500,000 Game Boy Advance Units Fly Off Shelves

The popularity of Game Boy Advance in the U.S. is mirroring its charge into the Japanese market. Just last week , Nintendo turned loose the first batch of its next-generation Game Boy handheld gaming devices in the U.S. backed up by 17 new titles. Today, Nintendo let us know that the little gadgets are selling like hotcakes in the States with a record 500,000 systems sold so far. When Game Boy Advance launched in Japan earlier this year, Nintendo sold 1.6 million units in its first five weeks. Nintendo also beat the previous sell-through record for game devices in the U.S. The company's 1996 launch of N64 and was the former top seed at a now-paltry half a million units in four weeks. As you might expect, shortages are occurring across the land, but fear not brave gamer, Nintendo shipped an extra 100,000+ units over the weekend and plans to push out a million by the end of June.