This chart combines the software sales for both home consoles and handheld devices. As I said before, the handheld software showed a decline while the home console software kept level with the previous year. As a result, the entire software market in Europe saw a decline.
Affected by the change in the Nintendo DS software market, Nintendo’s software sales share in Europe, which surpassed the U.S. result in 2008, was lower than that in the U.S. and in Japan.
Now, I’d also like to update you on the situation of the software titles for Nintendo platforms which have sold one million units or more.
First, let me explain about the Nintendo DS platform.
As of the end of last year, the number of Nintendo DS titles which had shipped more than a million units since their launches increased by five from first-party developers, which include Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, to come to a total of 51, and by five from third-party developers to equal 84.
Please note that we are counting the different colored versions of the same Pokémon title as one title here.
As for Wii, the number of Wii titles which had shipped more than a million units increased by five from first-party developers, which includes Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, to reach a total of 29 and by 10 from third-party developers to make it to 70.
And now, I’d like to introduce you to some titles which have shown interesting sales patterns.
First, I would like to introduce the software called "Wii Party." The worldwide sales of this software have exceeded five million units, and when we look at the way in which it is being sold, we can observe unusual regional differences.
Here is the sales data Nintendo collected from Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
When it comes to global big-hit sellers for Wii software, as a general rule, the U.S., which has the largest installed base of Wii hardware, sells the most units. However, this is not the case for the U.S. sales of "Wii Party", and Europe has the top figure. We believe that this software still has potential in the U.S., so we are planning to further promote it in order to raise this number.
From November to December of last year, "Donkey Kong Country Returns", the long-awaited sequel of the side-scrolling action game "Donkey Kong Country" for Super NES, was released almost simultaneously around the world, and this software has been well-received by consumers.
As you can see, the sales in Japan, the U.S. and Europe are travelling at a smooth pace, and correspond to the installed bases of Wii hardware in each region. For Wii, many of the evergreen titles enjoy steady sales for long periods of time, and because this software still has a lot of potential, I think it may become another evergreen Wii title.
However, the Wii software which I feel played the most important role in the last year-end sales season was not a title published by Nintendo.
Here is Ubisoft's "JUST DANCE" series which I introduced at the Financial Result Briefing last May.
This is software where users dance in front of the TV while holding a Wii Remote. The package on the left is the first iteration in the series which was released in the year-end sales season of 2009, and after becoming a long seller, the sequel was released in the 2010 year-end sales season with explosive sales.