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Nintendo DS - Releases

Nintendo DS - Releases: Encyclopedia II - Nintendo DS - Releases

Nintendo DS - North America and Japan. The system was launched in North America for $149.99 USD on November 21, 2004, in Japan for 15,000 yen ($135) on December 2. Well over three million preorders were taken in North America and Japan; preorders at online stores were launched on November 3, and ended the same day as merchants had already sold their allotment. Initially Nintendo planned to deliver one million units combined at the North American and Japanese launches; when it saw the preorder numbers, it brought ...

Nintendo DS: Encyclopedia II - Nintendo DS - Releases

Nintendo DS - Releases

Nintendo DS - North America and Japan

The system was launched in North America for $149.99 USD on November 21, 2004, in Japan for 15,000 yen ($135) on December 2. Well over three million preorders were taken in North America and Japan; preorders at online stores were launched on November 3, and ended the same day as merchants had already sold their allotment. Initially Nintendo planned to deliver one million units combined at the North American and Japanese launches; when it saw the preorder numbers, it brought another factory online to ramp up production. Nintendo originally slated 300,000 units for the U.S. debut; 550,000 were shipped, and just over 500,000 of those sold through in the first week. Later in 2005, the MSRP for the Nintendo DS was dropped to $129.99 U.S.

Both launches proved to be successful, but it is interesting to note that Nintendo chose to release the DS in North America prior to Japan, a first for a hardware launch from the Kyoto-based company. This choice was made to get the DS out for the largest shopping day of the year in the U.S. (the day after Thanksgiving, a.k.a. "Black Friday"). [16] Perhaps partly due to the release date, the DS met unexpectedly high demand in the United States, selling 1 million units by December 21, 2004. As of the end of December, the total number shipped worldwide was 2.8 million, about 800,000 more than Nintendo's original forecast. [17] At least 1.2 million of them were sold in the U.S. Some industry reporters are referred to it as "the Tickle Me Elmo of 2004". [18] In June 2005 Nintendo informed the press that a total of 6.65 million units had been sold worldwide. (Nintendo report in PDF format)

As is normal for electronics, some were reported as having problems with dead pixels (the correct term for this is "fixed pixels", as they "fix" themselves on a single or select group of colors) in either of the two screens. Return policies for LCD displays vary between manufacturers and regions, however in North America, Nintendo has chosen to replace a system with fixed pixels only if the owner claims that it interferes with their gaming experience. There are currently two exchange programs in place for North America. In the first, the owner of the defective DS in question must provide a valid credit card number and, afterwards, Nintendo will ship a new DS system to the owner with shipping supplies to return the defective system. The second is as follows: the owner of the defective DS in question must ship his/her system to Nintendo for inspection. After inspection, Nintendo technicians will either ship a replacement system or fix the defective system. The first option allows the owner to have a new DS in 3–5 business days. Policies followed by Nintendo in Japan are believed to be somewhat stricter.

The following 11 games were released within the system's launch period (the 30 days starting from November 21, 2004).

Asphalt Urban GT (Ubisoft)
Feel the Magic: XY/XX (Sega)
Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits (Namco)
Ping Pals (THQ)
Ridge Racer DS (Namco)
Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Sprung (Ubisoft)
Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo)
The Urbz: Sims in the City (Electronic Arts)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Electronic Arts)

At launch there was one pack-in demo, in addition to the built-in PictoChat program: Metroid Prime: Hunters - First Hunt (published by Nintendo and is a demo for Metroid Prime: Hunters, a game coming in early 2006). At the time of the Electric Blue DS launch, Nintendo bundled the system with Super Mario 64 DS.

The following games were released at same time as the system's first release (December 2, 2004).

Daigassō! Band Brothers (Jam with the Band) (Nintendo)
Chokkan Hitofude (Polarium) (Nintendo)
Cool104 Joker & Setline (Aruze)
Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru (literally "I Would Die for You"; aka Feel the Magic: XY/XX) (Sega)
Kensyūi "Dokuta Tendo" (Spike)
Mahjong Taikai (Koei)
Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits (Namco)
Pokémon Dash (Nintendo)
Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo)
The Urbz: Sims in the City (Electronic Arts)
WarioWare: Touched! (Nintendo)
Zoo Keeper (Success)

In the launch period, the following titles were released.

The Prince of Tennis 2005 -Crystal Drive- (Konami)
Puyo Puyo Fever (Puyo Pop Fever) (Sega)

Nintendo DS - Europe

The DS was released in Europe on 11 March 2005, for £99.99 in the United Kingdom and €149 in the rest of Europe. Prior to this, a limited supply of DS units were available in a package with a promotional T-shirt, Metroid Prime: Hunters - First Hunt, a WarioWare: Touched! demo, and a pre-release version of Super Mario 64 DS, through the Nintendo Stars Catalogue; the bundle was priced at £129.99 for the UK and €189.99 for the rest of Europe, plus 1,000 of Nintendo's "star" loyalty points. As of 14 March, 600,000 DS's had been sold in Europe, setting a sales record for a handheld.

The European version of the DS, like the U.S. release, is packaged with a Metroid Prime: Hunters - First Hunt demo. The European packaging for the console is noticeably more "aggressive" than that of the U.S./Japanese release.

The European game cases are about 1/4 thicker then their North American counterparts, they are also transparent rather than solid black. Inside the case there is room for one Game Boy Advance game pak and a DS card with the instructions on the left side of the case.

Asphalt Urban GT (Ubisoft)
Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits (Namco)
Ping Pals (THQ)
Pokémon Dash (Nintendo)
Polarium (Nintendo)
Project Rub (aka Feel the Magic: XY/XX) (Sega)
Rayman DS (Ubisoft)
Robots (VU Games)
Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Sprung (Ubisoft)
Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Electronic Arts)
The Urbz: Sims in the City (Electronic Arts)
WarioWare: Touched! (Nintendo)
Zoo Keeper (Ignition)

Nintendo DS - Australia/New Zealand

The DS launched in Australia and New Zealand on 24 February. It retailed in Australia for $199 AUD and in New Zealand for $249 NZD. Like the American launch, it includes the Metroid Prime: Hunters - First Hunt demo.

The first week of sales for the system broke all current Australian launch sales records for a console. 19,191 units were sold from Thursday 24 February to close of business Sunday 27 February.

Asphalt Urban GT (Ubisoft)
Ping Pals (THQ)
Project Rub (Sega)
Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Sprung (Ubisoft)
Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo)
Rayman DS / Rayman 2 (Ubisoft)
WarioWare: Touched! (Nintendo)
Zoo Keeper (Ignition)

Nintendo DS - China

"iQue DS", which is the name of official Chinese Nintendo DS, was released in China on July 23, 2005. The price of iQue DS is 1400 RMB (about $169 USD). The iQue DS is compatible with all of the language versions of every game. This new iQue DS includes updated firmware from Nintendo to block out use of the PassMe device, along with the new Red DS.