Interesting read, the only reason I thought it sold games, or perhaps is the case in Europe, is because of the games. People here are absolutely in love with Advance Wars and Mario Kart. Every gamer I know has a love for Mario Kart, even if they don't have a DS and most of the non gamers love the simple "games" like Nintendogs.

The DS is the perfect example of a system with a little something on every base. Apart from a killer RPG. FF3 and ASH can't come any sooner!

crap! should read "sold units" not "sold games". ho hum.

Ummm... I agree with the article (both the original and the paraphrased English version), but the way you're quoting things up there makes it look like Famitsu said those things. The article you're quoting was written by Tim Rogers for the web site you're linking to. You're not quoting the original Famitsu article or even a translation of it - you're quoting a paraphrased summary.

Just so that everybody knows who said or didn't say what. It's Tim Rogers saying all these things, based on his understanding of what Famitsu wrote in Japanese. But Famitsu themselves don't write at all like this, and they certainly don't disparage their own readers in their articles (as Tim Rogers spends an entire paragraph doing here).

Not that he's necessarily wrong in this case. But the source listed for this should really be Tim Rogers interpreting Famitsu, not "the japanese game mag" itself.

I wish stores here in the states had download play

Here is Nanako Matsushima advertisment. You need Flash to watch it, though. I couldn't find Utada's one, though.
http://touch-ds.jp/mediagallery/st25.html

utada's commercials can be found here and here.

well, that didn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/?v=JSZcbPVYn6w

and

http://www.youtube.com/?v=vW77agGNT0s

Appeal to nongamers? Hahaha.

Actually, the article is not a paraphrase. To tell you the truth, I barely even skimmed the Famitsu article it's based on. All I did was take out their five "reasons" out and fill it in with research/understanding/"insight" of my own. Notice most of my article explains the situation in Japan; in Famitsu, which is targeted at Japanese readers, they don't exactly have to tell people what Japan is like.

So. Take that for what you will.

I wrote this article because I saw Famitsu's mention of the situation (the system being popular to the extent of being dead sold out) as an opportunity to inform people who bizarrely refuse to believe that the DS is selling at all, anywhere -- there's a guy right above this coment who says "Ha Ha Ha" at "appeal to non-gamers." Imagining that he's joking would probably be too optimistic.

The DS is real. Administrators of this website are invited to check my IP address and see where I work; that should speak volumes for my objectivity here.

And if I disparaged any readers -- well. You should all be a little more careful from now one around things that disparage you. It's unbecoming.

Oh, there I go disparaging again!