Nintendo's Hand-Held Systems Buck The Holiday Trend
In the U.S. and Japan, Portable Games Post Big Numbers
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 3, 2006 - Nintendo's 15 years of unsurpassed leadership in portable video gaming continued unabated through the 2005 holiday season. Sales figures show that Nintendo's dual-screened Nintendo DSTM, fueled by hit software and new global Wi-Fi capability, has sold approximately 4 million units to date in North America alone. Combined with Game Boy® Advance, the world's most popular portable video game line, Nintendo now enjoys a combined U.S. market share of 78 percent.
Nintendo also reports U.S. sales of Mario Kart® DS, released on Nov. 14 and featuring live, global Wi-Fi competition, has topped the 1 million mark in just seven weeks. And NintendogsTM, made for Nintendo DS, has surpassed sales of 1.5 million units since its U.S. launch in August.
"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," notes Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "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."
The Nintendo DS launch title Super Mario® 64 DS has sold 1.3 million units in the United States alone. Other DS games that are enjoying dramatic success in the United States include WarioWareTM: Touched! and Advance Wars®: Dual Strike.
The strong U.S. performance of these titles has been mirrored in Japan, where in just more than one year from its Dec. 2, 2004, launch, Japanese consumers purchased more than 5 million Nintendo DS units. This makes the Nintendo DS the fastest-selling video game machine in the history of the Japanese video game market. In addition, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing®: Wild World and the two games in the brain-training series (Brain Age and Brain Flex) achieved sales of more than 1 million units each. This is another record in Japan, as an unprecedented four titles have surpassed 1 million units sold in just more than one year from the launch of a system. In addition, Mario Kart DS and WarioWare: Touched! also are nearing the 1 million sales mark in Japan.
All around the world, players have been competing on the new Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection wireless gaming service. Within seven weeks of the service launch more than 10 million game connections have been made and more than 550,000 unique visitors have connected globally.
The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling Game Boy® Advance SP, Nintendo DSTM and Nintendo GameCubeTM systems extend Nintendo's vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 2 billion video games and more than 353 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as MarioTM and Donkey Kong® and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid®, ZeldaTM 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.