Nintendo DS Still a Winner as Wii Thanksgiving Sales Plummet

Thanksgiving week was kind to Nintendo’s DS handheld, but the Wii failed to surpass last year’s sales. In a press release, Nintendo said that it sold roughly 550,000 Wii consoles during Thanksgiving week. In 2008, Nintendo sold 800,000 units, so it looks like a pretty steep drop, except that in 2007 only 350,000 units were sold. Meanwhile, Nintendo DS sales continue to ascent, with over 1 million DS and DSi handhelds sold last week. Nintendo says that breaks the all-time Thanksgiving week sales record for handhelds, surpassing 2002 sales of the Game Boy Advance.

Why did Wii sales falter, then? Perhaps Nintendo just didn’t have any killer Wii deals for Black Friday. Looking back at our coverage, there were no Wii bundles that rivaled those of the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, which included two or more games for the same price as the console alone. The best you could find for the Wii was a Walmart bundle that cost extra. I’m not saying shoppers bought the PS3 or Xbox 360 instead, but with no great deals, there’s no rush to buy. The Nintendo DS Lite, meanwhile, could be had for just $98 from Walmart, a $31 discount. So, does the success of the Nintendo DS equate to a net gain for Nintendo? Nope. Bloomberg reports that shares were down as much as 2.7 percent on the news. Mama mia. [via PC World]