Post by Ztrl on May 23, 2007 9:30:28 GMT -5
May 22, 2007- Nintendo held a Media Summit in Seattle this week to showcase some of the games scheduled to debut this summer and beyond. To kick off the event, NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime took the podium and gave a speech about the Big N's profits and philosophies. He also touched upon a number of subjects, from upcoming games on the way to Nintendo's dedication to the hardcore player, even as it reaches out to the untapped expanded audience. Fils-Aime hyped up the recently-dated Metroid Prime 3 as the title that will appeal to the hearts of the hardcore and promised that Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would all be released later this year. Boo-yah?
Reggie's speech was originally under embargo -- as is all of our coverage -- but after some online sites decided to ignore this embargo and post up the speech anyway, NOA relented and allowed everybody to run with it. We've transcribed the speech in full for readers below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the history of the videogame industry here in the United States, only one company has ever been the number-one manufacturer of a hardware console, the number-one manufacturer of a portable console, the number-one game publisher and the owner of America's top-selling game all at the same time. The company was Nintendo back in the 80s. And now today we've done it all over again.
The second point is a sales chart -- one of the few I'll show. What this shows is the monthly cumulative sell-through for hardware in the US for this year. If you can't see it clearly there in the back, the red line all the way at the top is Nintendo DS. The second line is Wii. The third line, interestingly, is PS2, not PS3. PS3 is down there at the bottom, just holding off Game Boy Advance. [Laughter from the crowd]
This is a chart that demonstrates what momentum is all about. And I think what you're going to see today is that Nintendo has momentum and will continue to have momentum all through the summer and all through the balance of the year.
For the moment, let me go past individual company fortunes and instead talk about some broader trends going on not only in the US, but worldwide. Broader trends that we believe really help showcase where the industry is going and our role in it, and that truly is the big story. Let's start with Japan. Last year in Japan, more than half of all games sold played only on the Nintendo DS. In other words, more than half of the software purchased by consumers was just on one machine. Also in Japan consider this: during the last console generation for GameCube, less than half of those systems were set up in the living room. Today with Wii it's over 75 percent set up right there in the main room of Japanese households. Something is clearly happening.
Let's move on. Here in Europe, both of the rival home console systems are selling at slower rates than their predecessors. Now that's shocking. And in the last weekly sales data that I saw out of France, of the top 15 best-selling games, all were for Nintendo platforms. Something is clearly happening in Europe.
Reggie shows off some of Nintendo's expanded audience games.
Here in the US I can share some detailed market information on what is happening and what we believe are the early signs of a significant market change. In less than a year and a half, there's been huge movement in the consumer make-up of consumers buy Nintendo DS. For example, the number of female purchases for the hardware system is up 42 percent. The number of people purchasing Nintendo DS over the age of 30 is up 127 percent. If you narrow that band down to consumers over 35, the increase jumps to 212 percent. The reason for this widening appeal is no secret -- we've been talking about it for quite some time. It draws directly from the new type of software that's being introduced to these new consumers. Here's an example. We look at the percent of female purchasers for a typical DS game like Mario Kart. You can see here that female purchasers represent only about 12 percent, but look how these other games perform. Nintendogs is double that percentage. Brain Age: Big Brain Academy is also significantly representing purchasers that are female. Let's look at another set of bars -- bars that represent consumers age 25 and up. Here both Kart and Nintendogs range from a third to 40 percent of all purchases. The Brain games are over half. I don't think there has ever been software in this industry driving this type of profile.
For Wii, it comes as no surprise that a year ago -- just about at this time, a few weeks before -- we were at a substantial deficit in terms of awareness for the console and also purchasing intent. But certainly when we showed up at E3 the lid blew off. We certainly got gamers in the industry device. But as much as it pains me to say it, not all consumers are interested in what happens at E3. What we needed to do was to make the message to the core and reach non-gamers, lapsed gamers, people who haven't played games either never or certainly in a very long time. And we did that. When it happened, we became a viral and cultural phenomenon all to itself, driving all types of activity in the online real as well as in the real world. So today by a number of different measures we have a comfortable lead in terms of purchase intent. But is what is more compelling is what's going on inside the households that have a Wii. There's no question that consumers are picking up a controller that have never played videogames before and they're enjoying it and having a phenomenal time.
Couple other facts. Our parent company has reported that 40 percent of owners around the world have already connected to the Internet using WiiConnect24. That's not just for the millions of the games that they've downloaded so far. It's for all types of activities. Everything from sharing their Miis after they've created them to accessing the Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes Channel... it's becoming a part of everyday life for many consumers.
