14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has announced that its latest entries in the long-running Pokemon series, officially called Black Version and White Version, are set to be released on the Nintendo DS family of devices on March 6, 2011, about six months after the two titles were launched in Japan.
Nintendo has not yet announced a release date for European markets, but it has previously said that Pokemon Black and White will be arriving in both North America and Europe before the end of its current fiscal year.
As always with Pokemon titles, the two versions of the game include marginally different lists of creatures that the player can collect, encouraging gamers to share their creatures and bringing a social element to the entire Pokemon experience.
The Japanese launch of Pokemon Black and White, which took place on September 18 of this year was very successful, with the two titles managing to move more than 2.6 million copies during one weekend, significantly more than Diamond and Pearl, the two original Pokemon games that arrived before them.
In May, Nintendo has said that all Pokemon based games have managed to sell more than 20 million units since they were originally launched in 1996 when taking into account all versions and spin offs.
Pokemon Black and White delivers the innovation of only allowing the player to engage with new creatures the first time when going through the game with older more familiar little monsters only making an appearance when the game is replayed.
Nintendo has not yet talked about offering any special edition of its Nintendo DS hardware family when Black and White come to North America but considering the popularity of the titles and the recent decline in overall sales for the platform one could be announced closer to the launch date.
The launch date for Pokemon Black and White is very close to that of Dragon Age 2, from BioWare and Electronic Arts.