ROUND-UP: Nintendo Switch Sales Numbers Are In! NES Classic Is Out
Okay, it’s news round-up time! In case you haven’t heard, the Nintendo Switch is the fastest selling console in Nintendo’s history, selling more than 906,000 units in the United States alone during its launch month, March of 2017. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold more than 1.3 million copies, specifically more than 925,000 copies for the Nintendo Switch and less than 460,000 copies for the Wii U, giving it an attach rate of more than 100%! This makes it the fastest selling Zelda game in its entire series and the fastest selling Nintendo launch title of all time! “That means that Nintendo sold more of this game for Nintendo Switch than it sold Nintendo Switch systems…” Nintendo speculates that Breath of the Wild’s record-breaking sales “may be attributed to people who purchased both a limited edition of the game to collect and a second version to play.” But I think customers are buying the game without the system because the Nintendo Switch is sold out nearly everywhere, and people are angry over it. I’ve even seen YouTube comments written by people who have done this for that reason, raging about it. But don’t worry, be happy. Nintendo is offering a $100 to $20,000 bounty in US dollars to anyone who can hack a Nintendo Switch. They’re doing this through hackerone.com, the same bug bounty company used by Uber. So, if any savvy Switch owner knows a friend who didn’t get to purchase their own system, they can possibly buy another Nintendo Switch for them and then some.
Moving on, the NES Classic Edition, a mini version of the Nintendo Entertainment System, which has 30 NES titles built into it and is only $59.99 USD, is discontinuing very soon in North America. The last batch of NES Classics is releasing this month. The NES Classic, also sold out since its release on November 10, 2016, will finally be on sale today at Best Buy along with the Nintendo Switch, with limited quantities available. (UPDATE: It’s sold out online again.) It’s unclear if the NES Classic Mini, as it is known in Europe, will be sharing the same fate in other regions. The same goes for its Japanese equivalent, the Famicom Mini. But there is a rumor that the development of a Super Famicom Mini is in the works.
In other news, CoroCoro Magazine’s Splatoon manga adaptation, written and illustrated by Sankichi Hinodeya, is getting a US release! You may have already read some fan translations of the manga online, but Viz Media will be printing and re-localizing Volume 1, which is already out in Japan. The English version of Splatoon Volume 1 is coming later this year.
Dang, that was a lot of news. If you want to know more about the overall sales of the Nintendo Switch console and games, Nintendo will be releasing its fiscal year report on April 27th. I’ll make sure to post the link to it when it comes out.
See ya later!
-Emily