December 1^st, 2004 (10:27am) - Nintendo has announced that more than 500,000 units of their new handheld, the Nintendo DS, have been sold during Thanksgiving week. These 500,000 units represent more than 90 percent of the initial ships available in stores across the United States.

Nintendo plans on shipping more Nintendo DS units every week, hoping that the company will have sold 1 million units of the handeld by year’s end.

"Consumers have voted the Nintendo DS as the hot item this holiday, so if you see one, you’d better buy it," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Nintendo owns the handheld market, and once again we’re the hit of the holiday season."

Nintendo’s other handheld system, the Game Boy Advance, also soared during the holiday weekend. Nintendo sold more than 800,000 Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP units during the past week. The combined 1.3 million Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance units sold last week set a new one-week sales record for handheld systems. And the Game Boy Advance line remains on track to be the best-selling hardware line of the year.

The Gamecube also posted impressive numbers, according to Nintendo. The special bundle of a Nintendo Gamecube and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! game has sold more than 250,000 units since its introduction in mid-November.