Ever since its release in Japan earlier this week, Pokémon Platinum has sold like ... well, like a Pokémon game. Nintendo's latest in the long-running series has sold close to a million copies (967,675, if you're looking for a specific number) in just two days of being on store shelves. Ridiculous? To say the least!

We know a lot of you outside of Japan are crazy about those pocket monsters, so who's waiting to catch 'em all?

Every month, we post the new NPD numbers detailing the sales of game hardware in the US. We spend a lot of time talking about Japanese sales as well. Typically, the DS is at the top of the sales list, though it is occasionally overtaken by the Wii, or, in Japan, the Monster Hunter machine.

When the DS does top a sales list, does it inspire pride? Does it make you happy to be on the winning team? Is it like watching the stock market, except instead of making money, you're earning shares in the DS's popularity? Or does it excite you for more practical reasons, like the fact that continued DS sales probably means that new games will be coming out for the current DS for a while?

For any gamer, seeing a bargain bin often ends in a multi-minute thumbing through its collection of treasures. Odd games that held a past interest yet were priced too high initially are usually what we encounter, now lowered to a cost that we are more than fine with paying. It's pretty much how we catch up on games we missed.

So what was the last great find you had from a bargain bin? Something that was a featured sale, perhaps seen here? Was it something you found at your local shop? What was it?

Nintendo has to be a short step away from building an evil fortress in a volcano, because now they have super villain money. Like, the kind of money Dr. Doom could use to take over the entire world. Good thing Nintendo isn't evil and just wants us to play games.

During Q1 of this year, Nintendo earned nearly 1 billion dollars (107.2 billion yen). We can only imagine how many Deathstars that could build. Hardware sales showed the DS at 6.94 million units (which was down from 6.98 million year-over-year), bringing lifetime DS sales to 77.54 million units. As for DS software, sales were up, increasing by 2.33 million units to 36.59 million. With this slight dip in DS hardware sales, some analysts are showing concern.

Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities Japan, commented to the AFP in Tokyo that "for the first time, we've actually seen DS hardware sales fall year-on-year. The DS has hit a bit of a high-water mark." If the opinions of gaming bloggers count for anything, we're going to go on the record and state that we aren't worried in the least. With a Grand Theft Auto game coming to the DS, along with the DS just being awesome overall, we think the handheld still has a fighting chance.

Michael Pachter is of the mind that Nintendo made a whole ton of money during the second quarter. Nintendo is supposed to release figures on the 30th, but that hasn't stopped Pachter and Wedbush Morgan from coming up with some figures of their own. Pachter says the company will report earnings of ¥421 billion ($3.91 billion) and raise their yearly estimate to ¥1,907 billion ($17.7 billion).

"Nintendo's recent financial performance has been spectacular and we expect this to continue in FY:09," Pachter commented, going on further to state that "Nintendo's Wii and DS appear to be selling even better in FY:09 than in FY:08, and we believe the momentum will last through the end of FY:09." This is likely due to some smart advertising campaigns, which had female celebs showing off how awesome the handheld is. Plus, you know, the handheld has tons of amazing games.

June was the month of Sony, Sony, Sony ... and DS. With the PlayStation brand achieving positive results across the board (MGS4 undoubtedly being the reason for doubling May's PS3 figures), Microsoft picked up a small increase in sales for the Xbox 360. The DS performed spectacularly as always, and gained a massive jump in sales thanks to Guitar Hero: On Tour.

The only console on a downslide for the month was the Wii, yet it still trounced all non-Nintendo competition. It's like those guys at school who barely even tried and still got top marks, while everyone else studied their butts off to scrape by. Ah, the mysteries of life.

• DS: 783K 368.2K (+ 88.7%)
• Wii: 666.7K 47.5K (- 6.6%)
• PS3: 405.5K 218.4K (+ 116.7%)
• PSP: 337.4K 144.7K (+ 75%)
• X360: 219.8K 31.8K (+ 16.9%)
• PS2: 188.8K 64.4K (+ 51.7%)

Software sales are waiting for you after the break! YA RLY!

