Nintendo Sees Pokemon, GBA Sales Boost

Nintendo has announced that Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen, both released on the Game Boy Advance on September 7th, combined to sell more than 1 million units in North America within the first 21 days of its availability, an impressive total for a franchise that some expected to burn out years ago. The pair of titles have already sold over 2 and a quarter million copies in Japan (with pseudosequel Pokémon Emerald selling over 750,000 copies in just its first week of Japanese release), showing that the Pokémon handheld franchise has lost relatively little power in multiple territories. In addition, since its September 2nd U.S. price drop to an MSRP of $79.99, Game Boy Advance SP sales are up 70 percent, likely also helped by the Pokémon launch. Nintendo UK has also announced that, following the GBA SP's reduction to UKP69.99 ($126) in that territory on September 24th, sales in the UK were up over 150% compared to the same period the previous week. Even with competition from Sony's PSP (or not, if you believe claims that the PSP is a very different type of device), and Nintendo's DS semi-successor also due for launch in the next few months, it seems that Nintendo's low price point for GBA will ensue significant and continuing sales in multiple territories, further increasing the handheld's installed base.