Nintendo DS Surpasses 100 Million Shipped

Nintendo recently shipped the hundred millionth unit of its Nintendo DS portable console, the manufacturer said today. The official moment and location of the milestone is not known, but Nintendo determines it to have occurred as of March 6. The feat puts the DS alongside only three other systems -- Game Boy (including Game Boy Color), PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 -- to have reached that worldwide shipment volume. Reaching a broader audience than many past portable systems, the DS is often credited as being an important early success in Nintendo's "expanded audience" strategy that it also pursued with Wii. First launching in North American on November 21, 2004, the dual-screened system has been available for nearly 52 months, during which time it underwent a cosmetic revision to the DS Lite model. The more significantly updated DSi model launched in Japan last November and is due next month in North America and Europe. "We are grateful that people of all ages continue to respond to our products," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, "and we will continue to look for ways to please current gamers and create new ones." The company also noted that, as of the end of last year, 83 Nintendo DS titles had reached a million sales or more worldwide, and seven reached 10 million.