Nintendo makes big bucks in March despite industry slump.

[Great Rumbler]

And now for some positive Nintendo news!!

Sales of videogames were up 8% in March over February sales, but without Nintendo's top three games analysts say sales would have been down about 8%. According to NPD numbers the Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker sold 826,352 copies during March Nintendo's Pokemon games took the #2 and #3 spots. However, besides Nintendo the industry didn't do so well during March. "We view the March industry software data as disappointing, noting that, excluding the strong software sell-through by Nintendo, industry software sales would have been down 8.3 percent," said J.P. Morgan analyst Dean Gianoukos.

Nintendo's sales during March were estimated to be $105.5 million which is up 168% from last year. $41 million of those sales came solely from the Wind Waker. This was also well ahead of the second most profitable company, Electronic Arts, who earned an estimated $62.3 million.

Console sales in general were up 36% over February, and Game Boy Advance sales were up 32%. Overall, Playstation 2 held a 37.8% market share after March, Xbox was second with 14.7%, and GameCube just behind with 10.7%.

N-Philes

[OB1]

Good news, but Nintendo is still behind MS in hardware sales.

[Great Rumbler]

True, but they still made a ton of money.

[OB1]

Sure.

[A Black Falcon]

Money is alright, but I'd take sales any day of the week...

[Laser Link]

Wow, Wind Waker outsold the Pokémon games. Although in fairness, combined they probably outsold Zelda. Still good news. IGN was saying that Zelda had not sold much more than the preorders, and this looks like 200K more than the preorders.

[Nintendarse]

While Pokemon combined sold 1.23 million, Zelda's .83 million is no slouch. I think it's kind of ludicrous to say, "Without Nintendo's games, the market would have fallen 8.3%." What a total dismissal of Nintendo as a piece of the industry. I mean, look at an equivalent statement: "Without GTA: Vice City, sales in October, November, and December would have been down 10% year-over-year." But because the analysts are so focused on the companies they cover, they forget that Nintendo IS in the industry. That Nintendo matters.

On a slightly disappointing note, Zelda seems to be selling directly to the current Gamecube audience (meaning Gamecube probably didn't outsell Xbox in March). But honestly, that's kind of obvious. When you look at Zelda, the first thing on your mind usually isn't, "Wow, this is going to open up an entirely new audience to Gamecube!" So no biggie, right?

[Dark Jaguar]

I still haven't got either version of the gem series. I take it that it's just like the color and metal series (as in same game but with a few different pokémon) though right? I wish they would take a clue from the Oracle games and make different quests for each version, in effect making them each their own game... As it is, I will eventually get one of them, but I'll likely only get one version this time around.

[A Black Falcon]

But why make two seperate games when you can make one and sell two versions of it and get a lot of suckers to buy both? Doesn't make sense to me... :)

[Darunia]

Wow, Wind Waker is flying...800+K units in it's first month. Nintendo won't be seeing thats like that again for a long time, I fear.