Shoppers spent Thanksgiving week stuffing their shopping bags with Nintendo hardware, setting the stage for 2004 to be the year of the hand-held holidays. Shoppers snapped up more than 500,000 Nintendo DS systems during Thanksgiving week, representing more than 90 per cent of all units available in stores across the United States.
With Nintendo DS sales moving faster than anticipated, some locations have reported sellouts, and Nintendo predicts the initial North American supply will be depleted within days. As additional shipments are rushed to stores by this weekend to meet the demand, Nintendo expects to sell 1 million Nintendo DS units in North America alone by the end of 2004 - a mark that took Apple's iPod 19 months to achieve.
Nintendo's other hand-held system, Game Boy Advance, also soared during the holiday weekend. Nintendo sold more than 800,000 Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP units during the past week. The combined 1.3 million Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance units sold last week set a new one-week sales record for hand-held systems. And the Game Boy Advance line remains on track to be the best-selling hardware line of the year.
Nintendo GameCube also posted impressive numbers. The special bundle of a Nintendo GameCube and a Mario Kart : Double Dash!! game has sold more than 250,000 units since its introduction in mid-November.
Nintendo DS is changing video games by providing players completely new ways to interact with their games. The sharp, angular, silver-and-black dual-screened system comes with a stylus and features a touch screen, voice control and wireless communication. Nintendo DS, available now at an MSRP of USD 149.99, represents a third, distinct product line for Nintendo, along with Game Boy Advance SP and Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo DS comes packaged with both a free, embedded PictoChat communication program, and a playable demo of Metroid Prime Hunters with both single-player and multiplayer modes.