Paine: DS selling better than ever

Forget the festive season – Nintendo’s DS console is selling more right now than the platform holder would expect in the run-up to Christmas, according to marketing director Dawn Paine.

A full three years after its UK launch, Nintendo has told MCV that DS sales continue to increase – and the past month alone has seen sales that one would normally expect during the pre-Christmas rush.

We’re seeing completely different sales trends now,” said Paine. What we sold last week on DS is what previously would have been sold in November – so hopefully retail will understand that it is presenting stock challenges for us. But they are issues we are hoping to address. But three years down the road from launch, the fact that our hardware sales are increasing is very pleasing.”

The handheld’s phenomenal sales have caused some complaints from indies over stock allocation – but Nintendo is doing its best to please everyone, added Paine.

The independent retail community is just as important to us as any one of our other partners. Each and every retailer brings something different to the party. I think the issues we are experiencing at the moment is because of the level of sell-through we are seeing.”