DS Sells 20 million, 17 Million More by March 2007 115
Wowzer writes "Nintendo announced today that sales of its hand-held, dual-screened video game player, the Nintendo DS, have topped 20 million worldwide (guesstimates say 21,270,000). Nintendo expects DS (Lite) sales to be 17 million between April 2006 and March 2007. From today's financial report: 'The company raised its full-year sales forecast of the DS handheld game players to 17 million units for the year ending March 2007, up from 16 million unit sales projection made in May. Sales of DS game titles are projected to rise to 75 million units, from 70 million.' The report refers to PSP owners as just combat-game fans, while the DS is said to target a wider audience with more diverse games such as the 6 million seller Nintendogs." I will say, I was very skeptical when I first heard about the DS and the split screen — but having played a number of different games, I've found I like it. But I have not played Nintendogs, unlike some other people I know.
My Mom has one now (Score:5, Insightful)
Then a few weeks ago I got a DS Lite and my mom visited for a few days. She started playing Brain Age and that was it. When they left, my dad asked how much they were and where they could be purchased. A week later, she's busy playing Sudoku and Mario on her own DS Lite.
If you want to get one and your spouse gives you a wary eye, go get it and get Brain Age at the same time. You'll be a hero. But you may wind up arguing who gets to play with it.
Re:This proves (Score:2, Insightful)
Well said - if only there was some way of kicking the "Nintendo is dying" trolls in the teeth with that statement.
Our family owns a few (Score:5, Insightful)
My wife and I like the brain training games so two units are used by four people.
I'm sure my mum (79 years of age) will like the brain training games too so I bought a DS lite (white) with two games for her which I will give to her next Saturday.
What makes a god-fearing, law-abiding family father buy expensive electronic toys? High amounts if good (and mostly clean) fun!!!
I' still think I'm not a Nintendo fanboy but I sure like the stuff they make!
Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)
As I said before, Nintendo is a bit like Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPod would be almost useless without iTunes (the program, not the iTMS - iTunes Music Store), and the Nintendo DS would be pointless if all it could play was the same games as on the SNES/N64/Gamecube.
More processing power? Sure. Better graphics? Of course. But not at the expense of innovation and good software.
I don't remember who said it, but it goes something like this: "The most powerful computer on the planet would be useless without software to run on it."
Re:As I said before, Nintendo is a bit like Apple (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:My Mom has one now (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why to be truly heroic, you buy two.
Re:Our family owns a few (Score:3, Insightful)
You clearly haven't picked up Advance Wars...
Re:Our family owns a few (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow. Let me guess. You're probably a "know-it-all teenager," and you don't have any kids. You're "so progressive." I'll bet when you have kids, you won't let your daughter have a barbie, and you'll make your son put on pink dresses, because you don't want to teach him "gender-specific" ideas. Wow. Your kids are going to turn out SO NORMAL!
Re:This proves (Score:3, Insightful)
But at any rate, what can I say? I picked up a DS in January or February, and ever since then it's had so much momentum build up it's insane. Before now, though, what I'd seen from Nintendo was the regurgitation of the same old and tired, though beloved, franchises - yip-de-fucking-doo, another Gamecube Mario game, another Metroid, another Zelda. Sure, each one used newer graphics and admittedly had often fascinating new gameplay elements. But a handful of in-house titles a year do not make for success.
And the GBA? Christ. It'd already become a no-man's-land of awful movie and children's cartoon franchises. Speak to me no more of Nickelodeon games, nor Barbie (see subscript).
But the DS really seems to have sparked something for the general public. I think it's something that we've been waiting for, and Nintendo has brought it. I think it may be the true meaning of that damnable word, "innovation". It's coming from all -over- Nintendo, now. It seems more... Unrestrained. It's not "innovating" within a closed franchise (now Link can smash pots 200% better than any previous Zelda!), and it's not a fancy hardware platform that can perform miracles spitting out the latest boring edgy-teen-angst game(yes, Sony, that means you).
