female. Awards In addition to recognitions from publications such as Entertainment Weekly, BusinessWeek and the Chicago Sun Times, Nintendogs also won a wide variety of awards. E3 2005 Game Critics Awards: Best Handheld Game. TheG33ks Bronze Award for best Nintendo DS game. Associated Press: "Best Game of 2005" 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival: Excellence Prize PC World: "2006 Innovation Award" D&AD: Yellow Pencils Award 2006 PETA: Best Animal-Friendly Video Game 2006 IGN: Editors' Choice Award IGN: Best use of touch screen for Nintendo DS GameSpot: Editors' Choice award Nintendogs also had very successful launches in North America and Europe, with first week sales of over 250,000 and 160,000 respectively. Lab & Friends received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. ELSPA also gave Dalmatian & Friends a "Platinum" award, for at least 300,000 sales in the United Kingdom. By August 2006, in the United States, Chihuahua & Friends had sold 570,000 copies and earned $17 million; Labrador & Friends had sold 620,000 copies and earned $19 million; and Dachshund & Friends had sold 730,000 copies and earned $22 million. During the period between January 2000 and August 2006, the games were respectively the 50th, 44th and 32nd highest-selling games launched for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable in the United States. On March 23, 2006 at GDC 2006, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata announced that international sales of Nintendogs sales had reached 6 million. By March 31, 2008, the game was the best-selling Nintendo DS game published by Nintendo. As of March 31, 2015, the combined sales of all versions has reached 23.96 million and it is now second on the Nintendo DS best-sellers list behind New Super Mario Bros.. Legacy In 2010, 1UP.com included Nintendogs in their list of five "Essential Newcomers" of the decade, describing it as one of "five revolutionary new games" of the past 10 years, for its impact on drawing "non-gamers to console and portable systems" and establishing the "new" Nintendo. Despite derision from many hardcore gamers, Nintendogs sold tens of millions, mostly among casual gamers and paved the way for the Nintendo DS's worldwide success. This gave rise to a non-game trend, previously limited to PCs, on consoles and portables. Nintendo followed it up with more casual games such as Brain Age, Wii Sports