Here in the US, owners are telling us what's going on inside their household. It's not surprising that 95 percent of males age six to 24 are playing Wii on a regular basis -- that's expected. But look what's happening to other people within the household. So this first column looks at males between the age of 25 and 49. 95 percent are reporting that they've tried Wii and then there's the percent reporting that they're playing on a regular basis, which is just over 60 percent. Now let's add women to that same age band. Women 25 to 49. Almost a third are regular users. Three quarters say that they've at least tried the system. What about men over 50? 16 percent are saying that they're playing regularly. Men over 50. Females over 50. Now this is amazing. 10 percent are saying that they're regular users of the Wii. I have to believe that this is an industry first.
A few more Wii tidbits. We've researched something called a Net Promoter index. The concept is really simple. It's looking at the percentage of users for a particular system that say that they recommend the system to their friends and family and you subtract from that the percent of those consumers who say that they wouldn't to get a Net score. On that, Wii stands alone with a Net Promoter score of 85 percent. The next closest competitor is Nintendo DS at 65 percent. Now, because I'm a nice guy and all you know how nice I am, I'm not going to show the competitive numbers, but to suffice it to say nobody comes close -- no one scores over 50 percent in this measure and some are down in the teens.
So to complete this thought, a couple of final examples about how the market seems to be changing in unprecedented ways. First, every publisher knows that the shelf life for games is extremely short. If you don't capture someone's attention in the first few weeks or even in the first couple of months post launch, typically you're not going to sell a lot of software. Typically, games don't have legs. But consider a couple of examples. Brain Age is already a year old in America and so far this year it's a top 25 title. Another example: the first Nintendogs arrived in the US in August of 2005 -- almost two years ago -- and it's still in the top 25. What you're seeing here is that some games -- games that appeal to a much wider audience -- can stay on best-seller lists indefinitely as along as they appeal to a wide demographic.
Sweet, sweet Samus -- if only Reggie had demoed you.
But maybe most intriguing is the change in the perennial post holiday time period -- the slump, as we call it within the industry. Everyone knows that more than half of our revenues are generated in November and December and that typically software sales go in the doldrums for the next quarter after the holidays. But we believe that as the audience widens, we shouldn't be as dependent on that key holiday selling season and, in fact, if we are successful these consumers will be buying throughout the year because gaming is so new to them, the software is so new, they'll constantly be in the marketplace buying more.
One way to measure this is to look at the number of systems sold in November and December and compare to the number sold in the next three months - -the following January, February and March quarter. Now, I could show you a great number using this technique for Wii, but that wouldn't be fair because we're selling out everything we put in the marketplace. So instead let's look at this for Nintendo DS. Comparing holiday of 04 with the first quarter of 05, we saw unit sales in that January through March time period at 35 percent of what they were in the preceding November and December combined. The following year -- holiday 05 and into 06 -- the numbers were larger in the absolute, but the ratio stayed the same. 35 percent in that first quarter. Now, let's start focusing on 05 and 06 -- and 06 was the year that we expanded the audience and it really started to take hold; Nintendogs, Brain games, several other audience-expansion titles and a new DS model that brought attention to a much wider demographic. That would've boosted the holidays, which you see, but what about the following months? From January to March this year, our sell-through on hardware was a full 49 percent of what it had been in November and December, and that's with DS essentially being out of stock in January. In fact, during the first quarter of this year, we actually sold more hardware than we did during the holiday of 2004.
So in our view these signs really do indicate that the overall videogame industry is changing. Let's give you our view as to the why. In the past, you've heard us talk about blue ocean strategy and innovator's dilemma and our role in this industry as a disruptor. But let me showcase for you another way to think about what it is that we're doing in this marketplace -- another way to look at our strategy. For as long as many of you have been in this industry and for as long as this industry has been in existence, there's been one prevailing view as to how to drive sales of a particular hardware system, and that's to go activate the core and push out demand from there as wide as possible. If you drive activity to that center group, they will drive everything. Whether your game is Mario or Madden, Zelda or Resident Evil, start it there and expand out. If that core loves the game, they'll talk to other people -- they'll talk to people a little bit further out on the fringe and get them interested in the game. It continues to build and eventually you get to the more casual consumers, expanding outward. In the best of all worlds, this game becomes such a big deal that it motivates you to buy hardware just to play that one game. Of course, everybody would be happier if that's all that was published -- games of that caliber. But because everybody is playing with the same dynamic, it's hard to break through all the clutter.
