Report: DS Pulls Ahead of PSP In Spain

According to reports from Spanish website Vandal Online, sources from Nintendo Europe are now claiming that lifetime-to-date sale figures for the Nintendo DS console in Spain is now 425,000 units, above that of the rival Sony PSP handheld. This figure represents 59 percent of the next generation portable market, with the data referring to the other 41 percent described only as that belonging to “other” next generation portable consoles. Assuming that this second percentage is solely PSP sales, then it would indicate a lifetime figure of around 295,000. Although the PSP was released almost six months later in Europe than the Nintendo DS, other sales results collated by market research firm AC Nielsen show that the Nintendo DS has been outselling the PSP since the week of November 13, with Christmas sales significantly above that of Sony’s handheld. According to Nintendo Spain marketing director Rafael Martínez Moya-Angeler, 100,000 additional units could have been sold over the period if not for stock supply problems. As has been the case around the world, the Nintendo DS’s fortunes began to improve following the release of Nintendogs in October, and particularly following the release of Mario Kart DS and the Wi-Fi Connection Network (Animal Crossing: Wild World has not yet been released in Europe). Nintendo DS sales began to dip again after December 19th, following the start of stock problems but currently remain above that of the PSP, according to reports. The situation is similar to that reported in much of the rest of the Europe with even the normally Nintendo unfriendly UK market currently favoring the Nintendo DS, albeit by a smaller margin.