New Pokemon has little effect on Japanese DS/3DS sales

Pokemon Black and White 2 became one of the fastest-selling DS games ever in Japan after pushing 1.6 million copies last week, but you could hardly tell there was a big release when you look at DS and 3DS hardware sales. New mainline Pokemon games tend to give a huge boost to Nintendo portable sales. Though just two years ago, the original Pokemon Black and White helped more than double hardware sales across the DS family, its sequel only gave the handhelds a slight bump (71,000 units total) during its two days on sale last week. Instead of shipping the game on its newest console, Nintendo released Pokemon Black and White 2 for its aging DS system, which many gamers in the country already own. Consumers have purchased some 33 million portables from the DS line since 2004. Though the 3DS's backwards compatibility feature enables it to play the DS game, some Japanese consumers also might have been hesitant to buy a 3DS with the game, considering that a new and bigger XL/LL model will release for the handheld this week. Only two Nintendo DS titles have sold more than Pokemon Black and White 2 during their Japanese debut week: the original Black and White that sold 2.6 million copies in September 2010, and Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX, which pushed 2.3 million units in July 2009. Full software and hardware sales charts for the June 18 to 24 period in Japan, provided by Media Create and translated on the NeoGAF forums, are available here.