10 Million Nintendo DS Units Sold Since Launch

DS Gamer writes "Nintendo has announced that worldwide sales of their twin-screen handheld console the Nintendo DS have reached the 10 million mark since its launch in the United States during late November 2004. The vast majority of sales have been in the United States (4 million) and Japan (5 million) where the DS became the fastest selling games machine of all time. From the Reuters article: 'It is on the upswing of its life cycle," Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing, told Reuters in a telephone interview. She declined to give a sales forecast but said the Japan-based company would provide additional information during its upcoming quarterly financial report. Kaplan added that Nintendo's seven-week-old Wi-Fi Connection wireless gaming service has had more than 550,000 unique visitors globally.'" Commentary is available on Forbes and Gamespot.

As opposed to shipped

[HarvardFrankenstein]

It's good to see them stating sales rather than shipments, unlike Sony, which likes to brag about how many units have been shipped out of their factories but not about how many have actually left the store. That said, I'm a big Nintendo fan, and even I feel inclined to take these numbers as being slightly exagerated, if only by rounding up. Still, this is very, very nice to hear. Perhaps there is room in this industry for innovation after all.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[NDPTAL85]

No its not a fanboy argument, because you don't know every unit has sold....until it sells. Its quite possible that some portion of the shipments will never be sold and sales of the Sony PSP haven't been exactly fantastic.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[gormanly]

Exactly right.

To illustrate, according to this Kotaku [kotaku.com] story, Microsoft shipped 159,000 Xbox 360's to Japan, but only sold 42,000 of them in the first few days.

I think it's an important difference...

[YesIAmAScript]

You're right, it's probably less important with console hardware than software. But still, going by sell-through numbers is important. It prevents channel stuffing, for starters. You can stuff the channel (load up retailers with equipment) at the end of quarters so as to bring next quarters sales into this quarter. When you do this, it creates a misleading impression, especially because next quarter's true sales can't even begin until you sell off last quarter's stuffed stock.

Sometimes companies have been known to stuff the channel and take the product back in the next quarter! It's just a scam. Going by sell-through eliminates this.

Additionally note that going by shipped units also makes it possible to do other shenanigans like add new retailers to "increase sales". If you add a new retailer, you can count their shipments to fill inventory as sales, even if the units never sell at all. So you can again manipulate sales numbers, or at least the timing of them.

Additionally, you can update your model to get more sales (shipments). If they announced the new PSP with 802.11g or 15% longer battery life or something, they could make it a new model, and the retailers all have to order the new one to put it on the shelves, even if the old ones never sold. Eventually retailers do get tired of this, but they can do it occasionally to jump up the numbers.

Given that the name of the game in video games is to get an installed base out there to attract developers and make royalties from software sold, all these tricks can make the difference between success and failure for a console and so are likely employed by every company to varying degrees.

So it's great to be able to try to null those tricks out as much as possible. For example, with the Xbox 360 launch in Japan.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[NDPTAL85]

Unless the contracts between the retailers and Microsoft include buy-backs.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[NDPTAL85]

I mean't unless the contracts between the retailers and Sony include buy-backs.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[badasscat]

Some tiny portion, in the future, at the end of its commercial lifetime, which will then be sold cheap to someone prepared to sell them for a few bucks. At the moment the difference is irrelevant. If they're being made then they're being sold.

Nope. Stores can and do ship back unsold merchandise to manufacturers in exchange for credits that they can then use to purchase other merchandise from the same manufacturer. That merchandise then generally gets moved around to other retailers who actually want it, b

Re:As opposed to shipped

[BushCheney08]

By this reasoning, Pac-Man and ET were the most popular and best-selling Atari 2600 games ever produced. I think most of us know what the truth is about those two, though.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[BushCheney08]

While I admit that the 2600 version of PacMan was halfway decent for the time (especially considering the hardware, etc), the point was that they manufactured more cartridges than there were even machines that could play it.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[dogbowl]

Halfway decent??

It was a huge dog turd. There was nothing redeming about it. The closest it came to matching the original pac-man was the picture on the outside of the box. Now, Atari did redeem themselves with the 2600 Ms Pac-man, but their original ... godawful!

Re:As opposed to shipped

[poot_rootbeer]

actually, it [units shipped] is the preferred accounting number to use.

Sure, if what you want to measure is the amount of money made by the manufacturer. (And with Sony and Microsoft, that metric tends to be negative when discussing console hardware.)

On the other hand, if what you want to measure is the popularity of a console, a more valuable metric is to look at how many consoles are actually owned by the gaming populace. As a bonus, retail sales are relatively easy to quantify and audit.

