The idea has been bandied about, dissected, contested and now it appears as though it will finally come to fruition: the DS, that plucky little multicolored portable, is set to overtake the PS2 in Japan sometime in early 2008.
For some, this milestone was a given, especially in light of the portable’s insane sales numbers thoughout late 2006 and all of 2007. According to an article at GameIndustry.biz, the hard facts are thus:
For the week ending December 2 the DS sold 124,627 units, up from 116,694 the previous week, while the Wii shifted 74,764, up from 54,362 in the week before. That brings the lifetime sales figure for the handheld console to 20,284,183 – at which rate it will overtake the PlayStation 2’s lifetime figure in the middle of January next year.
During this period, the two Nintendo consoles were the only ones to see an increase in the number of units sold.
Full Japanese hardware list below…
1. Nintendo DS: 124,627
2. Nintendo Wii: 74,764
3. PlayStation Portable: 74,626
4. PlayStation 3: 37,092
5. PlayStation 2: 13,703
6. Xbox 360: 6632