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.
I believe I am allowed to say, that this is insane. Nintendo probably never had this in their we wish we could sell this many products list. Thank you America for keeping one of the best game companies in the world supplied with Caviar and Yachts.
Update –
Nintendo’s Black Friday surge was fueled by multiple new hardware colors, each of which comes bundled with games. The bundles provide a great value for shoppers who are looking to get the biggest bang for their video game bucks. These bundles, all of which are available while supplies last, include:
- Limited-edition Mario red Wii hardware in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros.™ game on the NES™. It includes a new red Wii system, a red Wii Remote™ Plus controller, a red Nunchuk™ controller, and games New Super Mario Bros.™ Wii and Wii Sports™ at a suggested retail price of $199.99.
- A limited-edition red Nintendo DSi XL™ bundle in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. game on the NES. It features a Mario red Nintendo DSi XL system with three iconic Super Mario Bros.-themed graphics, the Mario Kart™ DS game and preloaded software, including Brain Age™ Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Math and Photo Clock. It is available at a suggested retail price of $179.99.
- Orange and green Nintendo DSi™ systems, which are bundled with the Mario Party™ DS game. They are available at a suggested retail price of $149.99.
In addition to the great hardware bundles, shoppers have dozens of great video game options for everyone on their shopping lists. Some exclusive games for the Wii console include Super Mario Galaxy™ 2, Metroid™: Other M, Wii Party™, Kirby’s Epic Yarn™, PokéPark™ Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure, FlingSmash™ (which comes bundled with the new Wii Remote Plus) and Donkey Kong Country™ Returns. Third-party Wii games include New Carnival Games® from 2K Play, NBA JAM from EA Sports, Just Dance® 2 from Ubisoft, Sonic Colors™ from SEGA, GoldenEye 007™ from Activision Publishing Inc. and Disney Epic Mickey from Disney Interactive Studios.
On the portable Nintendo DS family of systems, shoppers can choose games like DRAGON QUEST® IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies™, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future™, Pokémon Ranger™: Guardian Signs, Art Academy™, Mario vs. Donkey Kong™: Mini-Land Mayhem! and Golden Sun™: Dark Dawn. Some key third-party Nintendo DS games include Super Scribblenauts™ from WB Games, Rock Band® 3 from MTV Games, GoldenEye 007 from Activision Publishing Inc. and Sonic Colors from SEGA.
