Something tells me that Nintendo's (Pink Sheets: NTDOY) Wii console is continuing to surprise everybody.
However, that is not the only surprise coming from the hose of Mario this week.
More on that in a few minutes, though: the first order of business today is a surprise in and of itself, as the Wii comes storming through Japan after a 22 percent sales drop forced most of us to think that the console itself was threatening to go all "passing fad" on us -- literally. Indeed, the Wii's performance -- tracked by Media Create Co. for the week of Feb. 5 through Feb. 11, 2007 -- saw Wii hardware sales increase to 78,550 -- up from 65,740 during the previous week. That is an increase of nearly 84 percent!
On top of that, two software titles for the Wii platform ranked in top ten for all software sales during the same week -- as reported by videogame community site Punch Jump -- with Wii Sports at No. 2 and Wii Play at No. 3. Additionally, six titles for the Wii platform ranked in the top 50 of overall software sales, beating out every other next-generation console currently on the market.
Media Create also reports that Wii Sports -- currently only sold separately from the Wii in Japan as it is a console sales "pack-in" nearly everywhere else, including the United States -- is now officially a platinum title, with just over 1 million units sold to date. Obviously, this means that when you include the game's distribution in-box with the Wii itself in nearly every other global market, you have a title that is (unofficially) a multi-platinum title as well. Consequentially, this means that Wii Sports has officially joined Zelda: Twilight Princess as the Wii's second official platinum-seller title released to date.
Now I do not personally know about you, but that makes me hungry for even more mini-game action on the Wii. On that note, I can safely say that Wii Play is now officially available across the entire world now, since the last couple of weeks mark the official availability of the first official follow-up to Wii Sports here in the States. Admittedly, however, my guess on the ability to actually find the game may be a stretch thanks to the inclusion of a second Wiimote (that's short for Wii Remote, if you will) which is packed in with the game like Wii Sports is with the Wii itself.
Finally, here is the surprise I mentioned earlier: starting this week, Nintendo is looking hard for the opinions of its fans -- literally -- as a new, survey-themed Wii Channel hits the 'Net for owners of the console. Launched on about Tuesday or Wednesday -- depending on where you live -- the new Everybody Votes Channel makes opinion polling a lot more fun. Users must perform a Wii system update, then they can download the required software from the Wii Shop Channel's Wii Ware page without charge -- like they did for the beta version of the Opera browser for use with the Wii. At that point, they can vote on a number of general-topic questions such as whether they prefer dogs or cats, would rather give roses over chocolates on Valentines Day -- you get the idea. It is also possible that Nintendo could throw in a few market-research questions as well at some point in time.
After voting on a topic, users can vote on which answer they believe will be the most popular, and can track their predictions on a win/loss scale. They can also view the twelve most recent topics on which they voted to see how accurate their answers were for a specific topic. Players can also compare results globally as well as within a player's own family.
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