Happy birthday for the GBA SP

As the Game Boy Advance SP celebrates its one-year anniversary, Nintendo has announced that the handheld is the fastest-selling video game system ever. In North America alone, the GBA SP has sold more than 6.5 million units in its first year and has made the Game Boy Advance line the most successful in the Game Boy series' 14-year and 160 million-unit history.

"By moving from the base Game Boy Advance model to the SP, Nintendo took portable gaming from the realm of a common Volkswagen to a baby Benz," said Michael Pachter, director of research for Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. "It elevated the nature of portable gaming and gave a tremendous boost to the video game industry overall."