The Rise and Rise of the DS

Nintendo reveals the latest figures for the DS, underlining just how big its little system is getting.

The business end of the weekly sales charts may be dominated by next-gen games but look a little further down, past the impressive visuals and the requisite football games, and you'll see strength of a different kind. The humble DS is doing better than ever in Europe, mirroring the steady rise of Nintendo's portable around the world.

More than 7 million Europeans have snapped up the DS, pushing the global reach to 27 million. There's a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the platform, especially since it jettisoned the tank-like proportions of its precursor for the svelte dimensions of the DS Lite. Better still for Nintendo is that its unapologetic targeting of new slices of the public is working.

Around 45 per cent of 7 million portables were sold to women, says Nintendo, a figure none of its traditional rivals can come close to, despite their constant bleating about expanding the audience of video games.

And while Sony and Microsoft shed blood to keep their core audience happy, Nintendo's games strike a different tone too. Nintendogs alone is changing things. More than 4 million virtual puppies have been birthed in the last year, and the numbers keep ratcheting up.

Same goes for Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, a title that baffles the hardcore but that has reached out to moms and dads (and grandparents too) with its Chris Tarrant endorsed mind-bettering gameplay. The game was released during the quiet summer months and hasn't stopped selling since - again bucking the trend where games usually sell well initially then taper off quickly.

Apart from Brain Training and Nintendogs, four other games have already sold more than a million copies in Europe. The figures will strengthen Nintendo's resolve to stay its path, covering, as they do, both traditional games for long-time gamers and new experiences with broader appeal.

This is all bad news for Sony, which is having no luck with the PSP. Its hardware towers over the DS technologically but that hasn't stopped Nintendo's lowly hardware outselling the PSP many times over every single week. Even the Grand Theft Auto series, which last year gave the PSP a firm footing in Europe hasn't managed to float the portable with this year's edition.

The question for Nintendo now is whether this idea of making games for everyone will transfer as successfully to its new Wii console, which is due in Europe on 8 December.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo