Pokémon GO mania, Yokai Watch 3 decline plus all the week’s games and news
● The biggest Nintendo-related news of the week is the worldwide domination of Pokémon GO. It finally launched in Japan on Friday where it quickly became number one on both the free and top grossing charts, it caused Nintendo stocks to rise (including at one point above Sony) and over 50 million people have downloaded worldwide on Android with similar numbers expected on iOS. Legendary Entertainment also announced they will start production of a Detective Pikachu movie in 2017.
● The second biggest news of the week is the decline of the main Pokémon competition in the Yokai Watch series with the most recent entry (Yokai Watch 3) selling less than half of both Yokai Watch 2 entries and even less than the spin-off Yokai Watch Busters with around 600,000 copies sold in its opening weekend. The franchise is still heavily popular and has now sold over 10 million Japanese 3DS retail games alone, although the popularity levels of 2014-15 are unlikely to be reached again.
● Huge week next week with Puzzle & Dragons X releasing on 3DS alongside the Thomas the Tank Engine Tetsudou Nippon game and on the eShop; Mini Sport Soul, Shift DX, Stickman Super Athletics and three Visual Novel games from a new FuRyu label ‘Kataruhito’. Wii U sees the DS games Animal Crossing: Wild World and Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia on the Virtual Console plus the Wii games Xenoblade and Minna no Rhythm Tengoku. Eight more Wii games will follow in August.
● Other new games announced include the third Kobito Zukan 3DS game Kobito Game Taizen by Nippon Columbia on 6 October, the third PriPara 3DS game PriPara Mezameyo! Megami no Dress Design by Takara Tomy Arts for November release plus Welcome! Pet Hotel by Starsign as a localisation of the 3DS retail game ‘I Love My Pets’ to the 3DS eShop on 3 August. Check out the Release Schedule (here) for all the unreleased Japanese 3DS, Wii U (and NX!) games and amiibo.
● In other news: Metroid Prime: Blast Ball was delivered free on the Japanese 3DS eShop along with a demo for Kirby Planet Robobot (and both Etrian Odyssey V and Touch Battle Tank 3D-4), Animal Crossing: New Leaf will receive amiibo support this Autumn, Collectible Badge Center was updated with prefecture and pixelated Pokémon badges, Miitomo will get Super Mario t-shirts soon and the Kirby Café website is now open at http://kirbycafe.jp/. Thanks for following and have a great week!
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