What we're doing with both DS and Wii is to add an extra dimension to the model. Games like Nintendogs, Brain games and Wii Sports are designed to reside outside from the core -- to play on the outskirts of this model. It's not easy to do. These games are designed to attract people that have never played videogames before -- you might consider them satellites to the main market. But if those games are successful, as these games have been, they begin to exert a second force on this gaming universe. Instead of just pushing demand out, what they work to do is expand the outskirts of the market to include them, so instead of just push it becomes a push/pull. The result, as we're seeing, is an expansion of the game market.
Because of this dynamic we don't consider Sony and Microsoft as our only competitors. Instead, we're really competing with other leisure time entertainment, especially for that expanded audience. If people decide to stay home on a Saturday night and play Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win. If consumers spend 22 minutes making their perfect Mii instead of watching a sitcom, we win.
Now, in talking through all of this, there's a danger. You might assume, wrongly, that our differentiation strategy, the pull part of what we're trying to do is all we care about. So let me be clear: nothing could be further from the truth. We understand that if we don't satisfy that core gamer, it won't matter how successful we are on the outer edges. And as I've said more than once, our vision is to be an 'and' company, not an 'or' company. We're not for one group or the other; we're for the expanded audience and the core.
I'll tell you, sometimes it's really difficult when you launch a stellar game to differentiate between the two. Take Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Are they core games or expanded audience games? Sometimes our view is that they are in a category all by themselves. In just two weeks of availability during the month of April, these two games sold through 1.7 million copies. That made them not only the best-selling games of the month, but just during those two weeks of availability, the best-selling games of the year. Now, I know that Mr. Iwata and I take a great deal of pride in being able to say that currently we're the top game publisher, and these two games might keep that claim going for quite some time.
Our next big attack on the expanded audience comes with Brain Age 2 for DS, due to launch on August 20. In Japan, according to Famitsu, this second installment in the Brain game series is even more popular than the first, already selling through to an audience 25 percent larger than the original Brain Age. The goal of the game is the same, but the path is entirely different. In this one, you'll be challenged with everything from word scrambles to a game called piano player to rock, paper scissors. And let me tell you, when you're demoing the game and you play rock, paper scissors, and you need to do it in reverse, so to lose to the other item, it will make your head explode.
A couple new Touch Generation games. Picross and Planet Puzzle League for DS are both designed to appeal to a much wider demographic.
And more market expansion is on the way for Wii with games that expanded their reach due to WiiConnect24. As I mentioned before, Pokemon expands the gaming universe in a unique way and by captivating millions of eight, nine and 10 year-olds every year, it doesn't just sell games -- it creates gamers for life. With Pokemon Battle Revolution as the first game to link Wii and Nintendo DS to live play, four separate players can share in the action all at once.
Then there's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Up to eight players that can compete simultaneously and then compare scores with others that are thousands of miles away through the WiiConnect24 system.
Then there's Mario Strikers Charged that also employs Wi-Fi play to connect you to opponents at a distance. With the online experience, it keeps the action going for hours on end. This is going to be, I think, a favorite game for many of you.
Let me pause for a moment to comment on a franchise that's now moving into version number eight. So what could be new with Mario Party 8? Well, play for the first time with the Wii remote and then tell me that it's not more fun than all of its predecessors.
So let me take a final minute to talk a little bit more about the core. By some people's definition, the last time Nintendo published a true core game was GoldenEye. But in our minds Mario, Zelda and Smash are also core games and that's because you can't find a core gamer who can say that they've never played those games. And later on this year you'll be playing Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
Let me assure you that our third party partners will also meet the needs of both audiences. As you know, third party development is moving enthusiastically to the Wii because of the innovation and because of the potential return on investment. And despite what you might have heard, to date in the US third parties have sold more Wii games than Nintendo has, and this includes all the success we've had with Zelda and Wii play.
Still, it wouldn't seem right if there weren't at least one Nintendo first party game that seemed destined to appeal right at the heart of the core, and so we've got that game too: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Of course, you know the franchise, but you've never played it this way before. Some of the people in the Treehouse say that this will reinvent the control scheme for a first-person shooter. That this is the closest you can get to a PC control in a platform game and that it breaks through the lens of how you play.
