Nintendo sells over 5,00,000 GameCubes in first week

REDMOND, Wash: Nintendo Co. Ltd. said on Thursday it sold more than 500,000

GameCube video game consoles in the week after the console's US launch,

outpacing sales of Microsoft Corp.'s competing Xbox.

Nintendo said in a statement that almost all of the first batch of consoles

that had been shipped to US retailers had sold out, but the first replacement

orders of about 125,000 units had begun to arrive at US stores.

The Japanese game maker said it shipped a total of 740,000 of the $199

GameCube consoles to North America for the unit's Nov. 18 launch, with about 80

per cent of that total going to US retailers.

Microsoft has not released figures on sales of the Xbox, but analysts have

estimated the company had about 300,000 units available for the Nov. 15 launch

of that next-generation console with most of those selling out within a few

days.

Nintendo has marketed the GameCube to children and families and touted its

price advantage over both the Xbox and Sony Corp's market-leading PlayStation 2,

both of which are priced near $299 in the United States. Sony Corp. sold out its

first shipment of the PlayStation 2 when it launched in the United States last

year, but had difficulty keeping up with demand as shipments lagged.

Nintendo now forecasts it will sell 1.3 million GameCube consoles by

year-end. Microsoft has said it expects to ship between one million and 1.5

million Xbox units by year-end. The shares in ATI Technologies, which supplies

the graphics chip for the GameCube, gained five per cent on the Toronto Stock

Exchange to a new 52-week high on Thursday on the report of brisk sales for the

console.

The stock closed at C$17.15 on Thursday, up 89 Canadian cents and up more

than 103 per cent since the start of the year.

(C) Reuters Limited.