Nintendo Scores Banner Black FridayNintendo Scores Banner Black Friday

Nintendo reported it sold 1.5 million video-game systems during Thanksgiving week, as the console maker used hardware/software packages to entice shoppers.

The latest sales figure, released Monday, includes 600,000 Wii consoles and 900,000 Nintendo DS portable gaming systems, all sold between Nov. 21 and Nov. 27. "U.S. shoppers bought about 9,000 Nintendo hardware systems nonstop for every hour of every day during the week of Black Friday," Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said in a statement.

How Wii sales will compare to those of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 is not yet known, since the latter rivals have yet to release numbers. The Xbox 360 in October topped the console market in terms of store sales for the fourth consecutive month, according to the NPD Group.

However, in terms of units sold, the Nintendo DS was the best-selling hardware system. The family of portables was helped by price cuts Nintendo launched in August. The DS family, which also includes the DSi and DSi XL, competes with Sony's PlayStation Portable. Microsoft does not make a portable gaming system.

Sales of Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s are expected to get a significant boost during the holiday shopping season with the recent release of motion-sensing controllers, the first for each system. Microsoft released the Kinect controller early this month and sold 1 million units in 10 days. The company expects to sell 5 million Kinects by the end of the year.

To woo shoppers during Thanksgiving week, which includes the official launch of the holiday shopping season, Nintendo offered several hardware/software packages, including a 25th anniversary bundle for the Super Mario Bros. game.