Nintendo sent me a press release early on Friday, but I didn"t get the chance to post it until now for various reasons. It pretty much states that the Nintendo DS is single-handedly keeping the Video Game Industry sales growth moving forward. I"ll let the rest of the press release speak for itself, check out the extended news area for the full press release:
As both an entertainment and a business, Nintendo DS(TM) today is the powerhouse of the U.S. video game industry, driving nearly all industry revenue growth so far this year. Without this portable system, the video game industry growth overall would be nearly flat when compared with 2005, according to independent sales figures from the NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y.
Through September"s end, the U.S. industry overall shows revenue growth of 11 percent when compared with the same period in 2005. Nearly all of the growth comes from the portable DS -- without it, the industry would report a mere 1.6 percent growth over the past nine months. DS hardware and software units posted a robust gain of 203 percent when compared to the same period in 2005. The news is the same globally: Nintendo recently announced estimated full-year shipments for DS hardware will grow to 20 million units from 17 million units worldwide, while estimated DS software shipments increased to 82 million units from 75 million.
"Numbers dramatically show the value of reaching out to the masses with products that are compelling and comfortable," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "And this perfectly sets the stage for our breakthrough Wii console, which appeals to both core players and current non-players with an intuitive control system and a price everyone can afford."