Whether you're a hardcore or first-time player, it all boils down to this -- it all boils down to a definition of fun. It's not enough to define fun just based on things looking a little bit better; they've got to feel a whole lot better. I hope you're going to get that feeling when you're upstairs demoing these games. And I know that feeling is going to grow as we prepare for the new E3 and as we get further into the fall and prepare for the holiday season. So with that, I want to thank you.
Reggie's speech was originally under embargo -- as is all of our coverage -- but after some online sites decided to ignore this embargo and post up the speech anyway, NOA relented and allowed everybody to run with it. We've transcribed the speech in full for readers below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the history of the videogame industry here in the United States, only one company has ever been the number-one manufacturer of a hardware console, the number-one manufacturer of a portable console, the number-one game publisher and the owner of America's top-selling game all at the same time. The company was Nintendo back in the 80s. And now today we've done it all over again.
The second point is a sales chart -- one of the few I'll show. What this shows is the monthly cumulative sell-through for hardware in the US for this year. If you can't see it clearly there in the back, the red line all the way at the top is Nintendo DS. The second line is Wii. The third line, interestingly, is PS2, not PS3. PS3 is down there at the bottom, just holding off Game Boy Advance. [Laughter from the crowd]
This is a chart that demonstrates what momentum is all about. And I think what you're going to see today is that Nintendo has momentum and will continue to have momentum all through the summer and all through the balance of the year.
For the moment, let me go past individual company fortunes and instead talk about some broader trends going on not only in the US, but worldwide. Broader trends that we believe really help showcase where the industry is going and our role in it, and that truly is the big story. Let's start with Japan. Last year in Japan, more than half of all games sold played only on the Nintendo DS. In other words, more than half of the software purchased by consumers was just on one machine. Also in Japan consider this: during the last console generation for GameCube, less than half of those systems were set up in the living room. Today with Wii it's over 75 percent set up right there in the main room of Japanese households. Something is clearly happening.
Let's move on. Here in Europe, both of the rival home console systems are selling at slower rates than their predecessors. Now that's shocking. And in the last weekly sales data that I saw out of France, of the top 15 best-selling games, all were for Nintendo platforms. Something is clearly happening in Europe.
Reggie shows off some of Nintendo's expanded audience games.
Here in the US I can share some detailed market information on what is happening and what we believe are the early signs of a significant market change. In less than a year and a half, there's been huge movement in the consumer make-up of consumers buy Nintendo DS. For example, the number of female purchases for the hardware system is up 42 percent. The number of people purchasing Nintendo DS over the age of 30 is up 127 percent. If you narrow that band down to consumers over 35, the increase jumps to 212 percent. The reason for this widening appeal is no secret -- we've been talking about it for quite some time. It draws directly from the new type of software that's being introduced to these new consumers. Here's an example. We look at the percent of female purchasers for a typical DS game like Mario Kart. You can see here that female purchasers represent only about 12 percent, but look how these other games perform. Nintendogs is double that percentage. Brain Age: Big Brain Academy is also significantly representing purchasers that are female. Let's look at another set of bars -- bars that represent consumers age 25 and up. Here both Kart and Nintendogs range from a third to 40 percent of all purchases. The Brain games are over half. I don't think there has ever been software in this industry driving this type of profile.
For Wii, it comes as no surprise that a year ago -- just about at this time, a few weeks before -- we were at a substantial deficit in terms of awareness for the console and also purchasing intent. But certainly when we showed up at E3 the lid blew off. We certainly got gamers in the industry device. But as much as it pains me to say it, not all consumers are interested in what happens at E3. What we needed to do was to make the message to the core and reach non-gamers, lapsed gamers, people who haven't played games either never or certainly in a very long time. And we did that. When it happened, we became a viral and cultural phenomenon all to itself, driving all types of activity in the online real as well as in the real world. So today by a number of different measures we have a comfortable lead in terms of purchase intent. But is what is more compelling is what's going on inside the households that have a Wii. There's no question that consumers are picking up a controller that have never played videogames before and they're enjoying it and having a phenomenal time.
Couple other facts. Our parent company has reported that 40 percent of owners around the world have already connected to the Internet using WiiConnect24. That's not just for the millions of the games that they've downloaded so far. It's for all types of activities. Everything from sharing their Miis after they've created them to accessing the Forecast Channel, Everybody Votes Channel... it's becoming a part of everyday life for many consumers.
