Nintendo sells 5 million DS in Japan, giving a market view
Sales of Nintendo of Japan’s DS portable game machine reached 5 million units in less than 13 months after its launch in early December 2004, the fastest-ever pace in Japan’s video game market, Nintendo said today.
Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance took 14 months to hit the 5 million mark in Japan, and Sony’s PlayStation 2 took 17 months, the Kyoto-based company said. “Selling 5 million units in less than 14 months means DS is the fastest among any game machines ever launched in Japan to hit that level,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference.
The PSP has sold just over 6 million handhelds worldwide and the DS is at just under 9 million units sold worldwide. To explain the difference Nintendo has said “To achieve this rapid growth, we were required not only to go after frequent game players, but to reel back people who had left games and to make video games enjoyable for those who had not played games at all.”
