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The
Japanese firm said it sold 4.3 million copies of "Super Mario
Bros. Wonder" - the first entirely new installment in the almost
40-year-old side-scrolling series in a decade - within two weeks
of its Oct. 20 launch.
That is the best performance of any "Super Mario" title,
Nintendo said, as it takes advantage of the Switch install base
of more than 130 million units and interest generated by a
barnstorming animated movie featuring the moustachioed plumber.
"The Switch will enter its eighth year from March 2024 but we
will continue to develop new titles without being bound by
previous platform lifecycles," Nintendo President Shuntaro
Furukawa told a strategy briefing.
The comments come a day after Nintendo reported it sold 6.84
million Switch units in the first six months of the financial
year that started in April, a slight increase on the same period
a year earlier.
Sales of first-party Switch games were the strongest of any year
over that period other than 2020, Nintendo said, boosted by
bumper titles such "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom".
Nintendo also announced on Wednesday "Super Mario" creator
Shigeru Miyamoto is developing a live action adaptation of the
"Zelda" franchise.
Games slated for release next year include "Mario vs. Donkey
Kong" and "Luigi's Mansion 2 HD".
The timing of a successor to the hybrid home/portable Switch
device will depend on the strength of Nintendo's hardware and
software sales, wrote Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal in a client
note, flagging March and October as possible launch windows.
"The stronger the sales, the later the launch of Switch 2," he
wrote.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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