Coinciding with its recent 10 million in Europe milestone, the Nintendo DS has also topped 10 million "in the Americas," according to the latest press release. Playing the numbers game yet again, Nintendo claims to have sold nearly nine DS or DS Lite units every minute.The DS launched earliest in the US, on November 21, 2004, close to 795 days ago. That number converts to approximately 1.145 million minutes, which would give Nintendo sales figures of 10.3 million portable systems -- certainly a lot more precise than previous ventures by Nintendo into the magical world of Arithmetic. Still, who are we to judge Nintendo's math skills when scientists are working to define a new number that explains the DS's sales numbers in Japan (sources tell us they'll likely go with "Nintend-illion").
[Update 1: Title used to refer to Western Hemisphere, which was used to reference the Americas but not any portion of Europe or Africa that subsequently lie in the West. Headline has been changed.]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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--R.J.
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Remember way back in 2004 where pretty much every mainstream gaming site was claiming the failure of the DS and the success of the PSP?
Yeah... good times....
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Anyone else suspect the DS Lite was harder to find than the Wii and PS3 combined this past Xmas? (for the record, I got a Wii on launch day with no preorder and only an hour in line... they had no DS Lites)
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ds, pacifiers & diapers
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I'm also pretty sure that the Western Hemisphere isn't made of the American continent alone, just as it isn't made of the European continent alone.
The title may just possibly be off, give or take 10 million
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With such strong sales already and no end to the DS generation in sight, can the platform sell more than 64 million units worldwide over lifetime? (That's the amount gamers on the simExchange are currently forecasting). http://www.thesimexchange.com/stock.php?id=38
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1) Britain is by far the single largest market in what is widely taken to be the 'European gaming territories' making up about 1/3rd of total sales
2) Portugal, Spain and a significant portion of France lie west of this line, and their combined population and sales must make some considerable dent into the 'Western Hemisphere', not to mention parts of the African continent.
3) As a European living 5 miles West of Greenwich in one of Europe's greatest cities, lines like "so most usuage of the term just equals "the americas"" are quite insulting
4) You're being a bit of a smarmy git.
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ZAM!
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Ah yes here we go...
http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7427
DS (including Lite)
Hardware:
18,880,000 / 9,160,000 / 35,610,000
Software:
93,800,000 / 35,900,000 / 154,230,000
Thats april-dec for 2006 on the left, 2005 for the middle, and lifetime sales on the right. I was slightly off, only by 5.6 million. Also the attach rate for the DS is 4.33.
The odd part is how it managed to sell the magical 10 million mark first in Europe then in the Americas. Then again I don't have a lot of trust in the opinions of American gamers. With the whole madden thing selling the most last year still kind of makes me crazy mad every time I think about it...
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I just wish they had the gba link port so I could use them on the gamecube.
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U.S. citizens refer to themselves as americans, which is wrong, and because of that the rest of the world has a tendency to refer to U.S. citizens as americans... which is wrong.
A citizen from Venezuela is an "american". A citizen from Mexico is an "american" too.
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I'd love to know if there is a site that could re-cap a lot of websites that claimed in their "expertise" that the DS would fail miserably alongside the PSP - and then see what the journo's/analysts think now in reflection.
That would be awesome. *Waits for someone to point out that there is a site like this*
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Paul Gale
1up.com
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No, someone from Mexico is a Mexican. Someone from Venezuela is a Venezuelan. Someone from the United States of America is an American. Of course, all of these people are also called Americans, when referring to their continent.
The reason is that there are two demonyms; one refers to nation of origin, and the other refers to continent of origin. What other name would citizens of the U.S.A. go by? Let me first warn you that there isn't really any good other name - people have been trying to do it for hundreds of years. Personally I don't see why Canada and Latin America have to get their panties in a bunch and start spouting off about "cultural aggression".
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Why didn't you just buy a PSP if you wanted more than games? It's not like the DS was ever advertised to do more than games.
@elmer
The most commonly accepted usage of the term "Western hemisphere" includes only the Americas and affiliated islands. While you are technically correct, that is what is actually meant in the article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_hemisphere
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There's an story, when a friend of mine went to Germany, she introduced herself as an Honduran, from Honduras, Central America. Next time she met the person, he said her that she was liar because there was no state in America with that name... she looked to a US map.
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Quick question: when you go out of the U.S. and get back, what do you answer at the border when they ask you for nationality? People from the U.S. have the obligation to say "U.S. Citizen" to the officer because THAT is their nationality.
It's not that "we get our panties in a bunch" is that U.S. Citizens are never educated into KNOWING what the term "american" really means, and it's all because of an incorrect sense of superiority: the U.S. is not America (America is the whole contintent)... and the U.S. is NOT the world.
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Portable Ops over Mario Kart any freekin day!!
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