Perhaps an even

Anecdotal Evidence

[Rocketship Underpant]

Here in Japan (Nagoya), I see DSes everywhere. Toy stores and department stores have big DS (and Gameboy) sections, but I've yet to notice any PSPs, though I suppose they must be tucked away somewhere. I also see a lot of kids carrying around DSes, but again, I've never even seen a PSP here. I did see a PSP subway ad once.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[dogbowl]

no, that number is exactly the amount that have been sold to consumers. The article doesn't state it, but the Nintendo press release that the article was written from does:

"It's important to note that these strong figures represent Nintendo hand-held units and games that consumers have purchased and are now enjoying at home or wherever they like to play."

seems like a nice little jab to Sony and their "shipped" figures.

Re:As opposed to shipped

[RyoShin]

As I recall, the same thing was said about the PSP when Sony released their "week of release" sales numbers. :)

Re:As opposed to shipped

[Acius]

> The most returned game in history, so I'm told... ;)

Really? Did it actually beat this one [snopes.com]? That'd be one for the history books.

Doing the math

[ewg]

That's 20 million screens!

And I'll bet 30 million lost styl-i by now...

Re:Doing the math

[Enigma_Man]

I've had mine for more than a year now, still with the original stylus, though I am thinking of using one of the 4 new ones I have, just so I don't scratch the touchscreen.

Re:Doing the math

[Call Me Black Cloud]

You'd probably win that bet. Santa brought 2 new DSs to our house Christmas day, which means 4 new styluses. By the end of Christmas day we were down to 3. Fortunately we're still holding at 3...

Mario Kart DS

[flynt]

The online Mario Kart DS mode is incredibly fun and addictive. That in my mind is reason enough to own a DS.

Re:Mario Kart DS

[geminidomino]

I almost picked it up until I heard that you could only race, no battle mode over WiFi.

That was definitely a "WTF were they thinking?" moment.

Re:Mario Kart DS

[flynt]

Battle mode?!

You heathen. :)

Re:Mario Kart DS

[geminidomino]

Hey man, I spent the better part of highschool holed up in my room with my two best friends and my brother, beating the shit out of each other with turtle shells and banana peels. ;)

I want to share this bonding ritual with strangers all over the world (and pwn them!)

Re:Mario Kart DS

[Firehawke]

No battle mode over the internet, but there's still battle mode for local adhoc connections.

Re:Mario Kart DS

[geminidomino]

True, but neither of my brothers has a DS, and said friends are now 1300mi away in my home state. *nostaligic depressed sigh*

Re:Mario Kart DS

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey man, I spent the better part of highschool holed up in my room with my two best friends and my brother, beating the shit out of each other with turtle shells and banana peels. ;)

Wow. Your parents should have bought you a Nintendo or something.

Battle-mode = lag-sensitive

[MS-06FZ]

Most likely they didn't want to do battle mode over IP because it'd be a lot more sensitive to lag issues than race mode.

Consider: there's not -too- much in race mode that matters, apart from whether your opponent is in front of you, or behind. If you see lag in race mode, most likely it'll mean your opponent's position jumps around (or even that they fall off the track, and mysteriously reappear on it without losing time) - but at a very basic level, the needs of the race are met, in that the relationship between how long it's taking you to get around the track, and how long it's taking them to get around the track is maintained. Every time you get a sync packet from an opponent everything's right with the world again. As for powerups, usually in race mode if you're in a position where you can effectively use a powerup, it won't be too sensitive to lag unless the two players are really right on top of each other. (Drafting doesn't work too well in a laggy game, of course, and in that situation it's tough to say whether a banana peel or other weapon dropped behind the lead player will hit the trailing player...) I guess you could say that while powerups still work in a laggy game, the "combat" aspects of the race mode are those which suffer the most from the lag.

Battle-mode is, of course, completely combat-oriented. The game isn't oriented around a circuit in which there is an "ahead" and "behind", rather everyone's free to race around and try to fire weapons at each other. It could still work but given that the relationship between players' positions is much less consistent than in a race, and since the entire battle game revolves around powerups and direct kart-to-kart interactions, it would be harder to give a good battle game experience than it is to give a good race experience.

I love the online race mode, too - it's sort of frustrating sometimes that you can't communicate with your opponents over the link, but other times it's not. It keeps people focused on the game itself rather than all the bickering that often goes with other online games in between rounds. I'm glad they allow the custom emblems, though - it gives people who want to be a jackass an opportunity to do so, but also allows personalization. Really, though, given the potential for abuse I'm surprised they did it at all.

