Reggie Fils-Aime
Nintendo comes leaping out of the other side of the holiday season with a Wario-sized grin on its face, thanks to soaring sales of its increasingly popular dual-screened wonder toy. DS sales in the States have been given a real shot in the arm following the release of Mario Kart and the roll out of the Kyoto giant’s incredible new global Wi-Fi network.
SPOnG had to agree with our hilarious drunken uncle at Xmas, who deemed the DS ‘like bloody kiddy-crack’ after his children had successfully managed to clear his bank balance to satisfy their DS cravings.
The DS has sold approximately 4 million units to date in North America alone which, when combined with the world’s most popular console the GBA, gives Nintendo a combined U.S. market share of 78% in the handheld gaming sector. This also means that over 10 million Nintendo DS’s have been sold worldwide, with over more than 5 million of these being sold in Japan.
The sales numbers of Nintendo's main rival in the handheld market - the Sony PSP - are between 2.5 and 3 million, depending on who you ask. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sony has sold 2.7 million PSP’s in the US from its March 2005 launch through December 2005. However, last month, Sony told Reuters that 3 million units of the handheld have been sold in the US. A third opinion yields yet another number – with NPD Funworld claiming that 2.5 million PSPs were sold in America up to November 2005. Whatever the overall figure is, one thing seems clear – Nintendo has sold loads more of its DS!
U.S. sales of Mario Kart DS, released just prior to Xmas last November – and boasting the killer feature of live, global Wi-Fi competition – have topped the 1 million mark in just seven weeks, which SPOnG imagines must be some kind of record. Nintendogs also continues to drive sales of DS hardware, having already sold over 1.5 million in the US since its launch last August.
And here, in the red corner, comes SPOnG’s favourite bullish Nintendo Exec VP of US Sales and Marketing, the chubby-faced Reggie Fils-Aime, with a killer PR body-blow quote aimed squarely at any other firms (read: Sony) who dare to challenge Nintendo’s continuing dominance of handheld gaming:
"At a time when some sectors of the video game industry are softening, Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance line remain shining stars because of their fun experiences and innovative game play," says Reggie. "It's important to note that these strong figures represent Nintendo hand-held units and games that consumers have purchased and are now enjoying at home or wherever they like to play."
And its that last line that really hits the message home – ‘or wherever they like to play’. SPOnG can imagine Fils-Aime’s face delivering this line…very…slowly…with…a…massive…grin…on…his…chubby…chops. The basic fact that millions of DS players can now play some of the greatest handheld games ever made online, wirelessly, free-of-charge and in hundreds of thousands of locations worldwide against any of their friends anywhere has been Nintendo’s winning strategy with DS.
The figures speak for themselves - within seven weeks of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service launch, more than 10 million DS game connections have been made and more than 550,000 unique visitors have connected globally.
The strong U.S. performance of Mario Kart and Nintendogs mirrors the sales figures in Japan, where in just more than one year from its December 2004 launch, Japanese consumers have bought over 5 million Nintendo DS units, making the Dual Screen Kiddy-Crack Wonder Toy the fastest-selling video game machine in the history of the Japanese video game market.
After all the Xmas and new year excesses of the past month, SPOnG is now looking forward to Nintendo’s forthcoming brain-training series - Brain Age and Brain Flex – which have already achieved sales of more than 1 million units each in Japan and are scheduled for an Easter 2006 release in Europe and the US. SPOnG is hoping that Brain Age will help us to rebuild our broken short-term memory and enable us to at least be able to remember where in town we left our car, after a particularly heavy Friday night. More news on Nintendo's magic brain improving miracle games as we get it.
SPOnG had to agree with our hilarious drunken uncle at Xmas, who deemed the DS ‘like bloody kiddy-crack’ after his children had successfully managed to clear his bank balance to satisfy their DS cravings.
The DS has sold approximately 4 million units to date in North America alone which, when combined with the world’s most popular console the GBA, gives Nintendo a combined U.S. market share of 78% in the handheld gaming sector. This also means that over 10 million Nintendo DS’s have been sold worldwide, with over more than 5 million of these being sold in Japan.
The sales numbers of Nintendo's main rival in the handheld market - the Sony PSP - are between 2.5 and 3 million, depending on who you ask. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sony has sold 2.7 million PSP’s in the US from its March 2005 launch through December 2005. However, last month, Sony told Reuters that 3 million units of the handheld have been sold in the US. A third opinion yields yet another number – with NPD Funworld claiming that 2.5 million PSPs were sold in America up to November 2005. Whatever the overall figure is, one thing seems clear – Nintendo has sold loads more of its DS!
