Enter the Nintendo DSi
The Nintendo DSi officially launched in the U.S. on the day after the last day of the March
2009 reporting period. However, units sold at midnight sales were included with the March figures reported by the NPD Group. According to Mr. Michael Pachter, analyst for
Wedbush Morgan Securities, the Nintendo DS figures for March 2009 included 58,000 units of the Nintendo DSi from those
midnight sales.
According to Nintendo, the updated handheld went on to sell
435,000 systems during its first week on sale.
If one excludes the Nintendo DSi from the sales figures, the original Nintendo DS system only sold 101,000 units per week during March 2009.
That would be the weakest showing for the Nintendo DS since January
2008, when the system suffered widespread shortages after
extraordinary December 2007 sales.
According to the NPD Group sales of the Nintendo DSi and the
Nintendo DS (i.e. the Nintendo DS Lite) will be reported together.
First Quarter Gains, Losses
Despite the slip in March, first quarter hardware sales were up
significantly for all but the PlayStation line of systems.
The Wii was up 42% from the first quarter of 2008, while the
Nintendo DS (including the 58,000 Nintendo DSi sales) was up a more
modest 8%.
After a nearly flat performance from 1Q 2007 to 1Q 2008,
the Xbox 360 gained almost 38% year-on-year in the first quarter of
2009.
In fact, 1Q 2009 was the first non-holiday quarter during which
the Xbox 360 broke the million system barrier. (It had previously
come within 25,000 systems during 3Q 2007, during the launch of Halo
3.)
Sony's systems have started 2009 with far lower sales than it saw
in 2008. The PlayStation Portable (PSP) saw a decline of 30% from its
sales in 1Q 2008 while the PlayStation 3 dropped almost 14%. The
ailing PlayStation 2 dropped a staggering 59% in 1Q 2009,
year-on-year.