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November NPD: It's An Early Christmas For Nintendo

Nintendo already has stars in its eyes over the sales numbers for this holiday season, which still has a few weeks left in it. The November NPD numbers are in, and Nintendo is saying that it's sold almost three million Wii and DS units.

The company says that in November it sold 1.2 million Wii systems and over 1.5 million DS handhelds in the U.S., according to NPD figures. The Nintendo DS was the month's best-selling system, and according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, "It appeared the DS attracted two pockets of consumers: Those looking for a unique limited-edition product and those looking for value." Nintendo has been selling new orange and green DSi bundles (including Mario Party DS), as well as a limited-edition red DSi XL celebrating the 25th anniversary of NES' Super Mario Bros.

Moreover, Charlie Schibetta, Nintendo of America's senior director of corporate communications says that Nintendo sold 600,000 Wiis Thanksgiving weekend alone, which is 50,000 more than the same time period in 2009.

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Comments
  • Nintendo. I don't like you. At least Sony has Kevin Butler.
  • I did my part and picked up a new DSi XL 25th Anniversary pack. What I would really like to know is the actual sales numbers for the Kinect and Move.
  • I like how you said "greed" and not green.
  • It's interesting to note that both Microsoft and Sony has a much more active ad campaign than nintendo, but it isn't helping much apparently.
  • Congrats to the Big N for all their success.

  • Thats a lot of wii.

  • Everyone fails to realize that the Wii and DS are, first and foremost, kids toys. There is a lot of money in marketing to kids, because parents like myself, will often forgo getting themselves things in an effort to keep the little ones entertained so we can get a break every now and again. Disney recently bought ABC, a teastament to how marketing to kids will yield more money than just about anything else. If you look at all the games that come out for Wii, they are all the same properties that we played as kids, Mario, kirby, etc... I can't stand the Wii or DS and never use the ones I got for my daughter. Gaming has grown up, and nintendo has stayed the same. They were first to market with the motion control gimmic and that's why they have sold so many consoles. Games like madworld and dead space extraction sold only about 100,000 copies, showing us that long time gamers don't play the system. I recently got The new kirby and DK games and just don't understand why critics are still so fond of the same thing that was released twenty years ago. We now have amazing experiences like Mass effect 2 and God of war 3 to indulge in. Its sad to see the new 3DS getting so much buzz when its just going to be another gimmic attached to a system with the same lame kids games that nintendo has been re-packaging since the NES. I can't wait to see all the Lemmings rushing to gamestop to pick one up when it releases. No matter how much they sell, I don't even consider nintendo a competitor to my xbox 360 and PS3. Its like comparing go karts to automobiles.
  • i will always love nintendo, but im sorry...PLAYSTATION 3 is my favortie system ever
  • "Nintendo has been selling new orange and greed DSi bundles (including Mario Party DS), as well as a limited-edition red DSi XL celebrating the 25th anniversary of NES' Super Mario Bros."

    Was "greed" instead of "green" intentional or a subconscious slip?

  • I guess it was a wise move, on Nintendo's behalf, to release a bunch of bundles.

  • I can't believe Nintendo is still pushing this many units of its base console. I don't get it.
  • People do normally scramble to get a limited edition bundle.

  • Nintendo appeals to many gamers. The new 25 Mario DSi XL looked so cool, unfortunately I got the XL system when it was first released and don't need another DS.

  • I bought one of the new Red Wii's, great deal for the kids for Christmas. I believe there was an article on Nintendo's sales being down, and then this....people jump the gun too often, need to take time to look at a bigger picture.

  • Yes, because handhelds are dead and so is Nintendo.

    Methinks these analysts have some problems with prematurity.

  • I bought a orange dsi bundle, it's worth my money.

  • Allot of the users commenting on this artical seem like complete morons.  There are things to be all butt-hurt about as far as Nintendo goes, but no one seems to be conserned about them.  "It's a kids toy!"  It seems kind of stupid to say something like that when your sitting around playing BlOps on your Xbox 360.

  • great job for Nintendo. although, i will admit im tired of seeing all these articles on the Wii's sales numbers. it's not going away guys! get over it.

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