Widely reported over the holiday is the news that the Nintendo DS has passed the 5 million mark in Japanese hardware sales in just 13 months. By way of contrast, the Game Boy Advance took 14 months to reach 5 million in that country, and the PlayStation 2 took 17 -- leading Satoru Iwata to note "DS is the fastest among any game machines ever launched in Japan to hit that level."
"To achieve this rapid growth, we were required not only to go after frequent game players, but to reel back people who had left games and to make video games enjoyable for those who had not played games at all," Iwata added. Nintendogs has apparently contributed to this effect, shipping over 1.08 million copies in Japan alone.