Pokemon Remakes Inbound As Platinum Hits 5.7 Million

The Nintendo DS role-playing game Pokemon Platinum has sold over 5.66 million units worldwide since its September 2008 debut in Japan, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company said Friday. The impressive amount is still just a drop in the bucket as far as total worldwide Pokemon franchise videogame sales, which stand at 193 million units, according to Nintendo. Pokemon Platinum, a remake of 2007's Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, released in the US, Europe, and Australia in the first half of 2009. Nintendo also announced Friday that it would be bringing Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver to the US and Europe in spring 2010 for the DS. The games are remakes of the original Pokemon Gold and Silver games that released on Game Boy Color nearly a decade ago. Nintendo will update the games to utilize the DS' sound, graphics, and touch screen capabilities. Nintendo announced dates for the refreshed version of these earlier Pokemon games today at the 2009 Pokemon World Championships in San Diego. Pokemon originally debuted 13 years ago. Nintendo said the franchise has shown 374 percent sales growth since 2005, proving that the series is still commercially viable to this day.