Over 21 million DS sales worldwide, with an eightfold profit growth in the last quarter alone - yes, Nintendo is doing rather well at the moment. The DS is the key, with the recently redesigned handheld selling remarkably well. The focus on older and younger gamers - leaving Sony and Microsoft to battle it out for the majority of the traditional tech male market - certainly seems to be paying off. Nintendo's senior VP of marketing George Harrison states the obvious.
We attribute this success to Nintendo's overall strategy of offering something for everyone - from five-year-olds caring for their Nintendogs to 65-year-olds tuning their mental agility with Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day.
Microsoft's Zune is on the horizon but appears to be more music focussed and is unlikely to appeal to the same mainstream gaming audience that has bought into DS. Meanwhile the PSP is still a serious contender, but again, is aimed at a twenty-something male audience. DS seems out on the own in targeting the wider market - for now. Sony are unlikely to let the casual gaming phenomenon bypass the PSP while a couple of slightly underwhelming recent releases - New Super Mario Bros and Big Brain Academy - all go to prove one thing. Nintendo's biggest competitor in the current handheld market is complacency.
