Let me start my presentation by briefly talking about these two titles that we launched just a week ago last Saturday.  We launched the latest iteration of the Pokémon series called “Pokémon Black” and “Pokémon White” on Saturday, September 18.  Presales before the launch were reportedly very strong.  In fact, according to MediaCreate, the presales of this software reached 1.88 million units, which was a record high for Nintendo DS software.

When the software was actually launched, Pokémon Black and Pokémon White broke the first-week sales record for any Pokémon series titles.  These 2.55 million units were in fact the record first-week sales for any Nintendo DS software and, when we looked into past data as well, it turned out that Pokémon Black and Pokémon White have actually established the new first-week sales record in the history of the entire Japanese video game industry.

The cumulative sales of Nintendo DS in Japan have already topped 30 million units since it was launched in December 2004 and Nintendo DS has become by far the most widespread video game machine in the history of Japanese video games.  Behind the fact that Pokémon Black and Pokémon White were able to establish the record first week sales was the background that the latest iteration of the popular Pokémon series was launched just when it was able to make the best use of the largest installed base of the hardware.

These are the radar charts of the Club Nintendo registrants of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl that were launched four years ago in September 2006 and show the registrants’ age demographics by gender. 

As you can see, these software titles were very much appreciated by elementary school pupils or the younger generation.  Beyond these age demographics, the registrants show a sudden decrease.  This is why a number of people used to have the fixed notion that Pokémon was a game which was mainly enjoyed by elementary school children.

On the contrary, Pokémon players have been showing demographical expansion.

You can now see the same age demographics by gender for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver that were launched in September last year.
I mentioned this before at our Management Briefing in October last year, but 10 years after the launch of Pokémon Gold and Silver for Game Boy Color, both males and females in high school and a number of people in the 19 to 24 years old age bracket, who were believed to have graduated from Pokémon, have once again started enjoying Pokémon in addition to the current elementary-school children.

And these are the registrants’ age demographics by gender for the latest Pokémon Black and Pokémon White. 

The trend of reanimation of Pokémon graduates has gained the momentum to show further expansion.  The record first-week sales of the software can be said as the result of this trend.  I think you may know this from your own experiences, but an increasing number of people who are playing with Nintendo DS on public transport and in other public spaces have been observed.

Pokémon Black and Pokémon White include a number of interesting tricks which take advantage of wireless communication capabilities, so I believe we can expect further sales expansion towards the end of the year. 

It was the original “Super Mario Bros.”
The 13th of September this year marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of this software.  
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone, the fans around the world and the people in this industry, for the support to Mario for more than a quarter of a century.
It’s nothing special in the world of entertainment if a product temporarily becomes a great hit.  But it must be quite rare for something to be appreciated for more than 25 years.  With this as the background…

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo has decided to run a campaign. 
Today, I’d like to give you some details on the products that we will sell for Super Mario Bros.’ 25th anniversary.