Following word that the UK would be receiving some new download stations, as well as some new DS Lite models, we now hear that this new switch is driving sales in the region. It's pretty much a winning combo.

Despite the success, don't bet on more DS Lite models being released anytime soon. "There are now seven different DS colours available, so we have no plans to release more colours at this time," said a Nintendo spokesperson. The new download centers, however, will be rolling out in a "steady and consistent manner," so expect new demos on a regular basis.

For all of you in Taiwan who have relied on non-official distribution to satisfy your need for Nintendo, know that a new third-party distributor has made a deal with Nintendo to supply the region with video games from the Kyoto-based company. FarEasTone (FET) will be teaming up with Nintendo to provide the region with DS units and hopefully find as receptive a market as the handheld has in all other regions of the world it's available for sale.

Two specific models of DS Lite were mentioned, in the crimson black (or "senior") unit and a "New Super Mario DS Lite console." The handheld will be available from July 3rd on.

After a somewhat stalwart week, DS software recovered nicely and once again dominated the charts. Even though the same amount of games appeared in the top thirty (fifteen in total), they ranked higher on average than they did in the previous week. Good software sales also gave DS hardware a little boost:

• PSP: 64,449 (6,087)
  
• Wii: 49,047 (7,475)
• Nintendo DS: 37,404 (2,499)
• PlayStation 3: 9.071 (1,370)
• PlayStation 2: 7,189 (167)
• Xbox 360: 1,947 (473)

Four new games debuted in the top thirty, including Sega's Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team!, which nabbed the first place spot from Monster Hunter. The other three games were Glory of Herakles, Scarlet Fragment, and Tea Dogs Room 3. Herakles (or Hercules, if you prefer) is the title that sparks our interest the most, as it's an interesting RPG published by Nintendo. Even so, it's first week sales were (unfortunately) subpar, yet good enough to land it in the top ten.

Check out the sales numbers and rankings for yourself after the break.

Looks like we'll have to start focusing on your region more, Europeans, as it's come to our attention you folks love yourselves some video games. This news comes courtesy of Nielsen Games, who found out that the Europe Union spent over a billion more (in U.S. dollars) on video games in 2007.

Another interesting statistic comes from the average age of a gamer in the UK: 33 years old. On top of that, 42 percent of UK game players have children. This ties into another nice statistic, which shows 81 percent of parents across Europe admitting that they often enjoy games with their children.

It would seem the landscape is changing across Europe, for the better. Gaming is looking to be viewed in more and more of a favorable light. Now, if only we could get some of that over here in the United States. Because, here, if you play games, you must be a child.

The spotlight this week is on Luminous Arc 2: Will, a game that has yet to be confirmed for English language localization. While we're forced to sit and wait jealously, though, forty thousand Japanese gamers ran out and bought the title. Only falling behind the juggernauts Monster Hunter and Mario Kart Wii (and almost squeezing past Nintendo's racer), Image Epoch's SRPG debuted pretty impressively.

In other sales news, the announcement for another Professor Layton game in Japan managed to push the first title in the series back into the top thirty. Aside from that, there weren't any differences in DS software worth mentioning.

In terms of hardware, the numbers for the DS weren't so hot. In fact, we don't remember the sales numbers for Nintendo's handheld ever being this low in Japan. With everyone and their mother already owning a DS in the country, does the system still have room for growth? We won't know for sure until the next big software push, but for now it looks like the dual-screened handheld should get comfy in that third place spot.

• PSP: 70,536 (19,348)
  
• Wii: 41,572 (25,736)
• Nintendo DS: 34,905 (16,323)
• PlayStation 3: 7,701 (353)
• PlayStation 2: 7,022 (442)
• Xbox 360: 1,474 (176)

The software numbers are located after the break, so go on and take a look. They won't bite!*

*DS Fanboy claims no responsibility for those who get bitten by our sales figures.

