.S. market.

 

Nintendo said sales rates for the GameCube are up 20 percent since it began pre-selling "Zelda."

 

The $99 Game Boy Advance SP, which was released March 23, answered one of the primary complaints around 2001's original Game Boy Advance (GBA) -- that the screen was dark and hard to see. Along with a smaller and more traditional form, the GBA SP has better screen lighting.

 

Though the original GBA is still on the market, its sales fell in February as analysts said people chose to wait a month and pay the higher price for the SP unit.

 

Nintendo has had near-total domination of the global handheld gaming market since the late 1980s, fending off challenges from most other game console makers.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

1 Million copies of Zelda sold in a little more than 2 weeks is pretty impressive..Obviously a lot of people bought Gamecubes as well, which is a plus, probably because at the time of preorder they could also get a free game like Metroid Prime. Nintendo now needs a big E3 and some big games coming out soon (by the end of the summer) to keep up the momentum..

 

On an unrelated note, Splinter Cell got a 9.1 from IGN (The X Box version got a 9.6). The cube version supposedly has more cutscenes to explain the story better and some of the best Gamecube graphics to date. SC is one of the games that needs to sell well on the cube, and with some excellent reviews Im thinking it will..

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

SC is one of the games that needs to sell well on the cube

Forget it. The controller ruins everything. Of course, there are arcade sticks, but this is the kind of game that usually has multiple players and it's pretty crazy to assume those with more than one system will buy multiple GameCube arcade sticks instead of just get the one for the other systems.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I like the Gamecube controller.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

It works for Zelda, but not for fighting games.

 

I personally can't stand it. I also have humongus hands that are way larger than most my friends, and certainly way larger than Joe Japanese Guy (and I understand that's the market that this stuff is tested for.)

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I'm most used to the PS2 controller...and that I can pick up and play anything with.

 

The GC controller feels more comfortable to me by far.

 

The XBox controller feels real hard and uncomfortable (even type S) but I'll get used to it I guess.

 

The only thing I don't like about the Cube controller is the left and right triggers.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

You have to include the shitty little Z button when mentioning the triggers, right? ....Right?

[Guest EQ]

SC is one of the games that needs to sell well on the cube

Forget it. The controller ruins everything. Of course, there are arcade sticks, but this is the kind of game that usually has multiple players and it's pretty crazy to assume those with more than one system will buy multiple GameCube arcade sticks instead of just get the one for the other systems.

I think when he said "SC", he was referring to Splinter Cell.

 

Although, since I like talking about Soul Calibur, I'm going to chime in. I was all set to get SCII on XBOX, but when I found out about Link in the GC version, that sealed the deal for me. Spawn on XBOX looks pretty badass, but Link is worth enough to me that I'll put up with the controller. I'll learn to play well on it.

 

But what the hell is up with them taking so long to release the game in the US. The game is already out in Japan, and all they have to do is translate over some text. Why do we have to wait till August?!