‘Pokemon Sun & Moon’ Breaks 3DS Record, ‘Pokemon Go’ Impacts Sales

By Vincent Roy / Nov 19, 2016 01:32 PM EST
(Photo : YouTube/Pokemon) “Pokemon Sun” and “Moon” have revealed the final forms of the three starter Pokemon.

The latest installment in the Pokemon video game series broke the initial shipment record by sending out 10 million copies worldwide based on various reports. The shipments were sent out just a day before the official release of the video game on November 18. This number alone already surpasses the initial shipments of its predecessor "Pokemon X & Y". The augmented reality mobile game "Pokemon Go" is said to be one of the major factors in the higher shipments made by Nintendo. Its success helped increase the popularity of the game by bringing in new players and bringing back older fans.

The game introduces players to a new region called Alola, filled with newer Pokemon that haven't been seen in previous Pokemon games. The region itself is separated by four large islands, meaning that a lot of water travel is present in the game. Graphical enhancements and improvements were also done, taking advantage of 3DS technology. "Sun and Moon" is set to be 12 hours apart from each other and the game itself is tied to our world's time. This means that the game changes drastically depending on the time of day with different types of Pokemon appearing. The game also introduces the Z-Moves which is similar to the "X and Y" system of mega evolution.

The game features a lot of Pokemon with hybrid types and also introduces two new legendary Pokemon. The two are said to draw power from the sun and moon respectively. While many secrets are yet to be revealed, players that datamined the game revealed that there are allegedly 800 Pokemon in it. Pre-evolutions of Legendary Pokemon are also reportedly in the game.

"Pokemon X and Y" currently holds the record as the biggest selling 3DS title with approximately 15.64 million copies sold. Interestingly, a report mentioned that Europe and the United States seem to have been doing better in terms of sales figures as compared to Japan. The demo of "Pokemon Sun and Moon" has been downloaded over 3.5 million times and Nintendo hopes that it will surpass the sales of its predecessor.