Nintendo: DS sales have peaked

Nintendo’s latest financial results show that the phenomenal sales of DS hardware and software have now peaked.

That is, according to the latest analysis from Pocket Gamer’s Jon Jordan.

Despite Nintendo selling "probably the largest number of games consoles ever sold in a 12 month period" with the DS, the recent financial figures clearly show that DS sales in Japan have already peaked, having fallen from 9.1 million to 6.4 million over the last financial year.

Software sales slowdown

Nintendo predicts another 28 million DSs will be sold in FY08-09 – which equates to a fall of 7.5 per cent year-on-year.

Additionally, Pocket Gamer notes that "game sales are only predicted to rise by 0.7 per cent to 187 million – ie game sales per DS will fall sharply" and concludes that:

"There are only so many versions of Brain Training and Nintendogs that the old and the young are prepared to buy (despite all the good work being done by the likes of Nintendo and Ubisoft)."

Too many crosswords

"In FY06-07, 591 new DS games were released (the majority in Japan)," continues Jordan's analysis.

"Yet over the past 12 months, 1,095 new games were shipped with almost every territory, doubling the number of new titles released; a completely ridiculous and unsustainable situation that's seen far too many cat, dog, pony, donkey, horse, fish, vet, fashion, lifestyle, language and crossword games released."

TechRadar has contacted Nintendo in the UK for further comment.