Are you one of the doubters? When you saw Wii Fit debut earlier this year, did you scoff and sneer like 95% of the “enthusiast press?”
News today from Japan goes a long way towards making people like you the left out in the cold variety, as Wii Fit has not only sold decently, it also boosted the sales of other Wii games that many people were ready to right off as disappointments in the land of the rising sun. Like Super Mario Galaxy, which had slipped out of the much ballyhooed top ten list picture until today. It was a shame, really, and this new trend, I hope, is indicative of a resurgence for the plucky plumber, whose latest effort is perhaps one of his best ever.
On a related note, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime was peppered earlier this month about the “attach rate” of the Wii and how it was perceived to be poor, especially when compared to the Xbox 360 (here’s some free analysis: it is lower, but it’s not as bad as the press was reporting in 2007. Surprise). I bring that up because I’d like to know if there’s ever been reporting done on the attach rate of an accessory for any given console.
Anyway, here’s the list, which is very reminiscent of Nintendo-themed top ten lists from earlier this year…
01. [NDS] Mario Party DS (Nintendo) – 180,000 / 826,000
02. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) – 124,000 / 535,000
03. [PS3] Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (Sony) – 116,000 / NEW
04. [NDS] Prof. Layton and Pandora’s Box (Level 5) – 74,000 / 444,000
05. [WII] Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo) – 74,000 / 550,000
06. [NDS] Dragon Quest IV (Square-Enix) – 73,000 / 868,000
07. [WII] Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo) – 64,000 / 212,000
08. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) – 55,000 / 2,341,000
09. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo) – 55,000 / 1,921,000
10. [WII] Chocobo’s Mysterious Dungeon: the Labyrinth of Forgotten Time (Square-Enix) – 41,000 / NEW
I swear I see a pattern in that list. It’s good to see Nintendo is probably set to start off 2008 with a pretty big bang. Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl all but guarantee Q1 is Nintendo’s to lose. If not, I suppose Wii Play could just carry the system for another year.