Europe
The DS was released in Europe on 11 March 2005 for €149. Prior to this, a small supply of DS units were available in a package with a promotional "VIP" T-shirt, Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt, a WarioWare: Touched! demo, and a pre-release version of Super Mario 64 DS, through the Nintendo Stars Catalogue; the bundle was priced at £129.99 for the UK and €189.99 for the rest of Europe, plus 1,000 of Nintendo's "star" loyalty points (to cover postage). As of 23 January, 1 million DS's had been sold in Europe, setting a sales record for a handheld.
The European version of the DS, like the U.S. release, was packaged with a Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt demo when the system was released; and has not been included since. The European packaging for the console is noticeably more "aggressive" than that of the U.S./Japanese release.
The European game cases are about 1/4 inch thicker than their North American counterparts; they are also transparent rather than solid black. Inside the case there is room for one Game Boy Advance game pak and a DS card with the instructions on the left side of the case.
Read more about this topic: Nintendo DS Launch
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