While we're sure Nintendo will send a press release to mark the momentous occasion once 20 million DSes are sold in the U.S., recent numbers show that the handheld is almost there. After April's NPD numbers, 19.6 million of the systems have sold in the region since its launch.

Even though Japan has a much smaller population and reached the 20 million mark months ago, such a landmark can't be seen as anything but a success for Nintendo. It'll only be a matter of time now before the U.S. joins Europe and Japan in the category of "regions that have sold 20 million DS systems."

Sure, it may seem pretty likely that we'll see a DS redesign eventually, but will it be this year? Despite the coy denials so reminiscent of the weeks leading up to the last redesign announcement, it just doesn't seem like the right time for a new DS.

In the past, Nintendo has adhered to a pretty predictable cycle on redesigning their handhelds. Every year and a half to two years or so, it's time for a new model. But no handheld has ever been quite like the DS. It's everywhere. Your grandmother just may own one (or more), and because of that incredible success, Nintendo can afford to break out of that cycle and take a little extra time. Sales of the DS in Japan may be flagging a little of late, due to the PSP actually selling, but the system still boasts extremely robust numbers and is consistently in the top three there amongst hardware. The story is the same here in the U.S.: the DS continues to sell like crazy. Why put out a new DS now? It seems to make much more sense to simply wait a while, until sales actually start to drop off.

In the meantime, Nintendo boosts sales of the Lite by releasing new colors, which they have suddenly started doing a lot more outside Japan. That seems to be another sign that we're still not quite ready for a redesign. Nintendo may make some less-than-brilliant decisions at times, but announcing a new design mere months (or weeks, if we see more colors this year, as is rumored) after the release of new colors may have a negative impact on sales. Sure, that new sparkly-striped-gold-plated rainbow Lite is spiffy, but if you're about to buy the new Ultra Lite anyway, would you drop an additional hundred-plus dollars? Probably not. You'd wait to check out the new model instead.

Some could argue that colors are now going to multiple regions in order to get rid of back stock, but c'mon -- are there really piles of DS Lites lying around unsold? Considering that we still have occasional DS shortages, it doesn't seem likely. Also, we're still getting brand new colors on top of the shades that are just now becoming available in new regions, and it's not like those were piled up. Would we really get new colors now if we were about to see a new DS? It just doesn't make sense.

Next year, maybe, Nintendo will get around to tweaking the DS design further. This year, we'll see more peripherals and accessories instead, and a focus on the Wii, because there's just no reason to do anything else.

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Expect it!	Back	Your thoughts?

We realized today that we don't know Japan as well as we thought we did. With our reasoning, a new Gundam game + the popularity of the DS = cha-ching. While the debuting Emblem of Gundam had decent sales for its first week, though, taking the twelfth spot isn't all that impressive -- especially since there was only one new release cluttering up the top ten.

On the other hand, We're Fossil Diggers, Pokemon Ranger, and the Taiko Drum Master DS sequel continued to shine, giving the DS a nice piece of top ten representation. Batonnage managed to reach the half-million mark, while the other two games neared 100,000 copies sold.

For hardware, DS numbers went up since last week, but the handheld is still convincingly behind the PSP and Wii in recent sales. If you want to see the numbers, though, just click past the break. You can check out the software listings there, too.

Not only did the PSP gain momentum with the hideous brown, er, we mean shiny bronze model that released in Japan last week, but the Wii also beat out its portable cousin, sending the DS to third place in hardware sales:

• PSP: 92,411
  
• Wii: 48,796
  
• Nintendo DS: 42,435
  
• PlayStation 3: 9,107
  
• PlayStation 2: 7,108
  
• Xbox 360: 1,283

DS software fared better, though, with two new releases gracing the coveted top ten. Taiko Drum Master: 7 Islands' Adventure was the shining star of the week, reaching almost 56,000 sales. Summon Night gets an honorary mention, though, as it debuted in the fifth spot.

To check out the other new releases and software placings, just keep on reading ... forever.