Nintendo DS
Will Finish
2007 As The
Year's
Top-Selling
Video Game
System
Appeal to
Core and
Casual
Gamers Keeps
Portable
System Going
Strong
REDMOND,
Wash., Dec.
11, 2007 –
While many
eyes are
focused on
home video
game
consoles,
Nintendo
projects
Nintendo DS™
to be the
top-selling
system of
the year.
More than 6
million
Nintendo DS
portable
video game
systems have
sold in the
United
States in
2007 through
Nov. 30,
according to
internal
Nintendo of
America Inc.
sales
numbers.
That's a
rate of
about one
sold every
five seconds
of 2007,
enough to
project
Nintendo DS
will be the
top-selling
video game
system of
any kind for
the year.
Nintendo DS
has
increased
its sales in
the United
States every
year since
it launched
in November
2004.
"There's no
letup in
sight," says
George
Harrison,
Nintendo of
America's
senior vice
president of
marketing
and
corporate
communications.
"Nintendo DS
appeals
strongly to
both core
and casual
gamers, and
its momentum
is set to
propel us
into 2008."
Nintendo DS
began 2007
strong, but
its momentum
only
increased as
the year
progressed.
Before 2007,
Game Boy®
Advance held
the all-time
U.S.
Thanksgiving
week sales
record, with
600,000
systems sold
in 2005. But
Nintendo DS
beat that
Thanksgiving
week record
with more
than 650,000
sold.
The huge
appeal of
Nintendo DS
stems from
the
diversity of
software
available
for the
system. Four
Nintendo DS
games have
sold more
than 2
million in
the United
States
alone,
including
New Super
Mario
Bros.®,
Mario Kart®
DS, Pokémon®
Diamond and
Super Mario®
64 DS.
Another
eight games
have sold
more than 1
million each
in the
United
States,
including
Brain Age™:
Train Your
Brain in
Minutes a
Day,
Pokémon®
Pearl,
Animal
Crossing®:
Wild World,
Big Brain
Academy™ and
four
separate
versions of
Nintendogs™.
The
worldwide
innovator in
the creation
of
interactive
entertainment,
Nintendo
Co., Ltd.,
of Kyoto,
Japan,
manufactures
and markets
hardware and
software for
its Wii™,
Nintendo
DS™, Game
Boy® Advance
and Nintendo
GameCube™
systems.
Since 1983,
Nintendo has
sold nearly
2.5 billion
video games
and more
than 430
million
hardware
units
globally,
and has
created
industry
icons like
Mario™,
Donkey
Kong®,
Metroid®,
Zelda™ and
Pokémon®. A
wholly owned
subsidiary,
Nintendo of
America
Inc., based
in Redmond,
Wash.,
serves as
headquarters
for
Nintendo's
operations
in the
Western
Hemisphere.
For more
information
about
Nintendo,
visit the
company's
Web site at
www.nintendo.com.