Re:Mario Kart DS

[lowrydr310]

I just set up a friend's PSP to use his wireless access point that I configured. First, the PSP doesn't do 802.11G, it only does B, so I had to set the router to use B and G. For a while, I wasn't able to configure it because the older PSP firmware only supported WEP, but there's now an upgrade that supports WPA.

Unfortunately, one of the games we tried to play online doesn't like WPA. The PSP can access the router just fine and the internal browser works, however the game itself won't use that connection.

Re:Mario Kart DS

[iainl]

Ah, so on that particular game the PSP is as bad as the DS, then. Which also is WEP (or open) only, 802.11b.

Oh well. Thanks for the warning - I'd been told that the PSP worked just fine with WPA.

Signal/Noise

[Eohl]

For my money, the Nintendo DS has had the best signal to noise ratio, with regards to the quality of the games, of any system in its first year since the Dreamcast. Probably even better. I've been absolutely astonished at how often I keep coming back to this little guy, especially considering how dismal it was at launch. The games are really coming at a good pace now...it is hard for a guy with a WoW addiction to keep up.

Hopefully this makes up for the Gamecube sales

[PIPBoy3000]

Unfortunately, the Gamecube hasn't been selling very well lately [com.com], so hopefully this makes up for that. I have a soft spot in my heart for Nintendo, who somehow seems less evil than Sony and Microsoft.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Hopefully this makes up for the Gamecube sales

[dividedsky319]

There's a reason the Gamecube hasn't been selling well... no good new games for it!

I enjoy my Gamecube more than my PS2 and Xbox, but even I'll admit that the support for the GC has been dwindling... really the only game on the horizon that looks promising is Zelda.

And, the Revolution will be coming out hopefully within a few months of Zelda for the GC... the GC is near the end of its life, there's a reason why sales are starting to slow.

nail right on the head...

[YesIAmAScript]

Yep. Honestly, GC has had a poor lineup of new games lately. Yeah, Mario Strikers is supposed to be good. And i think there was another Mario Party in there somewhere. But really, the GC has had little worth buying come out since Resident Evil 4 (which was a LONG time ago now). It doesn't even get many ports anymore.

It isn't odd for a platform to slow down at the end of its lifespan (although perhaps this is a bit extreme), and I'm sure things will be different when Revolution comes. I can't wait to get one

Er, better article

[PIPBoy3000]

I'm an idiot. The article I linked in the above post was way too old.

Try this article [palgn.com.au], which makes it look more promising.

Re:Hopefully this makes up for the Gamecube sales

[c_forq]

People complain about EA releasing Madden 2000,2001,2002 ad nauseum, but what version is Mario Party up to now, 7? :)

One big difference I can think of is Madden is always the same game, and almost always the same teams, while Mario Party revamps the lineup of games in it every time.

And with good reason

[dividedsky319]

I got a DS for Christmas, and I've been very very happy with it.

When it first came out, I wasn't really interested in it... the dual screens seemed like they were pointless, and I didn't think a touch screen would work well in games.

Well, after playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for a few weeks, as well as Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Nintendogs, I'm sold... Nintendo knew what they were doing. The game developers are really taking advantage of what Nintendo offered them. I never thought having two screens would be so convenient.

And the future looks bright for the DS in the area of upcoming games...

In addition, the number of amazing games for the DS gives me great hope for the Revolution. Nintendo is doing something different again, and the fact that so many developers (not just Nintendo) have embraced the hardware of the DS leads me to believe they'll do the same for the Revolution and its controller.

Re:And with good reason

[angst7]

I couldn't agree more. A buddy of mine got a DS about 6 months ago and at the time I mocked him for it. Especially when he expressed interest in Nintendogs. Fast forward to December 25th. I open a gift from my wife, and it's a DS, only now I'm thrilled, because I got her one for Christmas too (although neither asked the other for one). Two days later I bought Nintendogs out of jealousy from watching her play the copy I bought her.

That, coupled with the amazingly fun and convenient wireless play on Mari

Nintendo Wi-Fi

[TheSpoom]

I got a DS for Christmas, and while the system is great (I've been playing Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time [nintendods.com], good game, at least as good as the last Mario and Luigi), I was disappointed that there was no wi-fi connectivity outside of games. I mean, if the games connect to my wireless router and hotspots anyway, how hard would it have been to include a wireless browser in the interface outside of games?

I've heard about people trying to reverse engineer the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection so that this is possible, but I really think they should have included this in the first place. It would have had so many uses.

