Nintendo has just put out an extremely ebullient press release concerning sales of the DS and its software. Apparently the console has now shifted approximately four million units in North America and five million in Japan:
"This makes the Nintendo DS the fastest-selling video game machine in the history of the Japanese video game market. In addition, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing: Wild World and the two games in the brain-training series (Brain Age and Brain Flex) achieved sales of more than 1 million units each."
Surely this'll be the year that the whole 'brain-training' thing hits the rest of the world? These IQ-testing titles have been huge in Japan all year, but have yet to receive English translations - are we not interested in improving our minds in the West?
Meanwhile, American gamers have bought one million copies of Mario Kart DS since November 14, and cutesy puppy sim Nintendogs has reached the 1.5 million sales mark. Great to see that there's still one area of the industry untroubled by the gangland shooter - or its cousin, the urban racer. I can't imagine Mario directing gamers to pimp his ride.
Anyway, the seasonal cheer doesn't end there...
Interestingly, WiFi multiplayer figures are also reasonably impressive:
"All around the world, players have been competing on the new Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection wireless gaming service. Within seven weeks of the service launch more than 10 million game connections have been made and more than 550,000 unique visitors have connected globally."
I'm really fascinated to see how handheld multiplayer gaming develops in 2006. There's scope here for a whole new etiquette to develop, a new world of transient leagues and tournaments springing up for a few hours then drifting away as journeys end and competitors move on. A whole new genre of game may be demanded to exploit the phenomenon.
So what have your experiences of WiFi gaming been?
