Found my copy of Steven Kent's Ultimate History of Videogames:
He cites the following FY figures for Nintendo -
Note: he does this by fiscal year, so I may be interpreting this wrong, but since Nintendo's FY 2008 ends in 2009, I'm assuming FY 1986, which he says saw 1.8m NES units shipped ended in 1987.
Year Ending 8/31/1987 - NES shipped 1.8m
Year ending 8/31/1988 - NES shipped 5.4m
Year ending 8/31/1989 - NES shipped 9.3m
*Year ending 3/31/1990 - NES shipped 5.3m
Year ending 3/31/1991 - NES shipped 7.6m
As for 'Famicom' figures:
"In eighteen months, the Famicom had sold 3m in Japan"
I take that to mean by December 1984, Famicom shipped 3m in Japan (it launched July 1983).
We have figures for Famicom at 6.5m in 1986 in Japan so this makes sense to me.
Still looking.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
