14 DAY TRIAL // New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii, which has just been released on the Japanese market, has managed to sell 936,734 units in its first week in order to break the record for the highest sales registered on debut by a Wii release. The numbers are coming from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu that also mentions that the previous record holder was another Nintendo title, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, moving no less than 816,000 copies in its first week.
New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii has also registered very good results in the United States and in Europe, competing head to head with Modern Warfare 2, the first person shooter that arrived on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC. The two titles seem to be the best positioned to dominate sales in December, as they have brand recognition and big marketing pushes behind them, while also apparently being front runners for various Game of the Year awards.
Some analysts of the videogaming market have even predicted that New Super Mario Bros. Wii will actually beat Modern Warfare 2 in term of sales, mainly because of its bigger popularity in Japan and because it will be selling well for a longer period than the first person shooter. Reggie Fils-Aime, who is the president of Nintendo of America, is saying that he is betting on the Mario release beating out Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 when January 2010 rolls around. New Super Mario Bros. is expected to reach life time sales of no less than 15 million units.
The game is also important because it marks the first time when Mario has got multiplayer, cooperative and competitive, on the Wii, with four players being able to work together and battle each other on the various stages.