DS topped five million units in Japan last year
Nintendo capped off a hugely successful 2005 in the Japanese market by reaching sell-through of five million units for the DS handheld in the region, with four titles on the platform now recording over a million shipped units.
Nintendo capped off a hugely successful 2005 in the Japanese market by reaching sell-through of five million units for the DS handheld in the region, with four titles on the platform now recording over a million shipped units.
A statement made by Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata as the year drew to a close revealed that over five million units of the Nintendo DS had been sold through before the New Year sales period even began in earnest in the last week of December.
The figures were boosted massively towards the end of the year as titles such as Animal Crossing DS and Mario Kart DS helped to push sales of the handheld console to a high point of nearly 600,000 unit sales in the week running up to December 25th.
In addition, four DS software titles have now shipped over a million units each in Japan - with the list being topped by DS Training for Adults: Work Your Brain (which will be called Train Your Brain overseas) with 1.38 million units.
It's followed closely by Animal Crossing: Wild World, with 1.27 million units, an impressive tally for a game which has been on shelves less than a month, with Nintendogs and Gentle Brain Exercises both on 1.08 million shipments.
According to Nintendo, the sales of the DS make it into the fastest-selling console ever in Japan, having reached a five million installed base in slightly over a year - somewhat less than the 14 months it took the GBA to reach that point, and significantly less than the 17 months it took the PS2.
The firm also gave some indication of its plans to continue the success of the platform in the Japanese market, where it has now outsold the PSP by a ratio of 2.5 to 1 overall, with two new major software announcements.
The first of those announcements was predictable enough - namely the planned launch of a second DS Training for Adults title - while the second draws upon Sony's innovative Talkman software for the PSP for its inspiration. Called Tabi no Yubisashi Kaiwacho (literally "Touch Phrasebook for Travellers"), it is an adaptation of a range of travel books which will allow users to translate words and phrases into different languages using the touch screen interface.