Here in the US, owners are telling us what's going on inside their household. It's not surprising that 95 percent of males age six to 24 are playing Wii on a regular basis -- that's expected. But look what's happening to other people within the household. So this first column looks at males between the age of 25 and 49. 95 percent are reporting that they've tried Wii and then there's the percent reporting that they're playing on a regular basis, which is just over 60 percent. Now let's add women to that same age band. Women 25 to 49. Almost a third are regular users. Three quarters say that they've at least tried the system. What about men over 50? 16 percent are saying that they're playing regularly. Men over 50. Females over 50. Now this is amazing. 10 percent are saying that they're regular users of the Wii. I have to believe that this is an industry first.
A few more Wii tidbits. We've researched something called a Net Promoter index. The concept is really simple. It's looking at the percentage of users for a particular system that say that they recommend the system to their friends and family and you subtract from that the percent of those consumers who say that they wouldn't to get a Net score. On that, Wii stands alone with a Net Promoter score of 85 percent. The next closest competitor is Nintendo DS at 65 percent. Now, because I'm a nice guy and all you know how nice I am, I'm not going to show the competitive numbers, but to suffice it to say nobody comes close -- no one scores over 50 percent in this measure and some are down in the teens.
So to complete this thought, a couple of final examples about how the market seems to be changing in unprecedented ways. First, every publisher knows that the shelf life for games is extremely short. If you don't capture someone's attention in the first few weeks or even in the first couple of months post launch, typically you're not going to sell a lot of software. Typically, games don't have legs. But consider a couple of examples. Brain Age is already a year old in America and so far this year it's a top 25 title. Another example: the first Nintendogs arrived in the US in August of 2005 -- almost two years ago -- and it's still in the top 25. What you're seeing here is that some games -- games that appeal to a much wider audience -- can stay on best-seller lists indefinitely as along as they appeal to a wide demographic.
Sweet, sweet Samus -- if only Reggie had demoed you.
But maybe most intriguing is the change in the perennial post holiday time period -- the slump, as we call it within the industry. Everyone knows that more than half of our revenues are generated in November and December and that typically software sales go in the doldrums for the next quarter after the holidays. But we believe that as the audience widens, we shouldn't be as dependent on that key holiday selling season and, in fact, if we are successful these consumers will be buying throughout the year because gaming is so new to them, the software is so new, they'll constantly be in the marketplace buying more.
One way to measure this is to look at the number of systems sold in November and December and compare to the number sold in the next three months - -the following January, February and March quarter. Now, I could show you a great number using this technique for Wii, but that wouldn't be fair because we're selling out everything we put in the marketplace. So instead let's look at this for Nintendo DS. Comparing holiday of 04 with the first quarter of 05, we saw unit sales in that January through March time period at 35 percent of what they were in the preceding November and December combined. The following year -- holiday 05 and into 06 -- the numbers were larger in the absolute, but the ratio stayed the same. 35 percent in that first quarter. Now, let's start focusing on 05 and 06 -- and 06 was the year that we expanded the audience and it really started to take hold; Nintendogs, Brain games, several other audience-expansion titles and a new DS model that brought attention to a much wider demographic. That would've boosted the holidays, which you see, but what about the following months? From January to March this year, our sell-through on hardware was a full 49 percent of what it had been in November and December, and that's with DS essentially being out of stock in January. In fact, during the first quarter of this year, we actually sold more hardware than we did during the holiday of 2004.
So in our view these signs really do indicate that the overall videogame industry is changing. Let's give you our view as to the why. In the past, you've heard us talk about blue ocean strategy and innovator's dilemma and our role in this industry as a disruptor. But let me showcase for you another way to think about what it is that we're doing in this marketplace -- another way to look at our strategy. For as long as many of you have been in this industry and for as long as this industry has been in existence, there's been one prevailing view as to how to drive sales of a particular hardware system, and that's to go activate the core and push out demand from there as wide as possible. If you drive activity to that center group, they will drive everything. Whether your game is Mario or Madden, Zelda or Resident Evil, start it there and expand out. If that core loves the game, they'll talk to other people -- they'll talk to people a little bit further out on the fringe and get them interested in the game. It continues to build and eventually you get to the more casual consumers, expanding outward. In the best of all worlds, this game becomes such a big deal that it motivates you to buy hardware just to play that one game. Of course, everybody would be happier if that's all that was published -- games of that caliber. But because everybody is playing with the same dynamic, it's hard to break through all the clutter.
