November’s NPD report should be a nice Christmas bonus for Nintendo fans.

As many of you know, last week’s Black Friday marked the beginning of the home stretch to Christmas in the United States, and began a season of insane gift shopping. Insane. Putting previous monthly totals to shame, Nintendo sold at least 653,000 DS Lite units and 350,000 Wii units in the United States alone for the week. That’s over a million units, if you don’t feel like adding, and gives Nintendo its best week in hardware sales in company history.

The DS figure is also an all-time record for video game hardware during Thanksgiving week. The previous mark was set in 2005 by about 600,000 Game Boy Advance units. Not too shabby, Nintendo.

NINTENDO OF AMERICA REPORTS HISTORIC SALES WEEK
Nintendo DS Passes Game Boy Advance Sales Record, Wii Becomes Must-Have Gift

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 27, 2007 - In the first week of the 2007 holiday shopping season, Nintendo of America has sold more Nintendo products than at any other time in its history. This includes more than 653,000 Nintendo DS™ portable video game systems, 350,000 Wii™ home systems and millions of games and accessories throughout the United States - and the season is just getting started.

Nintendo DS set a new all-time sales record for Thanksgiving week, eclipsing the previous mark of 600,000 Game Boy® Advance systems sold during the same period in the United States in 2005. Nintendo DS remains on track to be the top-selling video game system of 2007.

Nintendo’s 350,000 Wii systems represent the highest one-week U.S. sales total outside of its launch week one year ago. Wii has been dubbed the must-have gift of the 2007 holiday season and has been placed at the top of numerous gift lists. Nintendo has repeatedly increased its shipments and its fiscal-year sales forecast for Wii in an attempt to meet soaring demand. Wii reached 5 million sold in the United States faster than any video game system in history, after only 12 months of availability there.

Both Wii and Nintendo DS have continued their yearlong momentum into the holidays without altering their prices. And both remain attractive values for shoppers: Wii has an MSRP of $249.99, while Nintendo DS has an MSRP of $129.99.

“As shoppers look for ways to maximize their limited holiday spending money, they turn to gifts that can be used by the entire family,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “Wii and Nintendo DS offer something for every member of the family. They’re the most fun video game experiences at the most affordable price.”

With higher gas prices and fuel costs, and the lukewarm expectations for the 2007 holiday shopping season, Wii and Nintendo DS might be just what Santa ordered: Thirty-five percent of consumers said they plan to spend less than they did last year, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for the Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association. Similarly, a USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that 25 percent of Americans expect to spend less on gifts this year than they did in 2006.

Note that the internal Nintendo of America numbers referenced in this release represent sales from Sunday, Nov. 18, through Saturday, Nov. 24.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

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