The week ending March 5th marked the debut of the DS Lite... as well as the first DS Lite sell-out.

Courtesy of Media-Create, we have the most recent sales figures from Japan.

The DS Lite finally descended on Japan, yet with far less available units than initially planned. To say the least, response was staggering and the sleek little portables proved a near-instant sellout everywhere. With available stock reduced to less than a third of the previously planned total (and in only one of the colors at that) the huge crowds that formed outside the most popular shops were not even indicative of the full potential consumer audience. (With the March 11th release of the remaining two colors, Enamel Navy and Ice Blue, the launch craziness indeed continued seemingly unabated.) Nintendo, embarassed into issuing a public apology notice for the shortages, is planning for weekly shipments to continue but it is clear the hot new system will remain a hard-to-find item for weeks to come.

The original DS meanwhile managed excellent sales in its own right, perhaps in part driven by all the disappointed first-time DS buyers. At least in Japan, Nintendo intends to continue to sell the two designs side-by-side for the immediate future - it is likely however that the original style will eventually be phased out later in the year when their Lite supplies stabilize.

Finally, you may have noticed that the venerable original GBA and XBOX have dropped from the charts: their struggle to outsell each other will have to continue behind the scenes. Now, let us look to future battles - such as Gamecube versus XBOX 360. Now there is an evenly matched fight (in Japan.)

The week's console numbers:

Even with the release of Square-Enix's gorgeously drawn Children of Mana for the DS, likely owing at least in part to hardware shortages, the PS2's new Gundam title took the top spot. The latest Seiken Densetsu (Mana) adventure nevertheless had no problems moving over 100k copies: demand in the next few weeks should remain respectable as well as new DS owners look for a beautiful title to christen their new systems. Puzzloop's debut however was quite subdued as the fun-looking puzzle game managed sales in the low thousands only for it's first week. Still, sales of the popular DS titles as a whole made a noticeable jump; this trend is likely to be repeated while system sales stay hot.

The weekly software numbers: