New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be available both physically and digitally [Update]

New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the first Nintendo game to launch both at retail and via digital download.

During its fiscal briefing tonight, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed both packaged and SD card download versions of the game. Those who opt to go digital can also purchase the game at a local retail store as a download token.

According to Nintendo, games’ lives are being cut short, which is why having the game available digitally can help retail as inventory risk is reduced.

Pricing of the digital version will be set by retailers, so don’t expect a big gap between the retail version.

Thanks, David Gibson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Update: New Super Mario Bros. 2 won’t be the only Nintendo game to arrive in physical and digital platforms. What follows in Satoru Iwata’s official statement.

As I said earlier today, we announced during the latest Nintendo Direct that the completely new 2D Mario game, “New Super Mario Bros. 2,” will be launched in August this year.

With this software, we will initiate the so-called digital download sales, or the digital distribution of packaged software, in addition to the sales of packaged software through the existing distribution channels. In principle, starting from this software, the company will offer the software titles that Nintendo itself publishes in both packaged and digital download formats so that our consumers can choose the way to purchase them.

We will later announce the official title and the launch date of the software that we tentatively call “Onitore,” but this software too is scheduled to be sold in both the packaged and the digital download formats.

Since the packaged and the digital download formats both have their own merits, we would like to offer both of these options to our consumers.