Nintendo have finally released details of their launch of the Nintendo DS console in North America, with claims of sales of over 500,000 units during the Thanksgiving week. This accounted for more than 90 percent of all units available in stores across the country.
The company is predicting that DS stocks will be depleted within days, although forthcoming shipments should ensure there are no significant problems in the run up to Christmas. The company expects to easily meet its target of 1 million sales in North America by the end of 2004, a figure which it points out took nineteen months for Apple’s iPod to achieve.
Despite these impressive results they still pale next to sales of the Game Boy Advance SP, which sold 800,000 units in the same week. The combined 1.3 million units of hardware sales created a new record for hand-held systems.
With the system launching in Japan today, after a well subscribed pre-order campaign, it seems that Nintendo have had an unqualifiedly successful launch. Their real battle will follow the launch of the PlayStation Portable, but these early figures certainly seem to suggest that the market can support two successful portables from the same company – perhaps creating less room for Sony’s format than that company initially expected.
