PS2, DS Real Console War Winners

Paradox writes in with a link to an MSNBC article that shouldn't be too surprising for anyone: the real winners of the console war are the DS and the PS2. Boasting numbers unmatchable by the johnny-come-lately next-gen consoles, the PS2 and Nintendo DS each sold about 1.5 Million units last December. Article author Kristin Kalning points out the reality: given the high quality of gaming in general nowadays, the low prices and rich libraries of these 'venerable' systems will see them in circulation for some time to come. Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems? Are you holding out for price drops, or considering buying one of the older systems now that they're considerably less expensive?

i'm not doing anything

[stoolpigeon]

my current console is a game cube. my console before that was a sega genesis (which i still play on occasion). i'm guessing my next console will be whatever is after the wii - or possibly whatever comes after that. by then my kids will be old enough that i'll probably be more motivated to 'keep up'.

Re:XBox used games glut = happy gamers

[matt328]

Amen. My girlfriend and I just found the first Lego Star Wars for PS2 for $15 used the other day and can't put it down. I have a Gamecube as well, and Zelda aside, I've never paid more then $15 each for any of the games I have for it.

Re:DS Not Last-Gen

[bym051d]

And IIRC, the GBA also had a pretty good Christmas. It sold 850,000 in December. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=155061 [computeran...ogames.com]

DS support

[the dark hero]

The DS is still going strong. There's enough titles from square-enix alone to make a fanboy salivate. This isn't surprising news as many people are content with the previous generation of systems and titles available for it. I know plenty of games from the last generation that i haven't even gotten around to playing yet.

Shocker!!

[HappySqurriel]

This is a shocker, inexpensive systems with lots of reasonable quality games released for them outsell expensive systems with no games ...

In general, the number of people who are willing to spend more than $200 on a gaming system is small and the number of people who are willing to spend that much money without (at least) a handful of games they want being readily available is tiny. The PS2 is still attractive to people because you can (essentially) spend $100 on the system, and $20 per game, and have access to more entertainment then you could on your $400 XBox 360 or $500/$600 PS3.

What are the profits?

[LoverOfJoy]

Both the DS and PS2 sold great but how much profit does Nintendo and Sony make from each sold?

The PS2 is probably old enough technology that it's very cheap to make nowadays. DS came out later but Nintendo is known for making a profit right out of the gate on units. It'd be interesting to hear the actual numbers.