As the holiday season gets under way, Nintendo is celebrating strong sales of its popular Wii video-game console. The console, which launched in December 2006, has sold seven million units in Japan, according to Famitsu publisher Enterbrain.

Nintendo’s handheld gaming device, Nintendo DS, has plus made its mark in Japan, selling 24 million devices as of Nov. 16, according to Enterbrain. Sales were fueled by Nintendo’s DSi, a new version that debuted in the Japanese market on Nov. 1.

“The Wii seems somewhat unaffected by the economic situation and is not only selling well but still scarce to find,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of consumer strategy at Jupitermedia. “As consumers are going to be very careful where they put their dollars that year, the notion of a device that has long-term entertainment value and appeal to all members of the family is going to be very appealing.”

In the third quarter, U.S. sales grew eight percent

from 2007, according to Anita Frazier, an NPD Group analyst. “As would be expected at that point in the console life cycle, games sales are starting to take the spotlight even as the average retail prices of games increased slightly. Heading into the critical fourth quarter, the U.S. games industry is on solid ground.”

Not All Perfect

Earlier that year NPD said Nintendo’s Wii had passed the five million sales mark in the U.S. A total of 5,019,337 units were sold, for an average of 386,000 units sold per month since its launch in December 2006.

The latest estimates, however, show that the average monthly rate has dropped 24 percent to 292,000 units sold in Japan.

The not-so-great performance of unit sales has been attributed to a weakening in the Japanese software market, according to NPD, declining 21 percent from last year. The largest decline in Japan was for…

Orginal post by Mike

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