pokemon X & Y | After Dark Gaming

Nintendo series’ first simultaneous worldwide launch becomes fastest-selling 3DS title to date.

Some 17 years after the series debuted, Pokemon is still going strong. Nintendo today announced that the weekend launch of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y in Japan, Europe, and the Americas–the first simultaneous worldwide launch for the series–saw the 3DS games rack up sales of more than 4 million units. If one were to consider the two games as one title, it would be the fastest-selling 3DS game to date.

“The early response to Pokemon X and Pokemon Y not only reaffirms the ongoing passion of Pokemon fans, but also indicates that an entirely new generation of gamers are eager to experience the franchise for themselves,” Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in a statement.

Nintendo said X and Y are tracking ahead of last year’s Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 by more than 70 percent. Despite the strong start, X and Y have a long way to go before they match the sales figures of their predecessors on the Nintendo DS. The 2007 release Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the best-selling DS installment, posted total worldwide sales of 17.63 million. To date, the Pokemon franchise has sold a total of 245 million games.

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Whilst the world eagerly awaits the arrival of Pokémon X & Y in just over a week’s time, retailers in Canada and Italy have reportedly broken the street date of the Nintendo 3DS exclusives.

One lucky purchaser is steadily documenting their playthrough by sharing snaps of their progression, although not wishing to promote the leaks we understandably won’t be pointing you in the right direction. Having provided no comment as to how they were able to source a retail copy so early, it’s run the risk of ruining a rather energetic run of news up until launch.

Such a situation is distressing to Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, who have been rigid in their attempts to thwart leaks.

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