DS to win this year's console war
One sold every five seconds
Who'd have thought when Nintendo released a slightly retro looking bit of grey plastic with a touchscreen that it'd be outselling (albeit in sexy revised form) Microsoft's mighty Xbox 360 three years later? Or even it's phenomenally successful cousin, the Wii?
Actually, we did – we've long believed handhelds would become the dominant platforms – but we're still impressed by the latest news from Nintendo HQ, which suggests DS is set to be the best-selling games console of 2007 in the US.
Indeed, more than six million have been sold this year. That's apparently one every five seconds. If sales continue to be as buoyant for the rest of the year, and presumably if Sony doesn't start giving PSPs away outside school playgrounds for a tenner apiece in the meantime, Nintendo of America predicts DS will be the top-selling console of the year, outperforming even the home consoles.
"There's no letup in sight," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, while glancing up from an intense bout of Animal Crossing. "Nintendo DS appeals strongly to both core and casual gamers, and its momentum is set to propel us into 2008."
Only a couple of weeks back, Nintendo was celebrating setting a new US record for the number of consoles sold in one week after shifting 650,000 DS consoles over the Thanksgiving period. And that followed a freshly broken UK weekly sales record. Is there no end to the DS Lite's popularity? We blame those Nicole Kidman ads, obviously.
