Nintendo Shares Slide Following NPD Results

Despite a healthy debut of the new DSi handheld in the U.S. during March, a 17 percent year-on-year drop in Wii sales has led Nintendo shares to slip 6.6 percent. “Our launch schedules are more spread out so we’re going to have these tough comparisons month to month,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime in a Bloomberg report. “But if you look at the overall trend of our business, it continues to be very healthy.” The Nintendo DSi sold 435,000 units in its first week on sale in the U.S., according to figures provided by Nintendo. This compares to just 226,300 for the DS Lite in the same time period. The DS launched in the U.S. on April 5 for $169.99. As part of the company’s official response to the official March NPD results, Nintendo of America’s Cammie Dunaway commented: “Nintendo systems accounted for 58.4 percent of the video game hardware sold in March, more than all other systems combined.” Nintendo also had four first party titles in the top ten, with Pokemon Platinum at number two with 805,000 unit sales, Wii Fit at number three with 541,000, Wii Play at number eight on 281,000 and Mario Kart Wii at number nine on 278,000. Without Nintendo hardware the company claims that the industry as a whole would be down 14 percent on the previous year’s figures.