Nintendo DS Sales Strong Over Holidays

Though holiday sales for video games were soft enough for several game publishers and retailers, in part due to console shortages of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, Nintendo has reported that its Nintendo DS handheld system performed well during the season. The system has now sold over 4 million units in North America and over 5 million in Japan. In addition to strong sales of the hardware, Nintendo DS software has also succeeded in the U.S.: Mario Kart DS has already sold over 1 million copies in America since its November 15th release, and Nintendogs has sold 1.5 million since its August launch. The two join Super Mario 64 DS in the million-selling club of U.S. games. In Japan, four games have sold over the 1 million mark: Nintendogs, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and the brain-training titles Brain Age and Brain Flex, named in English in an official Nintendo document for the first time here. Games approaching 1 million copies are Mario Kart DS and WarioWare: Touched!. "At a time when some sectors of the video game industry are softening, Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance line remain shining stars because of their fun experiences and innovative game play," said Nintendo VP of sales Reggie Fils-Aime. "It's important to note that these strong figures represent Nintendo hand-held units and games that consumers have purchased and are now enjoying at home or wherever they like to play." Of the Game Boy Advance, which saw a new hardware iteration in the form of the Game Boy Micro, Nintendo said little except that the hardware's install base (which also includes the original GBA and GBA SP, and possibly also the GB Player add-on for GameCube) together with the Nintendo DS gave Nintendo 78% of the portable game market, according to the firm.