Nintendo DS sells 3 million Down Under

Nintendo Australia today announced that its DS brand of handheld game consoles had broken the 3-million-units-sold mark in Australia. The milestone means that the DS family of products is now the highest selling video games device Down Under to date, unseating previous record holder, Sony's PlayStation 2.

Since the launch of the Nintendo DS in 2005, the house of Mario has released four revisions of its popular handheld. Affectionately referred to as the "DS Phat" by fans, the original model was superseded in 2006 by the Nintendo DS Lite. The DS Lite boasted better battery life and a brighter screen. 2009 brought the third revision of the dual-screened device--the Nintendo DSi--which introduced both a camera and a downloadable game service to the platform. The fourth, and latest, release of the Nintendo DS arrived in early 2010 and a carbon copy of the DSi but boasted two larger-sized screens and a redesigned and chunkier stylus.

With the Nintendo DS range of products approaching its sixth year of sale in 2011, the Japanese hardware and software giant is preparing for its next-generation replacement, the Nintendo 3DS. Although the successor has been widely reported to be arriving in the first quarter of next year, many details surrounding its launch remain uncertain. Fans don't have long to wait, with the company tipped to take the wraps off the Western launch price and date details at its upcoming press event in early January.