Topic: Nintendo DS Japanese Launch

[Bloodworth]

Hot on the heels of big US sales, the DS makes its debut in the homeland.

After a strong sales in the US, the Nintendo DS was made available to hundreds of thousands of Japanese gamers Thursday morning.  Many shops opened three hours earlier than normal to accomodate long lines and customers heading to work.  Nintendo also pulled off some magic by providing 500,000 units to merchants on day one - up from the 300,000 Nintendo promised.  With many of those systems purchased via pre-order, Nintendo may likely sell over a million units worldwide in less than two weeks.  

Here are a few photos from Japan, courtesy of Nintendo.

Who needs employees when there are step ladders?

Shota Ishbashi at the head of the line.

Handy outdoor registers

[AGENTDICKLAURENT]

Will be interesting to see the first week of sales for Japan -- most sites have downplayed the japanese DS launch in terms of people showing up for queues and so on, but I don't think they really have taken into account the fact that Nintendo actually managed half a million units by launch-day. It'll be interesting. Somehow I doubt Japan can beat the US' half million in a week though.

[Mario]

It sold 230,000 units on day 1, with around 70,000 people buying Super Mario 64 DS and also around 70,000 people buying Wario Ware DS. Weekly sales should be in soon.

[norebonomis]

it feel so weird knowing we here in the us got the ds before japan. does anyone else feel scrared? like something bad is going to happen?  

[Bill Aurion]

No, how could you?

[Urkel]

What happened to the 2 million pre-orders? Shouldn't the system have been sold out on day one and then some?

[Plugabugz]

Now expect all of europe and australia to sell a total of 5 between all those countries.

Nintendo will ship only 3. 1 will go to ebay to battle it out and the other will be available for rent in a tiny blockbuster in the middle of the north sea somewhere.

That only accounts to 2, i don't know where the other 3 are. Nintendo lost them.

PROGRESS!  

[Caustic Saint]

As of Sunday afternoon (Tokyo time) there were still plenty of systems and games to be had. I kinda wish I'd waited a couple days so I could've gone into town and used my discount card at Bic Camera (big electronics chain) and saved some money, but on the other had, I did score one on launch day. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

And hey - I do get to play Wario Ware DS every day, and my Mr. Driller has single-card multiplayer, and there's the free Mr. Driller DS bag I can send off for....

I guess I don't have much to complain about after all!

(Okay, I'll shut up now....)

[Avinash_Tyagi]

Quote
What happened to the 2 million pre-orders? Shouldn't the system have been sold out on day one and then some?

Not quite, the mid week launch hurt the initial sales.

According to gamesindustry.biz:

it should be noted that Nintendo chose to launch the console midweek, which will have negatively impacted early sales.

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[Mario]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conews&tkr=NTDOY:US

Wow, 513,000 Nintendo DS's sold in four days. This thing is going to be HUGE.