The Japanese version of Pokémon Black 2 White 2 were released on June 23rd, 2012. It was announced that pre-orders of the game topped a million copies for both games combined. As of June 17th, 2012, there was 1.16 million pre-orders for the games. This marks the first time that two consecutive series games on the Nintendo DS have had pre-order sales of over a million copies.

Launch Events

Game launch events were held all over Japan on Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 and Sunday, June 24th, 2012. Takao Unno and director Junichi Masuda from Game Freak were at the Kameari Ario shopping mall in Katsushika-ku, Tokyo. Takao Unno discussed the Fes missions with fans saying its great new element to the game. Junichi Masuda said the games take place 2 years after the events of the first Black and White games and that there is a new protagonist and a new story for players to enjoy. Both of them were also on Pokémon Smash 90 to promote the games which also aired on Sunday, June 24th, 2012.


Various activies were setup including a test area for AR Searcher which was also released on the same day for the Nintendo 3DS. The lines at the Tokyo Pokémon Center were long as expected.


Source: http://www.4gamer.net/games/148/G014842/20120623007/

So, more pre-ordered than B&W themselves, hum... Curious to see just how much it sold during its first week-end (if it'll beat B&W's record), and whether it'll eventually sell more than B&W on the long run.
Also interested in seeing whether it'll have any positive effect on 3DS sales. I remember Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition didn't have much of an impact. Then again, it's an entry in the main RPG series we're talking about here.

Can't wait for the first sales data.