February sales aftermath incites trading of Nintendo DS titles

NPD’s February sales estimates crowned the Nintendo DS the winner, with 458,000 units sold in the United States. The stock was unchanged as strong sales for Nintendo Co Ltd’s portable were expected and already priced into the stock. The stock, at 6,830.95 DKP, forecasts 68.3 million units will be sold globally.

Rare Ltd’s Diddy Kong Racing (DS) came in third place among software titles, with an estimated 262,031 copies sold. The game was expected to bust down doors as the original had sold 4.88 million copies. The game debuted on the simExchange at 275 DKP, forecasting 2.5 million copies would be sold globally. The stock started strong out of the gate, but began to decline on January 29 and tumbled when the critic reviewed the game as mediocre.

The stock was only down slightly yesterday, shedding 1.35% to 226.73 DKP, a forecast of 2.27 million copies sold globally. It appears Diddy Kong Racing’s #3 debut was inline with the lowered forecast.

Nintendo Co Ltd’s Yoshi’s Island DS was the strongest gainer yesterday, rising 9.83% to 141.49 DKP, forecasting 1.41 million copies sold globally. The game was the #9 portable game, with an estimated 46,752 copies sold in February. Some estimates point to a total of 1.35 million copies sold globally. The continued strong performance in Yoshi’s Island DS surprised many traders as the market price of the stock had only forecast 1.28 million copies would be sold globally.

However, Nintendo was not all wins in February. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 saw its shares plunge yesterday, falling 11.53% to 29.61 DKP, forecasting 296,100 copies sold globally. The game had sold an estimated “abysmal” 13,500 copies for a total of 37,000 copies in North America. This was one game that traders had bet as a “sleeper hit” from strong buzz and word-of-mouth around the web. However, the stock dropped as fast as it went up.

Even with a diminished outlook following disappointing January sales, forecasts still remained above 350,000 copies. However, chibitofu warned that “even as a word of mouth game it suffers from not ever having the ardent zealot fanboyism that came with Phoenix Wright and the like.” The stock is currently trading at 29.14 DKP, down a modest 1.59% for the day.

Even “ardent zealot fanboyism” could not save Capcom’s Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All (DS), as it plummeted 10.14% yesterday and continued to drop another 8.75% today. Estimates indicate the game only sold 19,250 copies in February, totaling 54,750 copies sold in North America. This game is a DS remake of the Japanese lawyer game Gyakuten Saiban 2 (GBA) that was only released in Japan. Many traders had forecast blockbuster sales, believing the word of mouth and buzz for the first game would translate into strong sales for the sequel. The game’s current stock price of 42.23 DKP now forecasts 422,300 copies sold globally.

Both Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All had been acclaimed for their refreshingly different game play that many gamers had predicted would become a welcomed trend in gaming. Unfortunately, this trend has not become apparent as of yet.