Re:Nintendo Wi-Fi

[TheSpoom]

It should be noted that I exclude Pictochat in this, because that's very limited. I can't, for example, check my messages [iknow.ca] with it.

Re:Nintendo Wi-Fi

[HarvardFrankenstein]

Nintendo's mantra in terms of online connectivity right now is "simplicity". You turn the game on, hit a few buttons, and you're set. More functionality doesn't necessarily equate to more complexity, but more often than not, it does. I think that might be their reasoning behind leaving out the browser.

Still, they're bound to revamp the DS at some point or another. Who knows? Might get your browser after all.

Re:Nintendo Wi-Fi

[Anonymous Coward]

It could simply be that the Wifi wasn't ready by the time the system launched and so they went with what they could do, Pictochat. That would be understandable. I do agree though that a built-in browser would be awesome. The touch screen could be used for the keyboard as well as clicking on links and such. Perhaps the top screen could show a zoomed-out view of the entire page while the bottom screen showed a 100% size view of a certain portion of it, with the ability to drag that portion with the touchs

Purpose, Control, Etc.

[PhYrE2k2]

The first thing I thought of when you said that was the headline: Outraged parents demand parental controls. Think about this for a second? You are taking a gaming machine that you can trust your kids to drive around and jump on evil snails to kill them and opening up the potential for anything- porn, news, viruses, scripting, java, etc. Why would you do that as Nintendo? It's a parental control nightmare and a security nightmare.

The second argument is why would you go outside its intended purpose? It's a gaming handheld machine with a few buttons and a touch-screen. You'd have be bring in typing (keyboard) for URLs, viewing of various image formats, scripting, and other joyous necessities (ever tried turning off javascript and surfing... you won't get far). If someone wants the web, they have a cell phone and a computer.

If I recall correctly, isn't chat built in though?

-M

Re:Nintendo Wi-Fi

[Guppy06]

If you want a handheld multimedia web browser, go get a handheld multimedia web browser. Nintendo make game consoles.

"how hard would it have been to include a wireless browser in the interface outside of games?"

An IP stack does not a web browser make. They'd have to pay a licensing fee for the browser, which would likely cost about as much as a game. If it was built-in to the unit, that'd increase the price of the unit. And even then there's going to be issues with website compatability (as there was wi

Re:Nintendo Wi-Fi

[Hackie_Chan]

I mean, if the games connect to my wireless router and hotspots anyway, how hard would it have been to include a wireless browser in the interface outside of games?
 
The answer to that is "four megabytes of ram".

And people are already counting them out...

[DwarfGoanna]

I really think this is a harbinger of how the Revolution is going to do in the next gen console "war". How many people screamed gimmick and added up specs and features when it came to the DS vs PSP? Is it the same people doing it now for the consoles? I'm glad Nintendo is doing interesting stuff, and its nice to see the market reward them for it. I fully expect the Rev to whip up on the competition by selling fun in a neat little box, while the gamerz fanboys drool over blood spatters that are 13% more realistic and crow about shit that I couldn't care less about unless it adds up to that nebulous quality, fun.

You know, kinda like what happened with these handhelds. =)

Re:And people are already counting them out...

[trogdor8667]

Nintendo, to me, has always focused more on fun, entertaining games for the entire family; mo other system has these fun games such as Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. Sony and Microsoft focus on the realistic and violence aspects moreso, leading to a system for more mature audiences. The thing is, Nintendo gets most of these games too. So, in the long run, any Nintendo system seems like a sure-bet for a better system. I'd take Mario Kart any day over Project Gotham Racing. Why? Because to me, its a whole lo

Re:And people are already counting them out...

[Lehk228]

if you haven't played Super Smash Bro's Melee RUN to the nearest game store and buy it. get 4 to 8 people over and start playing.... hope you don't have to work tomorrow.

Re:And people are already counting them out...

[poot_rootbeer]

The younger gaming crowd seems to be more interested in the technical specs behind a console because it's the latest and greatest

And then there's the YOUNGEST gaming crowd, which doesn't care about your gaming system unless they can play Pokemon/Digimon/Yu-Gi-Oh/Megaman.EXE Battle Network on it.

I expect some gamers' tastes will change as they get older, giving Sony and Microsoft a stream of new customers, but I expect at least as many to remain loyal to Nintendo. If I were to give the game companies grades

Re:And people are already counting them out...

[dogbowl]

I think it depends on what your definition of "successful" is.

If you were to base it on net profits, then Nintendo is the one and only successful video game company compared to Sony, MSFT, Sega, Nokia...

