When you're big in Japan, you must be the Nintendo DS

IN LESS THAN thirteen months, the Nintendo DS has sold more than five million units in Japan.

Compare this with the seventeen months it took the PS2 to sell the same number in Japan, and the fourteen months it took the Game Boy Advance, and you've got quite the sales explosion.

At a press conference on the 26th of December, Nintendo's president Saturo Iwata said, "Selling five million units in less than fourteen months means DS is the fastest among any game machines ever launched in Japan to hit that level." And that's sold units, not just shipped.

The rapid growth was achieved through expansive marketing efforts, reaching not only people who already play video games, but also those who have given up on gaming and those who never got into it in the first place.

The games they've released for the DS reflect this strategy, as do the sales of their games. Iwata also said that four DS games have already crossed the one million mark. Train Your Brain has shipped nearly 1.4 million units. Animal Crossing weighs in at 1.27 million. And tied for third place, Nintendogs and Brain Flex have each sold around 1.08 million units.

Will the stars keep shining for their release of the Nintendo Revolution? Only time will tell. µ

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