Nintendo tipped the world off to its coming software line-up last month, but it seems like they left a few aces up their sleeves as far as what's coming to the 3DS.
In an announcement crowing about the 4 million 3DS units the company's sold in the United States since launch, Nintendo also declared that new installments in its popular Mario Party and Pokémon franchises will be debuting on the stereoscopic handheld. The House of Mario doesn't offer up a specific time frame but this appears to be the first mention of Pokemon of Mario Party coming to the 3DS.
Yes, it took a huge price drop to generate 4 million sales in nine months but, according to Nintendo, that's still better than the Wii did in the same time period. The fact that Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7—which have each sold a million—came out in time for the holidays probably helped that sales spike.
The oldest lesson in Nintendo-ology gets proven again, as the company's first-party franchises prove to be its heavy hitters. If Nintendo launched the 3DS with a Mario game, all those worries about the system's viability would likely have never even surfaced.
Update: The wording on the press release sent out by Nintendo led us to believe that the new Mario Party and Pokémon games would be for the 3DS, but they're coming out for the Wii. We apologize for the error.