U.S. sales of Mario Kart DS, released just prior to Xmas last November – and boasting the killer feature of live, global Wi-Fi competition – have topped the 1 million mark in just seven weeks, which SPOnG imagines must be some kind of record. Nintendogs also continues to drive sales of DS hardware, having already sold over 1.5 million in the US since its launch last August.
And here, in the red corner, comes SPOnG’s favourite bullish Nintendo Exec VP of US Sales and Marketing, the chubby-faced Reggie Fils-Aime, with a killer PR body-blow quote aimed squarely at any other firms (read: Sony) who dare to challenge Nintendo’s continuing dominance of handheld gaming:
"At a time when some sectors of the video game industry are softening, Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance line remain shining stars because of their fun experiences and innovative game play," says Reggie. "It's important to note that these strong figures represent Nintendo hand-held units and games that consumers have purchased and are now enjoying at home or wherever they like to play."
And its that last line that really hits the message home – ‘or wherever they like to play’. SPOnG can imagine Fils-Aime’s face delivering this line…very…slowly…with…a…massive…grin…on…his…chubby…chops. The basic fact that millions of DS players can now play some of the greatest handheld games ever made online, wirelessly, free-of-charge and in hundreds of thousands of locations worldwide against any of their friends anywhere has been Nintendo’s winning strategy with DS.
The figures speak for themselves - within seven weeks of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service launch, more than 10 million DS game connections have been made and more than 550,000 unique visitors have connected globally.
The strong U.S. performance of Mario Kart and Nintendogs mirrors the sales figures in Japan, where in just more than one year from its December 2004 launch, Japanese consumers have bought over 5 million Nintendo DS units, making the Dual Screen Kiddy-Crack Wonder Toy the fastest-selling video game machine in the history of the Japanese video game market.
After all the Xmas and new year excesses of the past month, SPOnG is now looking forward to Nintendo’s forthcoming brain-training series - Brain Age and Brain Flex – which have already achieved sales of more than 1 million units each in Japan and are scheduled for an Easter 2006 release in Europe and the US. SPOnG is hoping that Brain Age will help us to rebuild our broken short-term memory and enable us to at least be able to remember where in town we left our car, after a particularly heavy Friday night. More news on Nintendo's magic brain improving miracle games as we get it.
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Comments
Joji 4 Jan 2006 14:59
1/3
DS games I'm after are needed that badly that I've resorted to buying japanese and u.s imports for the first time. Previously i've only done this for with PSone titles, and those are usually u.s translations.
Next purchases are japanese Bleach and Resident Evil this month, I'm finding it very hard to wait for these when the official DS line up is moving slower (still no sign of Trauma Center on our radar, but I have it anyway) and seems less exciting without certain japanese games included.
Nice to see some positive stuff coming from Nintendo. I've tried MK online and it's excellent, but has room for improvement. Can't wait to test Metroid Hunters on it.
Indeed, Nintendo has beaten Sony with a better handheld online service that's free, and with that four letter magic word many more people will try these games online.
What I'd like to see is a big ad push on games like Brain Training and Trauma Center to raise more awareness of how different some games are.
Next purchases are japanese Bleach and Resident Evil this month, I'm finding it very hard to wait for these when the official DS line up is moving slower (still no sign of Trauma Center on our radar, but I have it anyway) and seems less exciting without certain japanese games included.
Nice to see some positive stuff coming from Nintendo. I've tried MK online and it's excellent, but has room for improvement. Can't wait to test Metroid Hunters on it.
Indeed, Nintendo has beaten Sony with a better handheld online service that's free, and with that four letter magic word many more people will try these games online.
What I'd like to see is a big ad push on games like Brain Training and Trauma Center to raise more awareness of how different some games are.
majin dboy 4 Jan 2006 16:26
2/3
yes joji,i agree.big push for alternative games,but an equally big push for the more hardcore.examples Metroid,final fantasy and resident evil(the advertising campign possibilties are endless for this game).this "push" will be yet another nail in the PSPs coffin.
OptimusP 5 Jan 2006 14:36
3/3
Trauma Center will luanch in march here in Europe... (bloody Atlus that can't publish a game in Europe on its own and has to resort to Nintendo for publishing it here) which far too late! Bah, wouldn't have time for it with Mario kart and...Mario kart...you get the point.
Oh yes, newsflash: DS is completly sold out in Japan... like hardware that launches and is sold out on launchday... that type... Nintendo even has a apology on its official japanese site for the hardware shortage. Next batch of hardware coming out...end of this month.
Handheld that is out for a year beats next-gen hardware in selling out...
Oh yes, newsflash: DS is completly sold out in Japan... like hardware that launches and is sold out on launchday... that type... Nintendo even has a apology on its official japanese site for the hardware shortage. Next batch of hardware coming out...end of this month.
Handheld that is out for a year beats next-gen hardware in selling out...