Nintendo responds to NPD data, says shortages affected Wii sales

Nintendo DS Family Sets New Portable Sales Record for February

With more than 613,000 units sold in February, the Nintendo DS™ family of systems set a new U.S. record for portable video game sales in the month of February, according to the independent NPD Group. This tally surpasses the previous record of more than 597,000 units set by Nintendo DS in February 2009.

Wii recorded another strong month of sales, despite being hindered by continued product shortages that affected U.S. retail locations during the month. Even so, Nintendo still managed to sell more than 397,000 Wii systems at retail for the month.

With these sales through the end of February, consumers have already purchased 1.9 million Nintendo hardware systems in 2010 alone.

“Here in its sixth year of availability, Nintendo DS continues to expand the appeal of video games,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We expect the public’s appetite for these systems will grow even more when we introduce our new extra-large model, the Nintendo DSi XL, on March 28.”

Three of the top five best-selling games of February play on Nintendo systems. These include New Super Mario Bros.™ Wii at No. 1 with more than 555,000 sold, Ubisoft’s Just Dance™ at No. 4 with more than 275,000 sold and Wii Sports Resort™ with the Wii MotionPlus™ accessory at No. 5 with more than 272,000 sold.

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