Nintendo Announces GBA Sales Milestone

Thanks to TotalVideoGames.com for their article highlighting Nintendo's announcement that there have been 15 million GameBoy Advances sold in the U.S., at a rate of "...more than one unit sold every six seconds since the introduction of the Game Boy Advance in June, 2001." Nintendo also officially announced two new colors for the GBA SP, Flame (red) and Onyx (black), and even lay out their reasoning for those picks: "Color psychologists believe that certain hues generate specific, and often very strong responses in people. For example, black can foster strength and encourage independence, while red empowers and can stimulate the mind." Feel empowered yet?

So what about my old game boy?

[ERJ]

My old game boy was white. White is for purity, chastity....oh crap.

Re:So what about my old game boy?

[Jerf]

My old game boy was white. White is for purity, chastity....oh crap.

Your Game Boy got around? Wow, your Game Boy outscored quite a few people reading this comment.

Tell me, was he (or she...) a "playa'"?

"Insert tab A into slot B" indeed.

OK, I'll stop.

16 bit era strength

[Metroid72]

The popularity of this platform proves that the 16bit era was the golden age of videogames.

Gameplay was king, and that was the primary selling point of the Genesis and SNES.

Hopefully developers will continue to expand it with original ideas, instead of ports of older games.

It still also constitutes a potential entry for the new game programmer.

Re:16 bit era strength

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

You think that if the GBA hardware were offered up in a home console it would have sold 15 million units? There are plenty of games on the XBox/PS2/GC that have great gameplay. If the GBA were up against a platform that had PS2 level graphics, at the same price point, the GBA would get crushed. The fact is that people have a certain idea of how much a handheld should cost - they want the best graphics they can get for that price. Posts like yours are very perplexing - I can't believe people actually believe

Re:16 bit era strength

[Metroid72]

You have a point. I guess I should have mentioned that the 16 bit lineups are very suited to the form factor.
The idea was to highlight that despite the sofisticated production values of 32/64bit games, gameplay was still king.
Some people (me included) just like to pick up a game and without a heavy learning curve have fun on the go, interestingly, that was the case of many 8/16bit games.
And regarding your PS2 VS GBA comparison, remember that when you're talking about a handheld the game design paradi

Re:16 bit era strength

[Inoshiro]

"If the GBA were up against a platform that had PS2 level graphics, at the same price point, the GBA would get crushed."

Posts like yours are very perplexing. The GBA hardware, in console form, would cost about 100$ CDN -- only a bit over a third of the cost of a PS2 system.

If Nintendo were to release a GBA player that worked without GameCube, I'm sure it'd sell decently well. More than you seem to think, anyways.

Re:16 bit era strength

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

You read my statement backwards. The original poster seemed to be proclaiming that the reason the GBA sold so well was because of the fact that the games harken back to the 16-bit generation of games. I was refuting this by saying that if a handheld were released where all others things were equal but the graphic capabilities of this new handheld were equal to the PS2, the more capable model would sell well. Nowhere did I mention the GBA player BUT since you brought it up, it has decent sales as is but your

That's silly.

[Inoshiro]

"I was refuting this by saying that if a handheld were released where all others things were equal but the graphic capabilities of this new handheld were equal to the PS2, the more capable model would sell well."

Besides that being a complete crap statement because it would not exist in real life (being that there would be no way that two such systems could exist differening only in graphics capability and not in cost or availability), the fact of the matter is games are the only measure of a system. I've

Re:That's silly.

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Besides that being a complete crap statement because it would not exist in real life

Well, you're rather rude, aren't you?

You are still missing the point. Let me try one more time to explain it to you. (And if you don't get it this time, I'll throw my hands up.) The original poster was claiming that the 16-bit era was the golden age of video gaming and the reason that the GBA has sold well is because those are the types of games people want - not GTA3 or GT3 or Halo or Metroid Prime. I made a hypothetical e

Are you a retard?

[Inoshiro]

Do you agree with the statement, "a system is awesome based on its specs, not the games that are available"?

If you don't agree, you're not a retard.

The original poster you replied to does seem to have a bit too much nostalgia, but you seem to ignore the games part of the argument. I'm just pointing out the obvious flaws in your statement.

Besides, little example arguments that are completely made up to only prove one point (given that they are so far from reality as to not apply to reality) are crap. Th

Is someone with a reading problem also a 'retard'?

[DeadScreenSky]

"a system is awesome based on its specs, not the games that are available"?

That isn't even remotely what the poster was talking about, and it is ridiculous to even suggest that they were. You seriously missed the point.

Re:16 bit era strength

[scot4875]

If the GBA were up against a platform that had PS2 level graphics, at the same price point, the GBA would get crushed.

Counter example to prove this is an invalid point: the Gamecube and XBox have clearly superior graphics capabilities, yet which console has sold the most? (Not to mention -- the Gamecube is significantly cheaper and has far better load times)

It's all marketing. Period. Consoles are popular for the same reason Britney Spears and her ilk are popular.

--Jeremy

Re:16 bit era strength

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

It is not "all marketing." I will grant that marketing plays a huge role in it. But if you think that the Sony Playstation beat the Sega Saturn purely due to marketing, you are mistaken. The games that showed off the 3D power of the PSX helped to push that machine. To say that it is "all marketing" is a rather naive view of the matter. Another issue is the games available for the particular console.

My point, which you obviously had a hard time grasping, was that the original poster was making the jump that

Re:16 bit era strength

[DeadScreenSky]

For the record, the Xbox also has some ridiculously good loading times, too, better than the Cube in many cases. Though admittedly a few big games fall on their face in this area (looking at you, KOTOR).

