Nintendo DS: Sixth Title Hits the Million Mark in Europe

Nobody could have predicted how well the DS would do, back when it launched in March 2005. Indeed, SPOnG remembers well the number of cynical games journalists at the time who dismissed the machine as a mere gimmick.

Interestingly, there seems to be far fewer ’Wii naysayers’ surrounding the launch of Nintendo’s new home console in the US this month (and in Japan and Europe in early December). Perhaps they are scared of Nintendo and its legions of hardcore fanboys making them eat their words once again.

SPOnG remains on the fence over the question of whether or not the Wii’s innovative motion-control can have the same impact on home console gaming that the DS’s touch-screen control has had in the handheld sphere.

One thing is for sure though, the sales figures for DS continue to amaze us. Nintendo’s busy press release-writing goblins have been hard at work, and they tell SPOnG that to date been there has been “a staggering seven million consoles sold across Europe and six Nintendo DS games breaking the coveted one million sales mark with ease.”

Those games being, in no particular order, Nintendogs, Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How old is your brain? , Animal Crossing: Wild World[i], [i]New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64 and – still SPOnG’s favourite handheld online gaming experience - Mario Kart DS.

European Marketing Director for Nintendo, Laurent Fischer, commented, “We are delighted by the success of the Nintendo DS and DS Lite and especially pleased to see that we have exceeded the one million mark with games that appeal to both non-gamers and traditional gamers. Nintendo is proud of its role in expanding the gaming market and we hope to continue this success with the launch of Wii in Europe in December.”

Perhaps the most impressive figure of all is that 44% of Nintendo DS owners are female. The ‘toys for the boys’ era is seemingly well and truly behind us.