Now, if you were to consider the definition based on the mindset of the dorks down at EbGames, then I would agree with you.

Is that so.

[millennial]

And yet I can't find a single person over the age of 18 that has one. Other than... me...

Re:Is that so.

[TheSpoom]

I'm 21 (22 in two weeks) and I have one.

Re:Is that so.

[PhoenixFlare]

I'm 24, and i'm planning to buy one as soon as I can spare the cash.

Maybe you just don't happen to have friends interested in it, or maybe they bought into the whole "OMG Nintendo is teh kiddie!!!1" stereotype. Not that anecdotal evidence like this means much, though.

Re:Is that so.

[GweeDo]

At WiTendoFi.com [witendofi.com] we have a growing user base that is a real mix of ages. I run the site and am 24 years old. We have plent of 20+ users there (and 20- of course).

Re:Maybe you hang around the wrong crowd

[Psykechan]

I'm 32 and I have friends in their thirties that own DS's. One even purchased a Gamecube for GC animal crossing after playing the DS one.

Re:Is that so.

[geminidomino]

I passed 18 some years ago, and I have one. ;) You're not alone!

Re:Is that so.

[jcostantino]

I'm 29, just bought one for an early birthday present (couldn't wait two months). This is the most fantastic little game machine I've played in a long time! Granted, "long time" means "Atari Lynx." The PSP, as nice as it is, just doesn't work for me. As weird as using the touch screen to control a character is, that slide-knob on the PSP is even more alien.

My only gripes are that there isn't a way to adjust the brightness and the top and bottom screens are too far apart.

PS: Playing Mario Kart through th

Re:Is that so.

[oscarmv]

I have the solution for your case. In your moment of maximum desperation at your loneliness, just shout "OUENDAAAAAAAN"

(kudos to anyone who gets it. Game of the year AFAIC).

Journalism

[mypalmike]

Forbes:
"With more than five million units sold in Japan since its December 2004 regional launch, the DS has become the fastest-selling gaming machine in the country's history. Japanese gamers have also bought more than a million copies of four different titles within one year of the system's launch: Nintendogs--a game where users play with, train, pet, and wash a virtual dog, Animal Crossing, Wild World, Brain Age, and Brain Flex."
- Chris Noon

Gamespot:
"With more than 5 million units sold in Japan since its December 2004 regional launch, the DS has become the fastest-selling gaming machine in Japan's history. In another first, Japanese gamers have scooped up more than a million copies of four different titles within one year of a system's launch: Nintendogs, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Brain Age, and Brain Flex."
- Tim Surette

Re:Journalism

[NilObject]

This is much more common than what you might think. 90% of news articles these days are actually just recycled press releases. Companies, organizations, nutbags, and other misfits push out a press release to thousands of "news organizations," who then recycle much of the release verbatim, and then release it as "news".

The downside is that 90% of news is of low quality with no investigation or questioning ever occuring during the writing of the article.

The updside is that, if you know how to work the system, you can get massive coverage for your comany/organization/sex toy shop.

Final Fantasy 4

[Myria]

Final Fantasy 4 on the DS is great. Being able to play GBA games on a lighted screen without the buttons being scrunched is always a Good Thing (tm).

Of course, FF4 GBA has tons of bugs. Berserk is buggy, slowing down your character to the point of uselessness. The airship flying is choppy (which is dumb because the GBA has better mode 7 than the SNES did). The "darkness" debuff does nothing. Worst of all, do things in the wrong order on the menu screen and your saves will be erased [square-enix.co.jp]. (Yes that bug is i

Re:Final Fantasy 4

[voice_of_all_reason]

your saves will be erased

Babelfish cannot effectively translate japanese, and I do not see any other mention of this phenomenon on google. Can you explain?

Great games + innovation + easy online = owned!

[GweeDo]

The DS is simply a great gaming system. It doesn't try and be everything to everyone. It just does its job wonderfully. If you are looking to find people to play on the WiFi games be sure to try out WiTenDoFi.com [witendofi.com]. It is a really great way to quickly find people to play and more.

DS simply has better games than the competition

[leather_helmet]

...And better developer support

I have developed games for the GBA, DS & have access to a PSP dev kit for which we have not developed a game yet

From the development point of view, NOA is a lot easier to deal with throughout the whole process (concept submission, feedback, testing & final approval) - Sony on the other hand almost makes the developer feel like they are doing them a favor by letting them develop for the PSP - the whole process is overly convoluted and a major pain in the ass...

Yeah. Erm.. Dream on.