What we're doing with both DS and Wii is to add an extra dimension to the model. Games like Nintendogs, Brain games and Wii Sports are designed to reside outside from the core -- to play on the outskirts of this model. It's not easy to do. These games are designed to attract people that have never played videogames before -- you might consider them satellites to the main market. But if those games are successful, as these games have been, they begin to exert a second force on this gaming universe. Instead of just pushing demand out, what they work to do is expand the outskirts of the market to include them, so instead of just push it becomes a push/pull. The result, as we're seeing, is an expansion of the game market.
Because of this dynamic we don't consider Sony and Microsoft as our only competitors. Instead, we're really competing with other leisure time entertainment, especially for that expanded audience. If people decide to stay home on a Saturday night and play Wii bowling instead of going to the movies, we win. If consumers spend 22 minutes making their perfect Mii instead of watching a sitcom, we win.
Now, in talking through all of this, there's a danger. You might assume, wrongly, that our differentiation strategy, the pull part of what we're trying to do is all we care about. So let me be clear: nothing could be further from the truth. We understand that if we don't satisfy that core gamer, it won't matter how successful we are on the outer edges. And as I've said more than once, our vision is to be an 'and' company, not an 'or' company. We're not for one group or the other; we're for the expanded audience and the core.
I'll tell you, sometimes it's really difficult when you launch a stellar game to differentiate between the two. Take Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Are they core games or expanded audience games? Sometimes our view is that they are in a category all by themselves. In just two weeks of availability during the month of April, these two games sold through 1.7 million copies. That made them not only the best-selling games of the month, but just during those two weeks of availability, the best-selling games of the year. Now, I know that Mr. Iwata and I take a great deal of pride in being able to say that currently we're the top game publisher, and these two games might keep that claim going for quite some time.
Our next big attack on the expanded audience comes with Brain Age 2 for DS, due to launch on August 20. In Japan, according to Famitsu, this second installment in the Brain game series is even more popular than the first, already selling through to an audience 25 percent larger than the original Brain Age. The goal of the game is the same, but the path is entirely different. In this one, you'll be challenged with everything from word scrambles to a game called piano player to rock, paper scissors. And let me tell you, when you're demoing the game and you play rock, paper scissors, and you need to do it in reverse, so to lose to the other item, it will make your head explode.
A couple new Touch Generation games. Picross and Planet Puzzle League for DS are both designed to appeal to a much wider demographic.
And more market expansion is on the way for Wii with games that expanded their reach due to WiiConnect24. As I mentioned before, Pokemon expands the gaming universe in a unique way and by captivating millions of eight, nine and 10 year-olds every year, it doesn't just sell games -- it creates gamers for life. With Pokemon Battle Revolution as the first game to link Wii and Nintendo DS to live play, four separate players can share in the action all at once.
Then there's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Up to eight players that can compete simultaneously and then compare scores with others that are thousands of miles away through the WiiConnect24 system.
Then there's Mario Strikers Charged that also employs Wi-Fi play to connect you to opponents at a distance. With the online experience, it keeps the action going for hours on end. This is going to be, I think, a favorite game for many of you.
Let me pause for a moment to comment on a franchise that's now moving into version number eight. So what could be new with Mario Party 8? Well, play for the first time with the Wii remote and then tell me that it's not more fun than all of its predecessors.
So let me take a final minute to talk a little bit more about the core. By some people's definition, the last time Nintendo published a true core game was GoldenEye. But in our minds Mario, Zelda and Smash are also core games and that's because you can't find a core gamer who can say that they've never played those games. And later on this year you'll be playing Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
Let me assure you that our third party partners will also meet the needs of both audiences. As you know, third party development is moving enthusiastically to the Wii because of the innovation and because of the potential return on investment. And despite what you might have heard, to date in the US third parties have sold more Wii games than Nintendo has, and this includes all the success we've had with Zelda and Wii play.
Still, it wouldn't seem right if there weren't at least one Nintendo first party game that seemed destined to appeal right at the heart of the core, and so we've got that game too: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Of course, you know the franchise, but you've never played it this way before. Some of the people in the Treehouse say that this will reinvent the control scheme for a first-person shooter. That this is the closest you can get to a PC control in a platform game and that it breaks through the lens of how you play.
Whether you're a hardcore or first-time player, it all boils down to this -- it all boils down to a definition of fun. It's not enough to define fun just based on things looking a little bit better; they've got to feel a whole lot better. I hope you're going to get that feeling when you're upstairs demoing these games. And I know that feeling is going to grow as we prepare for the new E3 and as we get further into the fall and prepare for the holiday season. So with that, I want to thank you.
