Best US DS sales ever but Nintendo says there's enough to go round

Nintendo's US head honcho, Reggie Fils-Aime (pictured) has been taking names and kicking ass – 1.53 million of them, to be exact. The president of the North American arm of Nintendo spoke to us about demand for his company's products, namely Wii and DS.

"November was the biggest month ever for Nintendo DS," Fils-Aime proudly pointed out when discussing the handheld's sales of over one and a half million units during the month. To put it into perspective, the figure is nearly three times that of its 'rival', PSP, which itself garnered a respectable 567,000 sales during the same period.

Half a million isn't a number to balk at, of course, yet the fact that Nintendo managed to triple that figure with sales of its own portable clearly points to an ongoing phenomenon. Consumers are going DS-crazy three years after its launch.

This incredible jump in retail performance is naturally a by-product of the Christmas shopping season, which starts particularly early in North America. While more territories see a spike in sales in December, noted Fils-Aime, the US entertains more spending over the Thanksgiving holiday (late November) than any other time of year.

Also factoring into the wild demand for Nintendo DS is a bevy of software, much of which comes from third-parties. While PSP arguably has a superior game line-up this year, titles like Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Contra 4, Cooking Mama 2, and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, have received much attention in the States. Of course, having a new Zelda game and the first-ever portable Mario Party title this year helps, too.

Could such immense interest in these titles strain DS supply? No, according to Fils-Aime. "We have no reported shortages of Nintendo DS," he confirmed, a fact that's in contrast to the situation for Wii. "Any consumer that wants a Nintendo DS this holiday season will have one."

But with the handheld selling at a rate of one every six seconds, the real question is more likely to be whether there's anyone left who doesn't have one?