35 Million DSes Sold, 6 Million Wiis By End of March

Wowzer writes "Nintendo just announced its quarterly sales for the end of 2006. Sales for the 9 months were up 72%, while net income was up 43%. From the article: '[There will be] worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii systems by the end of March 2007. Nintendo has sold 35 million DS and DS Lite to date ... As for the next fiscal year, Nintendo expect to sell around 23 million DS Lites, bringing the estimated total of DS units to 58 million by March 31, 2008.' New Super Mario Bros. seems to have legs of its own with 8.64 million copies sold worldwide and continued strong sales. But they seem slow to ship out those Wii with 4 million manufactured last year and 810,000 of those not arriving to stores until now."

Comments

I still can't get a Wii !

[CokeBear]

I know they're making them as fast as they can, but demand just won't let up! Here in Toronto, they are never in stock for more than 15 minutes, and nobody ever seems to know when the next shipment will be arriving. Most retailers get 10-20 units every 5-10 days, and they just fly off the shelves. I would have though that by the end of January the supply would have caught up with demand, but with all the new gamers trying the Wii, seems like it could go on for a while.

(For the record, this will be my first gaming system since the original NES, which I played as a kid.)

I'm looking forward to Wii Sports as a fun way to get my somewhat rounded body back into shape. Guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer. That or stop eating junk food.)

Re:I still can't get a Wii !

[EastCoastSurfer]

I got a Wii yesterday. I just happened to be standing in BB when they put 3 of them out. I grabbed one then the other 2 were picked up before I walked away. Amazing how the demand is holding strong for the system.

DS sells out in April

[RyoShin]

As for the next fiscal year, Nintendo expect to sell around 23 million DS Lites

I predict that most of those will be sold before June.

If you think the DS is hard to find now (apparently, it's hard to keep in stock, just like the Wii), just wait until April. April sees the release of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. The Pokemon series has always been a huge seller for both the games and the Game Boy, but these DS games also include the functionality to use WiFi to battle and trade online. Battling and trading with friends has always been a staple of the game, but you'd have to physically find someone to battle/trade with first. Now you have the entire world to choose from.

I know that's when I'll be buying my DS. (Well, a bit earlier, to beat the rush.)

Re:Kind of makes you wish Nintendo had vision

[Mr. Hankey]

if the DS were the one to utilize UMD, I submit that it wouldn't be the commercial flop it is.

It's not because of marketing, Sony is no slouch there, nor because there aren't people loyal to Sony's platform. Sony's product simply makes it difficult to be loyal. Why do people want to re-buy their DVDs in a low res medium they can only play on the handheld, with no TV output, especially when Sony wants people to buy movies again in the high def Blu-Ray now? If the DS utilized UMD, I doubt it would be as small nor have the same battery life as the DS light. The media would be larger as well. Handhelds get carried around, sometimes on long trips, and these factors can be important. My wife and I used our DS systems on our last trip to Japan and had no worries about battery life on either ~11 hour flight - nor the extra connecting flights in Narita. No problems fitting both DS systems and all our games in carry-on luggage.

We picked up a bit of software for the DS in Japan as well, including DQM:Joker, a Japanese dictionary application for myself that uses the stylus to recognize input Japanese characters, and an English TOEIC training game for my wife. We also left a game from the US for my brother-in-law's kids. The lack of region coding (this even extends to the AC adapters between the US and Japan, both unlike the Wii unfortunately) in the DS systems makes it ideal for our usage. Not sure about the PSP, perhaps it also has no region encoding, but it felt good to not have to worry about regions.