Nintendo announces great sales in 2004 for the portable wonder!

Nintendo has followed up some of the negative press reported today by announcing an excellent showing for the GBA and GBA SP during last year.

According to Nintendo, the GBA SP was the best selling hardware format over the Christmas period -helped no doubt in part by the absence of Playstation 2 and XBox consoles available in stores across Europe during the same period.

Many shops reported near-total sell outs of the limited edition Pink SP and Tribal editions of the console during the Christmas period, as parents clamoured to take advantage of many excellent sub �100 price points.

Here's the Press Release:

26 January 2005 � Sales figures announced today by Nintendo show that 2004 was a great year for handheld gaming in the UK with Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP having their best ever Christmas. The figures released show that UK sales of the Game Boy Advance SP saw it become the best selling hardware format over the Christmas period, taking the total UK Game Boy Advance sales figure to an astounding four million since it launched in June 2001.

The popular pocket-sized Game Boy Advance SP was the must-have Christmas gift for the second year in a row and 2004 saw Game Boy Advance SP hardware sales of one million units. In September 2004, the Game Boy Advance SP dropped in price to �69.99 and in the three months prior to Christmas, hardware sales increased by 45%.

Dawn Paine, Head of Marketing, Nintendo UK: "With one million Game Boy Advance SPs sold in the UK in 2004 alone, this takes total Game Boy Advance sales figures to an astounding 14 million across Europe to date. The handheld games industry continues to grow and grow, and these figures highlight that Nintendo is still the key player. 2004 has been a great year for the Game Boy Advance SP and for the Nintendo GameCube, we are extremely excited to watch another exciting year unfold."

2005 is going to be busy for the Game Boy Advance SP with games such as Donkey Kong: King of Swing, Kingdom of Hearts, Smashing Drive from ZOO Digital and Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas from Disney/BVG launching in the early part of this year.

Great news for Nintendo as they face up to the impact that their revised profit forecast has had in Japan and indeed the world over, and a cheering thought for GBA owners throughout Europe!