The Wii U Has Finally Outsold the Dreamcast - Nintendo 2nd Quarter Financial Results

With the release of Nintendo's financial results this morning the Wii U shipments have finally surpassed the lifetime shipments of Sega's last console, the Dreamcast. Wii U shipments are now at 10.73 million while the Dreamcast stopped shipments at 10.6 million. It's not an amazing victory (the Dreamcast got to that mark far faster than the Wii U), but nonetheless it is an interesting milestone.

Here are the rest of today's results. All the numbers are for the 2nd quarter (besides LTD--life to date) and are shipped numbers. 
Hardware:
Wii U: 720,000 units shipped (up from 610,000 last year). LTD: 10.73 million
1.27 million 3DS units shipped (down from 1.28 million last year). LTD: 54.34 million
30,000 Wii units shipped (down from 80,000 last year). LTD: 101.59 million
21 million amiibo have been shipped

Software: 
Top 10 Wii U games:
Super Mario Maker: 1,880,000 units shipped (1,880,000 LTD)
Splatoon: 800,000 units shipped (2,420,000 LTD)
Mario Kart 8: 440,000 (5,870,000 LTD)
Super Smash Bros. U: 200,000 (4,030,000 LTD)
Super Mario 3D World: 170,000 (4,470,000 LTD)
Nintendo Land: 120,000 (5,000,000 LTD)
Zelda: The Wind Waker HD: 50,000 (1,620,000 LTD)
New Super Mario Bros. U: 40,000 (4,880,000 LTD)
New Super Luigi U: 10,000 (2,270,000 LTD)
Wii Party U: 10,000 (1,580,000 LTD)

Top 10 3DS games:
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: 2,020,000 shipped (2.020.000 LTD)
Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire: 420,000 shipped (10,690,000 LTD)
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS: 330,000 (7,370,000 LTD)
Mario Kart 7: 270,000 (12,190,000 LTD)
Animal Crossing: New Leaf: 270,000 (9,440,000 LTD)
Tomodachi Life: 180,000 (4,480,000 LTD)
New Super Mario Bros. 2: 170,000 (9,470,000 LTD)
Pokemon X/Y: 160,000 (14,150,000 LTD)
Super Mario 3D Land: 110,000 (10,210,000 LTD)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: 70,000 (4,610,000 LTD)
Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D: 50,000 (3,820,000 LTD)

Financial results (2nd quarter only):
Net Sales: ¥113.959 billion (~$946m US)
Operating Income: ¥7.828 (~$65m US)
Net Income: ¥3.182 (~$26.4m US)

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/index.html

Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, Passed Away Late Last Week

On Saturday, Mr. Iwata of Nintendo sadly passed away at the age of 55. Iwata was a legend in the video game industry and if you don't know much about him you should differently go and look up some of the great tributes people have written about him this past week. From his humble beginnings as a programmer (helping with games and series like EarthBound, Smash Bros, Kirby, Balloon Fight) to his time as the CEO of Nintendo (his risk taking with hardware, creating and becoming a face for the company with amazing things like Nintendo Directs and Iwata's Asks), he helped shape the video game market, all while firmly believing that, in this own words, "video games are meant to be just one thing. Fun. Fun for everyone."

In his memory I'm going to post a few of my favorite Iwata moments

RIP Mr. Iwata, you will be missed by all us gamers. Thank you for everything.

E3 2015 Guide

E3 Press Conferences and Events

Nintendo World Championships 2015 Finals

What it is: The return of the Nintendo World Championships after 25 years! Or 21 years depending on if you consider the Nintendo PowerFest '94 to be Nintendo World Championships II. This will be a competition between 16 of the best players around (8 fans who won the qualifiers and 8 people Nintendo invited).

When to watch it: Sunday June 14th at a TBA time.

Where to watch it: On Nintendo's Twitch, YouTube, or E3 pages. You can also watch it in person at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles. 

Bethesda Soft's E3 Press Conference 

What it is: Bethesda's first ever E3 press conference where we will get a look at their new games. Announcements of the next Fallout and Doom are expected.  

When to watch it: The pre show starts on June 14th at 6:30 PM PDT/9:30 PM EDT. The show it self will start 30 minutes later at 7PM PDT/10 PM EDT.

Where to watch it: On Bethesda's Twitch or YouTube pages. You can also watch it in person at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood if you get there early. Details here. 

Microsoft's E3 Press Conference

What it is: Microsoft's E3 press conference.

When to watch it: June 15th at 9:30AM PDT/12:30 PM EDT.

Where to watch it: On your Xbox, on Spike TV, or on xbox.com/e3

EA's E3 Press Conference

What it is: EA's E3 Press Conference where they are expected to announce new details on games like Battlefront 3.

When to watch it: June 15th at 1PM PDT/4PM EDT.

Where to watch it: TBA

Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference

What it is: Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference

When to watch it: June 15th at 3PM PDT/6PM EDT.

Where to watch it: TBA

Sony's E3 Press Conference

What it is: Sony's E3 Press Conference.


When to watch it: June 15th at 6PM PDT/9PM EDT

Where to watch it: playstation.com

Nintendo's E3 Digital Event

What it is: Nintendo's E3 Digital Event


When to watch it: June 16th at 9AM PDT/12PM EDT.

Where to watch it: On Nintendo's Twitch, YouTube, or E3 pages.

Square Enix's E3 Press Conference

What it is: Square Enix's E3 Press Conference.


When to watch it: June 16th at 10AM PDT/1PM EDT.

Where to watch it: On Square Enix's Twitch or YouTube pages.

Nintendo Treehouse Live @ E3

What it is: The return of Nintendo Treehouse Live @ E3.


When to watch it: June 16th-18th at TBA times.

Where to watch it: On Nintendo's Twitch, YouTube, or E3 pages.

Nintendo Access: Mario Maker @ Best Buy

What it is: Nintendo is once again bringing an E3 demo to Best Buy, this year with Mario Maker.


When it is: June 17th from 4-9PM local time and June 20th from 12-5PM local time.

Where it is: TBA Best Buy's across the US.

News

Coming soon!

Nintendo Announces E3 2015 Plans

Stay tuned for more information! Until then I'll leave you with a video from the last Nintendo World Championship back in 1990: 

Garage Sale Pickups Post 1 - 5/9/2015

Late last year I started going to garage sales in hopes of finding video games, I had enough luck to do it again this year. From now on I'll be posting some of my find on my blog.  

This week I only had time to go to two sales and I picked this stuff up in a bundle (explaining the shovelware) at the second sale:

• Beat up Sliver DS Phat
• Slightly beat up Indigo GBA (I only own a Glacier GBA so this will be a nice addition to my collection after I do some repair work on it).
• Complete Mario Kart: Double Dash
• Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
• Pokemon Colosseum
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories
• The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• Spiderman 2
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Tipton Trouble (I probably should have just taken this one out of the bag and left it)
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Land Before Time Collection
• Legit Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2
• Legit Pokemon Sapphire
• Legit Pokemon Silver

For $40. All in all a pretty good deal (thanks to the GCN, Pokemon, and Zelda games) to start the yard sales season off.

The Technology Hobbit Reboot Part 3

Rebooting my blog once again. Hopefully this time I'll stick around and keep blogging.