Nintendo Virtual Console sales higher than expected

Official Nintendo financial reports have been released, and they give us a glimpse into the massive profit that the Big N was able to pull down during the most recent holiday season. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, Nintendo posted net revenue of 132 billion Yen, or 1.08 Billion USD. The strength of the Wii and Virtual Console played a big part in this success. The Wii sold 3,190,000 units worldwide, and approximately 1.5 million Virtual console games have been downloaded as of Jan 24, 2007. (which makes about 1 VC game for every two console owners) The report does not say which VC games are the most popular, but we have our own suspicions.

So, what does all of this have to do with handheld gaming? Well, the success of the Virtual Console has shown that downloadable retro gaming is here to stay. So far, we have been treated to a variety of successful and not-so-great compilations of retro games on the PSP, but how long before Nintendo extends its Virtual Console service to the handheld market? We predict this will be a major feature of the next-gen DS and PSP.

What retro games do you absolutely HAVE to have with you at all times? For us the anwser is simple: Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG.