Nintendo has issued an official response to this month’s NPD report. The statement contains many of the same sales that we covered in a post we covered a short while ago, but we also have lifetime sales figures for a few 3DS games.

In any case, here’s Nintendo’s response in full:

Fueled by a strong start for Mario & Luigi^™: Dream Team and the continued strength of games such as Animal Crossing^™: New Leaf and Luigi’s Mansion^™: Dark Moon, Nintendo 3DS^™ finished August as the best-selling video game system in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive month. More than 6.47 million units of Nintendo 3DS software have been sold so far in 2013, an increase of nearly 30 percent over the same time frame last year.

Other highlights for August include:

• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team for Nintendo 3DS launched on Aug. 11 and sold nearly 190,000 combined physical and digital units.
• Pikmin^™ 3 for Wii U^™ launched on Aug. 4 and sold more than 115,000 combined physical and digital units.
• New Super Luigi U^™ for Wii U launched in stores on Aug. 25, after two months as a digital-only download, and has now sold nearly 120,000 combined units.
• So far in 2013, nine Nintendo 3DS games have sold at least 250,000 combined physical and digital units. These include:

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Nintendo has prevailed in a case initiated by Creative Kingdoms, Nintendo has announced.

Creative Kingdoms originally filed its International Trade Commission complaint in 2011. The company declared that Nintendo infringed on its MagiQuest wands technology through the Wii remote controller.

However, the commission has ruled in favor of Nintendo, determining that the Wii – as well as the Wii U – do not violate any patents. The commission also found that Creative Kingdoms’ patents are invalid.

Richard Medway, Nintendo of America’s deputy general counsel, said of the ruling:

“We are pleased with the commission’s determination. Nintendo’s track record demonstrates that we vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patent. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”

Source: Nintendo PR

US sales results for three Nintendo releases in the month of August are in. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team came out on top with 190,000 copies sold (physical and digital), followed by New Super Luigi U at 120,000 units (physical and digital) and Pikmin 3 at 115,000 units.

6.47 million 3DS games have been sold thus far this year. That’s up close to 30 percent year-over-year.

Here’s a listing of 3DS games that have sold at least 250,000 combined copies in 2013 as of now:

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (863,000)
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (739,000)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (406,000 in 2013, 1.85 million total)
Fire Emblem Awakening (390,000)
Mario Kart 7 (352,000 in 2013, 2.84 million total)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (298,000)
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (268,000)
Super Mario 3D Land (265,000 in 2013, 2.86 million total)
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins (264,000)

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Two more 3DS models are ceasing production in Japan. Nintendo has confirmed that the Ice White and Cosmo Black variations will soon be discontinued.

In May, Nintendo ditched the Cobalt Blue and Misty Pink 3DS systems. Aqua Blue and Flare Red colors have also followed the same path, so this isn’t too out of the ordinary.

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Cut the Rope will be hitting the North American 3DS eShop next week, according to a listing on Nintendo’s website. It’ll be joined by Rage of the Gladiator – another downloadable title coming out on Thursday.

That’s assuming the listing is correct, of course. Nintendo’s database has occasionally been inaccurate.

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NPD Group has released a listing of the top ten best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of August. The results can be found below.

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In case you didn’t know, Gaist Crusher is a huge deal for Capcom. It’s significant that the publisher is introducing a new IP, but Capcom’s plans for the brand go well beyond the release of its 3DS game.

The company intends to expand Gaist Crusher into the “manga, animation, music and toy areas”. Capcom gave the specifics in its annual report, which states:

…In particular, with respect to “Gaist Crusher”, as a new project focused on kids, we will engage in large-scale cross-media development in collaboration with major companies in the manga, animation, music and toy areas to coincide with release of new games for the Nintendo 3DS in December 2013.

Specifically, we will be placing stories in “Saikyo Jump” and “V Jump”, which are comic published by Shueisha Inc., promoting a television animation project produced by Pierrot Co., Ltd., developing music in collaboration with Avex Entertainment Inc., and with Bandai Co., Ltd., we plan to develop a “Gaimetal” toy from the game “Gaist Crusher”. By launching a wide variety of ongoing content, despite the falling birthrate in recent years, we will attempt to grab the attention of our target, elementary school aged boys, to establish a new brand.

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Capcom created a rather different logo for Monster Hunter 4. How’d they go about deciding on its direction? Director Kaname Fujioka gave an explanation to Dengeki in a recent interview, in which he shared the following details:

– Because of the game’s new features like verticality during fights, the team wanted to convey a sense of the changes while staying close to the core of the series
– Before Monster Hunter 4, the logos have been “tightly composed”
– Monster Hunter 4’s “M,” “H” and “4” were made larger on purpose
– This creates a larger silhouette presence to provide a sensation of depth on top of the familiar design
– “It still feels like Monster Hunter. But there’s still a sense of something new about it.”
– Whereas previous Monster Hunter logos have used colors to represent themes
– Monster Hunter 4’s theme is freedom and a sense of adventure
– Players can notice this through the story, as it’s represented using the flow of the story and the caravan
– Not forced into a single village unlike previous titles; this game has multiple villages
– This also influenced the game’s logo, along with areas in the game
– Monster Hunter 4’s first field, the ancient ruins, gives players the feeling of adventure through the immense vastness and openness of the area, in addition to the yellow grass extending into the distance
– This field of yellow and the yellow of the “Village Under the Sun,” Barubare, were incorporated into the logo along with an arrow-like sillhouette that gives the impression of release or freedom

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