Re:16 bit era strength

[macrom]

Gameplay was king, and that was the primary selling point of the Genesis and SNES

Wrong. Graphics always were and always will be a primary selling point (from a marketing perspective). It's funny how quickly everyone forgets how the 2 consoles competed on games having better graphics than the other. Sure, we now see how the gameplay was awesome back then, but at the time you didn't see comercials or ads where Nintendo promoted the gameplay of their titles over those of Sega's, and to insinuate so is to sh

Re:16 bit era strength

[DeadScreenSky]

To add to your excellent point, nearly every major revolutionary game also had some kind of cutting edge graphics (or technology) when it was released. Sonic the Hedgehog looked really good, and ran fast as well (remember how bad the slowdown was in most old NES games?). Zelda had a battery save. Mario64 had really amazing graphics for its time. Street Fighter 2 looked amazing when it came out. AFAIK, Super Mario Brothers is the first game with that kind of soundtrack running through the whole thing. There

Re:16 bit era strength

[Metroid72]

Hmmm... I agree that coincidentally, many of those revolutionary games pushed some technical aspect (graphics, speed, sound, etc.) But I can also mention many instances of games that excelled (sp?) on many of those aspects but can be seen in history as regular or bad games.
8bit -> Bo Jackson Baseball had great graphics and speech (I bet you've never heard of that game), but you've heard about Tecmo Bowl and Baseball Stars.
16bit ->Super Adventure Island had a killer soundtrack, Bugsy the bobcat wa

Re:16 bit era strength

[DeadScreenSky]

That is certainly true. Technical excellence is no indicator of a game's real worth. But even the excellent games that are lacking in tech you do mention (which do play very well) just aren't very well remembered by most people, in my experience. I have to wonder how much of that is because they didn't truly break any technological ground (though I would maybe argue Herzog Zwei did, since it was a pretty complex game for the Genesis, especially to be played split-screen).

And though the Hollywoodization of

Work Order

[Rudy Rodarte]

I put in the Work Order to my wife for a the GBA SP several times, but it has been rejected over and over again. Maybe I can pick up a used one somewhere.
Sightly OT, I'm planning on picking up the new Konami Arcade hits pretty soon. I do wish they included Contra and Life Force from the NES, too.

Re:Work Order

[Firehawke]

Try your local mall. EBWorld and Software Etc are offering used GBAs for about $50, and you can always trade up some older gear for one.

Re:Work Order

[Rudy Rodarte]

Yea, Its been tempting to trade in the old GBA for an SP. EB will give me $30 off an SP. That brings the price from $99 to $69 but that brings my final SP cost to like $170, factoring the original cost of the GBA. I think I'd have better luck selling it to someone else for what EB charges.
Time will tell if the wife gives in. Perhaps she will have to get her own for me to get one.....

Re:Work Order

[PainKilleR-CE]

I put in the Work Order to my wife for a the GBA SP several times, but it has been rejected over and over again.

I put it in (the Work Order to my gf) with a couple of addendums:
1) trade-in of older Platinum GBA (non-SP) to reduce cost
2) blue GBA-SP goes to my gf upon receipt of black GBA-SP from retailer

If the older SP had been green I probably could've gotten by without #1, but that's ok. Now, the real question is will I be able to actually get ahold of both a black GBA-SP and FF:Tactics Advance in one

Da ansa is simpl

[Jahf]

RED UNS GO FASTA!

Green

[Michael.Forman]

"Color psychologists believe that certain hues generate specific, and often very strong responses in people. For example, black can foster strength and encourage independence, while red empowers and can stimulate the mind."

Strange. Red always makes me skeptical of the pseudoscientific claims of "color psychologists". :P

Michael. [michael-forman.com]

Well then

[Phexro]

"Nintendo also officially announced two new colors for the GBA SP, Flame (red) and Onyx (black), and even lay out their reasoning for those picks..."

The fact that those colors have been available in Japan since the launch of the SP had nothing to do with it.

Right.

Re:Well then

[scot4875]

Nevermind that those *could* have been the reasons that they were available in Japan since launch to begin with.

--Jeremy

THAT explains it

[Snowmit]

Color psychologists believe that certain hues generate specific, and often very strong responses in people. For example, black can foster strength and encourage independence, while red empowers and can stimulate the mind."

I've always assumed that the delight I got from splattering blood all over the place was due to some primal rage. Now I know that it's because it makes me smarter.

Non-silver Gameboy SP

[MyDixieWrecked]

Are those actually released in the US, yet? I heard they were going to be released in August, but I haven't heard anything since.

I picked up a Japanese GBASP off half.com that's black, and I was still under the impression that I was special, especially since I haven't seen anyone else with one that's not silver. I also get the occasional comment from these 9 year-olds as they walk by "Wow! that guy has a black gameboy!"

It's always nice to have children be fascinated by you gaming device. ;)

Re:Non-silver Gameboy SP

[PunchMonkey]

Blue GBA SPs were available same time as silver.

I've seen Red and black available this month too.

Of course I am in Canada... but I really doubt we're getting this stuff before the US is :-)

my GBA SP is silver ...

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

.. but I wish I could trade it for the new black one, so it would match my Cube and controllers :(

No black gba's in the US?

[evilhayama]

I'm pretty amazed that they're just announcing the new colours in the US now. I've owned a Black GBA for a month or more now, in Australia. I'm glad we don't always get stuff ages after the mighty US urv A.

Now I can finally buy a GBASP

[dq5 studios]

I held off buying a SP because Black wasn't a locally available color. I've also not purchased a Wavebird for the same reason. All the accessories have to match the 'Cube.