[Flaming Death]

Erm. Huh?
You have developed for NDS and GBA but not PSP, and are saying the PSP development cycle is difficult. what the?
Having developed on both, and knowing many coders who have developed on both, the general consensus is that Nintendos support is horrendous. Their devkits - erm.. half assed at best (did you even have a GBA Nintendo devkit? - they are slower to use than the USB Carts!!!). And the NDS systems are really no better. Then if you want to talk about features the DS and GBA are sorely missing ma

Re:DS simply has better games than the competition

[CODiNE]

Yet another way Nintendo is like Apple.

Good Thing

[symbolic]

Everyone seemed to have been predicting the demise of Nintendo, or at least becoming relegated to the status of a second-rate gaming hardware company. With two giants in close proximity (Sony and Microsoft), it's good to see that at least some semblance of balance will continue for a while longer.

4 million in US, 5 million in Japan, 0 in Greece

[Ucklak]

I think Game Boys are illegal in Greece
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-956357.html [com.com]

Hardware update?

[Mercano]

Back in November, the Inquirer [theinquirer.net] et al. ran a story that hinted at an upcoming hardware revamp for the DS. I've been putting off getting the system since. (Osborn syndrome) Anyone heard anything since?

Article

[valkraider]

The article (for those who read it) said:

The company's Game Boy Advance SP, the newest version of Nintendo's popular hand-held system, sold 4.6 million units in North America in 2005, compared with 7.6 million in 2004.

The GBA Micro is newer than the GBA SP.

Both are darn cool as well.

Also, chalk another > 20 year old DS owner here... Not a kiddy system IMO...

No WPA Support Yet

[Milican]

"WEP Key is a security setting for your router. WEP is the only security that is compatible with the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection. You will need to set your router for WEP security -- or remove security on your router -- to use the Nintendo DS at this access point." Nintendo [nintendowifi.com]

I wish they supported WPA. WEP sucks and no security is not a good option for home use.

JOhn

Re:No WPA Support Yet

[Phantasmo]

Buy the USB adaptor [nintendo.com]. It only accepts connections from approved Nintendo systems (i.e. you have to authorize each unit on your computer).

Re:No WPA Support Yet

[Cyclone66]

This isn't really secure. A valid MAC address can be sniffed and then cloned onto another card.

Europe?

[BenjyD]

4 million in Japan and 5 million in the US leaves just 1 million sales in the rest of the world, presumably mostly in Europe. In terms of market size, Europe is pretty big, I wonder why the DS sales are so much lower?

Re:Europe?

[Fred Or Alive]

Perhaps partly becuase North America and Japan got it in late 2004. Nintendo showed how much they love Europe by delaying it to March, so less time to get sales (we got the PSP in September...). Plus Europe has never been as much of a Nintendo loving area.

Price point

[NoNeeeed]

Something that a lot of people missed when the DS and PSP were introduced, was the price point.

Taking a look at Argos (major UK retailer, the kind of place many people buy these things from)...

* PSP : 180GBP
* Nintendo DS : 90GBP

PSP games start at 30GBP and go up to 35. DS games start at 15 and go up to 30.

The DS is not selling to the kind of people who will put down 200quid for a graphics card just to play the latest blood-fest, it sells to the huge number of casual gamers who want something fun. For the price of a PSP you can buy a DS and three games.

The DS also sells to parents buying presents and I imagine it did a hell of a lot better over christmas than the PSP.

This is exactly what happened with the original gameboy. When I was a kid I, and most of my friends had gameboys. They may not have been colour like the Sega Gamegear or Atari Lynx, but our parents could afford them, the batteries lasted an age, and the games were fantastic. Colour would have been great, but it wasn't worth the money (and the power drain)

Sheer brute force power is not everything when it comes to these sorts of machines. Nintendo understands this. The handheld market is not just a portable version of the mainstream. It is a whole other beast.

New Input = Non-traditional Gamers

[jerbucket]

I just got back from a winter vacation with 3 female non-gamers and I can tell you the Train your brain game [ign.com] was a huge hit among us. I was wondering how my sister, mom and girlfriend who never before would have given any game a second look were so addicted to this game - I honestly didn't get any time in on Advance Wars DS because my DS was constantly being used by one of them at all times.

My opinion is the stylus. I think - just like the Nintendo Revolution is aimed at non-gamers by giving them a more

And it ain't stopping...

[RyoShin]

The DS's numbers are impressive, but we aren't anywhere close to the peak of the system.

Great games like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and Nintendogs, and some interesting titles like Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney and XX-XY, have shown consumers that the touch screen is not a gimmick. If I recall correctly, NiFi already has half a million users, and that's after a month of NiFi. By comparison, doesn't XBox Live have a little over a million after at least a year?

