U.S. Retailers Halt Nintendo DS Pre-Orders

A number of U.S. retailers, including nationwide chain GameStop, have revealed that are no longer taking pre-orders for the Nintendo DS handheld, because of overwhelming demand. GameStop has already sold out of its launch day allotment and unless Nintendo can provide additional stock, will have no units to sell to customers at launch unless they have pre-ordered. Rival EB Games is continuing to take pre-orders for the console, but is already limiting sales to one per customer, and has admitted it may have to stop altogether. Nintendo intends to sell four million Nintendo DS consoles in the US and Japan before the end of the financial year and, despite early skepticism of the format, it certainly now seems to be well on course. The exact U.S. software line-up for the November 21st launch date has still not been completely confirmed, but is thought to include Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo), Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts), The Urbz: Sims in the City (Electronic Arts), Feel the Magic XY/XX (Sega), Spider-Man 2 (Activision) and Asphalt Urban GT (Ubisoft). The Japanese launch line-up, due on December 2nd, is more diverse and includes additional first party titles including the newly confirmed Super Mario Kart DS, Pokémon Dash, Big Concert! Band Brothers, Touch! Made in Wario (aka Wario Ware, inc.) and Intuitive Stroke.