Fact-Checking Nintendo's E3 Presser [E308]

[GamePoster]

Nintendo has plenty of stats to boast about this year, with DS and Wii holding the top two spots in hardware sales. 200k DS sold per day in Europe? DS and Wii hardware sales are over $5 billion? Read on for a fact-check of the 5 claims made at Nintendo's news conference earlier today.
Claim 1: European consumers are buying 200k Nintendo DS per week.
True, most likely. Nintendo was selling 14k DS per day back in January 2007. And the DS juggernaut has continued to grow. 200k per week means over 10 million DS units sold in Europe this year.
Claim 2: The Wii version of Guitar Hero III is outselling all others.
True. Wii Guitar Hero III has been the top selling version of the game for at least the past six months, and the only SKU of Guitar Hero in the top 10 for much of that time.
Claim 3: Sales of DS surpassed 20 million.
True. DS sales in the U.S. alone represent 10 million units. See claim 1 to find the other 10 million.
Claim 4:The DS and Wii sales combine to represent more than $5 billion at retail
True. The Wii has sold over 10 million units, add 20 million worldwide for the DS, and do the math: 10 million units x $250 is $2.5 billion; 20 million units x $130 is $2.6 billion. That means $5 billion is a tad too low!
Claim 5: Nineteen third party games have exceeded sales of 400k units.
True, but boastful. Without any context to compare this number with other consoles, which have more third-party support, it's hard to tell whether this is an impressive number or not.

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