This chart shows the top 30 software in terms of sales in Europe during the 1st 15 weeks of 2009. More specifically, Nintendo gathered and compiled the data from GfK’s researches in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Among them were 17 titles for Nintendo platforms, or 11 for Wii and 6 for Nintendo DS. Among these 17 titles, only one title was launched in 2009, and 9 titles were launched in 2008 and 7 titles were launched in 2007 or before.

In case of other companies’ platforms, 6 titles among 13 were launched in 2009 and 7 were launched in 2008.

The dominance of the higher positions in the chart by Nintendo DS software show the strong momentum Nintendo DS had around this time. In Europe also, the Wii platform was supported mainly by the software which were launched in the first half of 2008 or before. Animal Crossing for Wii which was not included in the top 30 chart in the U.S. was ranked 18th here, but the foundation was not there for the Wii software launched in the 2nd half of 2008 or later to be able to support the market momentum.

This chart shows the top 30 software in terms of sales in Europe during the 1st 15 weeks of 2010.

The number of the titles in the chart which were for Nintendo platforms decreased to 13 this year, including 7 for Wii and 6 for Nintendo DS. Among the 13 titles, Pokémon HeartGold Version and Pokémon SoulSliver Version were the only two titles that were launched in 2010. Eight titles were launched in 2009 and 3 were 2008 or before. In comparison, 10 titles among the total 17 titles in the chart for the other companies’ platforms were launched in 2010, and 7 others were launched in 2009. Also in Europe , the newly launched software drive sales for other companies’ platforms.

Similarly to the U.S., probably due to the reason I explained about the launch of Call of Duty, a number of big titles were launched in this period for the other companies’ platforms, even compared to a year ago. While more of such titles were launched this year than in 2009, the 3 major Nintendo titles that launched since late last year remained in the higher positions of the chart, which is the significant difference from a year ago. On the other hand, a strong presence of Nintendo DS was not observed in comparison to a year ago, which may be showing the current momentum of the platform in the marketplace.

The trend for other companies’ platforms was similar to that in the U.S. Only a few titles such as Call of Duty and FIFA2010 soccer game continued to sell since their 2009 launches.

For your information, Just Dance that Ubisoft launched in November last year was ranked No.3 in this chart. The software was ranked No.11 in the U.S. chart. Because the software has been showing unusual and interesting sales transitions, I would like to discuss this software later.

Now, I’d like to talk about the sales of our major titles.

First, let me discuss Wii Sports Resort.

As of the end of March 2010, our cumulative sales to our distributors and retail partners reached 16.14 million units.

In Europe, we added this software to a part of a Wii hardware package last fall, and little less than 20% of the cumulative sales of the software were made as bundle to the hardware.

Next is Wii Fit Plus. The cumulative sales to our distributors and retail partners reached 12.65 million units.

And, little less than 60% of them were sold as a set which included a Wii Balance Board. According to our data from Club Nintendo, the “Wii hardware purchase drive ratio” of the version with the Wii Balance Board was 41% in Japan, 47% in the U.S. and 41% in Europe. The ratios have been kept high even in this year, so we can see that Wii Fit Plus has been continuing to drive Wii hardware sales. The sales of the bundled package with Wii Balance Board have been especially good in the U.S. and in Europe, so much so that we faced an inventory shortage of Wii Balance Board as I mentioned previously.

Since the cumulative global sales of the original Wii Fit were 22.61 million as of the end of March 2010, this means that our sales of Wii Balance Board have probably exceeded 30 million units by now.

Finally, as for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the cumulative sales reached 14.7 million units.

This chart shows the transitions of the cumulative sales of New Super Mario Bros. Wii in Japan, the U.S. and in Europe. Recently, when we compare Japan, the U.S. and Europe, it is rather rare for Japanese sales in red to exceed European sales in green. But this software is very popular in Japan so that the life-to-date sales in Japan are exceeding that of Europe. When we look at the history of Japanese home console video games, no software other than the original Super Mario Bros. topped 4 million sales mark. When we look at the Japanese sales in this chart, we feel it is highly possible for New Super Mario Bros. Wii to reach 4 million in sales and beyond.

As to the reason why consumers have reacted differently to this software in Japan, the U.S., and in Europe, we think it is probably because of the different acceptance by the general public of the original Super Mario Bros. that launched 25 years ago. In Japan and in the United States, video games established its position as a part of pop culture when the original Super Mario Bros. launched back in the days when we were selling Famicom in Japan and Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short in the U.S. Back then, a lot of people must have enjoyed playing Super Mario Bros. and the fond memories must have remained in their hearts. On the contrary, in Europe, Nintendo did not have its own subsidiary to market its products, and NES did not spread as widely as in Japan or in the U.S. Because of this background, Europeans may feel less nostalgia for Super Mario than the Japanese or the Americans, which may have caused the comparatively weaker sales of this software so far in Europe.

Having said that, however, in terms of Wii’s installed base and the sales record of the software which has featured Mario so far, there is surely a big potential for Super Mario games in Europe. We are rather looking forward to the sales progress from now.

Although we launched Mario Kart Wii in the spring of 2008, not last year, its unit sales during the subject fiscal year alone reached 7.15 million. The life-to-date sales have surpassed 20 million by a large margin.

Recently in Japan, we are doing unprecedented things, such as airing new TV ads for the software we launched two years ago.

Let’s look at the sales transitions.

As you can see, the European sales of Mario Kart Wii in green exceed those of the U.S. in blue. So, we can see such a strong potential in Mario even in Europe. We’d like to take good care of New Super Mario Bros. Wii so that it can sell for very long time like this software.

When we overlay Mario Kart Wii sales transitions with New Super Mario Bros. Wii sales transitions, it looks like this.

Even when looking at the sales momentum alone, New Super Mario Bros. Wii in Japan and in the U.S. shows stronger potential than Mario Kart Wii. Even in Europe, it indicates strong potential compared with that for Mario Kart Wii.