Nintendo Sells 1.5 Million Hardware Units For Black Friday

The post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" is when many U.S. consumers flock to retail stores for holiday shopping, and as such it often acts as a bellweather for the health of the crucial season's retail. During the key shopping week, Nintendo says it sold 900,000 DS systems and 600,000 Wii consoles. The sales took place between Sunday, November 21 and Saturday, November 27, according to the company's sales estimates. The holiday season is particularly crucial to Nintendo, which often aims to position its family-friendly product line as ideal for gift-giving. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently said that almost half of the company's 2009 hardware sales came in the last two months of the year. "U.S. shoppers bought about 9,000 Nintendo hardware systems nonstop for every hour of every day during the week of Black Friday," says Fils-Aime alongside the recent Black Friday results. Nintendo released new hardware color bundles in time for the wave of shoppers: In addition to its previously-announced limited-edition red Wii, which comes with New Super Mario Bros Wii and Wii Sports for $199, the company offers a limited-edition red, Mario-branded DSi XL that comes with Mario Kart and various Brain Age pre-loads for $179.99. The red hardware is intended to commemorate the 25th anniversary of original Super Mario Bros. on NES. Further, the company unveiled two new DS bundles last week: one in orange and one in green, which come bundled with Mario Party for $149.99.