There are still hot games coming to the DS to spur sales, too. The Pokemon series has consecutively been a hot seller, oftening bumping hardware unit sales with its release. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the first regular RPG entries to the series on the DS, is due out sometime this year. It has been confirmed that these games will use NiFi to trade Pokemon, chat, and, most importantly, battle. The trade-and-battle theme of Pokemon has screamed for MMO features, and the DS is the first machine equipped and ready to take the charge. (This will be the game that gets me to buy a DS.)

If Pokemon is not your thing, you're not out of luck. Metroid Prime: Hunters, the much delayed multiplayer FPS, might be right up your alley. The Metroid Prime series has had strong sales, and when this game finally releases, it's going to boost sales (sorry for the pun) once again. (I'm uncertain, but I believe part of the delay was to add NiFi to MP:H).

And remember, we're still waiting for a Zelda game. While one has been confirmed in process, no details have been released. Did someone say Twilight Princess followup?

It's successes like this that allow Nintendo to go to the edge with new ideas like the Revolution.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am a fanboy, and my rantings may be taken as such.

Nintendo's success.

[MaWeiTao]

Not to take anything from this, but I can't help but think that a significant part of Nintendo's success with the DS is due to the fact that the PSP turned out to be an utter failure. The expectations were a lot higher for the PSP and Sony failed to deliver. The DS struggled initially, there's wasn't much compelling for the DS at the start and I think people were still hoping for something good on the PSP. There's nothing but crap on that system while the DS has Nintendo's expertise in gaming supporting it.

Well

[Sv-Manowar]

It's good to still see Nintendo doing well after chasing the audience of gamers they want instead of the broadest market possible, perhaps this will point to a more fun generation of games from them focusing on the user experience rather than trying to keep up with Sony and MS

Price-wise

[lattyware]

Alot of people ague to me that 'Yes, the DS may have good games, but the PSP can play DVDs!' which annoys me as, if you buy a DS you can afford to buy a small travel DVD player with built in screen, that will play DVDs, unlike the PSP, which only plays UMDs. People don't seem to realise that the PSP is a little small to fit a DVD in. I even have GBAMP, 2 x 512 compact flash cards and FlashMe and am using moonshell to watch video and listen to music on my DS. And with Advance Wars and Mario Kart. It's a muc

Re:Nice...

[TheSpoom]

Free, with a game that supports it.

Official Site [nintendowifi.com]

Re:Nice...

[PhotoBoy]

Depends where in the world you are. If you're in the US I believe there's free access to be had at any McDonalds. Unlike Xbox Live you don't pay any subscription fee to use the service, the only cost would be your internet connection (unless of course you want to play in McDonalds).

Re:Nice...

[PhotoBoy]

Yeah, I meant that when I said "Unlike Xbox Live you don't pay any subscription fee to use the service, the only cost would be your internet connection", however on re-reading it I didn't word that very clearly. :)

Re:Nice...

[winterlong]

definitely free as long as you can pick up the wi-fi. apparently my sister lives near someone (or place) that has wi-fi, my daughter and my niece use it in their house all the time....

Re:Nice...

[radish]

It's free, just like the PSP's wifi.

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

get a DS and an iPod with video.

just say no to the Sony rape machine.

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[computechnica]

Just say no to the Apple Rape Machine
Get a DS and a 7-inch DVD player or a Palm Tungsten E2 with an SD slot

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[real_smiff]

say no to carrying around dvds. get an Archos AV5x0 [amazon.com] (disclaimer: i have one and love it) and the DS (i don't have, waiting for less plasticky v2) for games. it's the geek solution.

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[Hott of the World]

If he doesn't care much about the quality of the picture.. Gameboy Movie Player [movieadvance.com]

Buy a $10 card-reader and a $50 gigabyte (hell, buy two) compact flash card, and you've got 3 movies, lots of music (as long as you don't care too much about the quality of that music) customizable interfaces, e-reader, image viewer, AND a NES emulator (kinda sucks, only supports roms under 200k) for your Nintendo GBA/DS.

The player comes with DVD ripping software and converter for Movies, images, and music. But if you're lazy l

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[stunt_penguin]

It just occurred to me that having 2 screens and one touch sensitive one is an excellent way of avoiding someone creating a PSP emulator of the DS. Clever Nintento :)

Maybe someone can create one for my Sony Ericsson P910i, which has a tall touch sentsitive screen. ;)

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[Tainek]

If you want to play media files on a nintendo DS , your going to need one of these: These [gameboy-advance.net]
Got mine When they first came out, just need to bung your mp3's/Movies onto the flash (CF or SD models). sound quality is a just a little tinny, but no worse than the Ipods.

