Fils-Aime: iPad has had zero impact on DS sales

Reggie Fils-Aime has said that Nintendo hasn't experienced any decline in DS sales following the vastly successful launch of the iPad a month ago.

Nintendo's COO told CNBC that the platform holder had in fact set two new sales records for the year so far, adding that it was still experiencing great momentum with the handheld, despite the iPad selling one million devices in a month.

"We have not seen any impact on our DS business. In the first three months we've set two new sales records for the Nintendo DS," said Fils-Aime.

"We think that through April, we'll have the best four month time period to kick off a new calender year that we've ever had with the device. So certainly we're seeing momentum, they're seeing momentum - I think two products can succeed at the same time."

He added that Nintendo was constantly looking at how it could expand its products, and highlighted several incentives coming from the company this year - notably the 3DS.

"What we see with consumers is that they certainly do want something new. We're constantly looking at what else we could do with our products," he said.

"We've mentioned that at this coming E3 in June we'll be showcasing a new 3DS so 3D capability with a handheld product. We think the consumer is going to be very interested in that news."

In order to keep driving Nintendo Wii sales, Fils-Aime drew attention to a new Wii bundle in the US, incorporating the new black console, Wii Sports Resort and the Wii Motion Plus controller.

"We're looking to continue driving [...] momentum by adding more value to the package," he said.

"Over the last four months consumers have bought over five million Wii consoles. That amount is equal to the entire amount our competitors have sold over the previous 12 months."

Fils-Aime said that over a million customers had now signed up to the new Netflix service, which would be aggressively marketed throughout May.

He added that software too would keep driving demand for the Wii - "We've had great software and we've got great software coming," he said.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ct-on-ds-sales