They also have 32 Megabytes of on-board ram, making these a dream for homebrew.

Its no real suprise to see the DS fly off shelves, a touch screen has been badly needed for handhelds for a long time, and the two screens, once you're used to them

Re:I was thinking about a PSP...

[arakon]

I have one, I used it maybe 3 or four times with a NES emulator, and some game I bought called "Little Wizards" or something like that. Nothing ever came out that was any fun for it. Which is why I won't be getting the GPX2,I like playing nice games on my portables. I save all my technical dicking around for my PCs at home. Besides, just about every game I am interested in emulating I have on original hardware already. :) Nintendo also seems to like pushing out classics for their new systems, milking a

Re:Pirated ROMs

[tgibbs]

No one wants to say it, but one factor that I think may account for increased Nintendo DS and GBA sales is the availability of flash backup cartridges and pirated ROMs.

Pirates like to tell themselves that "everybody is doing it," but I'd be amazed if even 1% of DS buyers are playing such pirated games. This isn't something that unsophisticated users can simply trade across the internet like mp3's by simply firing up LimeWire, so it is likely to remain confined to a tiny minority of hackers.

Re:Pirated ROMs

[valkraider]

Dude, the process to set up your DS to use the flash cards is about as complicated as launching a space shuttle, and only costs marginally less..

I'll just buy the $30 games and be done with it.

Untrue

[brunes69]

Anyone who has kids knows you are far more likely to be spending money on them than yourself. It is the nature of the beast.

Basically, your above statement would only be true if the majority of the middle class had no children. If that was the case the entire economy would be due to crash in about 10 years. (It is totally *not* true, although there *are* indeed fewer children being born in the middle class than ever before, there are *still* lots of em).

Nintendo demographic.

[Viewsonic]

The most Nintendo buyers were stated to be 17-35 for the Gamecube. I would suspect that for the DS it may be a bit on the lower end simply because of the price of the system and the games themselves. I've seen coworkers buy them without hesitation for their kids because the prices are simply reasonable. You look at the PSP and the games all run $50, and the movies are more expensive than their DVD counterparts somehow.

I do know a lot of people in their 30s who also own a DS, and they bought it from word of mouth and actually having played one. Hopefully the way the DS is selling is a preview of what is to come with the Revolution. I look at the PSP and XBox360 and I just am not excited. Sure, they have some amazing hardware. Blazing processors, awesome widescreen goodness. But the games... The gameplay.. It's just the same thing in a newer package. With the DS i'm drawing jumps for Kirby to launch off of to finish the level! I'm drawing spirals to have him avoid being hit! I haven't had this much fun since the 2600.

Re:Since when is 4 greater than 5 ?

[Guppy06]

Let me adjust the statement so that it makes more sense:

The vast majority of sales have been in the United States (4 million) and Japan (5 million), compared to the 1 million units sold in Europe and the rest of the world

90% is the "vast majority" they were talking about, as 50% isn't a majority at all.

Re:Selling more in Japan?

[Bagels]

Not really. Japan had at least two major hits (the brain training games) that haven't yet hit the US. Those drove hardware sales a lot, and they nailed a new demographic (adult casual gamer) that neither the PSP nor the DS have really done much for yet in the States. That might change when the brain training games are released here this year, and it might not - depends on how well they translate, I suppose. (I seem to remember that at least some parts of them involved drawing/memorizing kanji, which wouldn't appeal much to the US crowd).

Re:PoS?

[Zigg]

Nintendogs' Bark Mode is peculiar to the game (although other games are adding similar functionality, like Animal Crossing: Wild World's Tag Mode). It's designed to be started, the lid of the DS closed, and put in your pocket while you walk through busy streets -- and had great success in Japan to this effect. Basically, it's designed to let your dog find other dogs without requiring either player to stop what they're doing.

Most DS multiplayer games are in fact true concurrent multiplayer, like Meteos (

Re:If only DS could be a little better looking....

[TheWickedKingJeremy]

I will buy DS if it is not that ugly...

... Let me make a wild guess here. You were a Backstreet Boys fan. Their earlier stuff moved you... you laughed, you cried. Yet, as the years went by and as their popularity grew, your love for them cooled. Was their work compromised by fame or money? You weren't quite sure... but you were ready to move on, and weren't going to wait to find out.

Now, you're a Black Eyed Peas fan, and you're not looking back.