What Nintendo has done is offered a complete package. We have an entirely new hardware package, the DS. It has an entirely new control interface, the touchscreen, combined with the familiar D-pad and shoulder buttons that, if you don't know them already, are pretty intuitive to learn - a fusion of new and old. The hardware isn't obnoxiously overpowered for what's intended on the system, either. And the touchscreen itself encourages an entirely new kind of thinking for the software developers, bringing us new methods of interaction with our games, in some cases making us feel more a part of the worlds that they're trying to create, or at least greatly simplifying our interactions in them.
The end result is this fascinating device that provides an entirely new face to the thing that we love to do: play games. It's refreshing and it's welcoming, and it's Nintendo that's done it. Will we continue to see the same old franchises resurrected? I'm sure we will. Will we continue to see more fun and interesting software titles that have nothing to do with Mario? I'm certain we will. It's a win-win proposition for nostalgia gamers and those of us who crave something new.
I do still maintain my position, though, that Nintendo has created the perfect hardware platform for lightweight portable computing, and may be shooting themselves in the foot by not offering non-game solutions (though the browser is a step in the right direction, as is the TV tuner, though only for use in Japan). A GPS unit for one of these? VOIP phone cart? how about a data sampler and recorder? There are quite a few options available (though I'm glad they didn't do something dumb like integrate an MP3 player. That would've raised the price by far too much and felt too much like a cheap gimmick). Let's see some action on this thing, huh?
Will Nintendo falter in the future? It's felt shaky before, but as we can see, bounced back in a pretty big way. I hope they can keep on top of it, restore market dominance, and then, do the unthinkable in that position - keep on producing innovative games and hardware that are fun to play.
(subscript: Let me just say, by the by, that Barbie Horse Adventures is a message to little both gamers, and little girls. It says "Here at Mattel, we'd just like to mention that WE HATE YOU. Yes, we hate gamers, and we hate little girls, too. Parents, lock the doors, cause we're gonna come rape your children! We're SO fucking rich! Buy some more Barbie shit!")
(sub-subscript: ever notice how those in
Re:This proves (Score:2, Insightful)
OK, mate. first off, yes, yes I am an american gamer. The Nintendo that I see, and interact with, is Nintendo of America. I know very well that Nintendo of Japan will continue, and quite strongly, without NOA. Japan is way cooler than the US, etc, etc. And gets all the awesome Nintendo toys that the American market never sees, which pisses me off to no end.
But allow me to clarify some things for you, so you can sleep easier tonight, K? K.
When I say I see Nintendo(NOA) struggling, I mean that I see it struggling in the marketplace creatively, and in mind-share, and the home console market. In America. I know that their handheld division is strong, and always has been. The PSP didn't blind me, or anybody I know; we all know that it's an overpriced piece of kak that, while nifty, probably won't have the staying power of the Gameboy line.
You took issue with my statement about the classic Nintendo franchises. You're just countering my subjective statement with another subjective statement, which gets us nowhere. Nonetheless, I maintain that Nintendo keeps flogging the same characters over, and over, and over again. Yes, they make it shinier each time, and yes, as I said, they do bring in new styles of play. But it's still the SAME creative property being reorganized again, and again, and again. Whether or not the games are fun is immaterial to my argument - it's still Samus, it's still Mario. Bring me something new, already! Can't Mario have a break? He's been smashing barrels and rescuing princesses since 1981! And again, as I said before; even with a new game in every franchise once a year, that's still less than ten new titles a year! That is simply not enough to support console sales, except to idiotic fanboys like me and presumably yourself.
I quote: GBA games market is nothing like that actually.
In America, yes, yes it is. If you're in America and just being a cock-knob, go to your local mega-store and check out the GBA selection. Think you're gonna find Fire Emblem? Hell, go to your local gaming store and check out the selection, and you'll still be shocked at the ridiculous percentage of bad franchise games. In America. Yes. If you're not, you may not see that - lucky you. There are more GBA games out there, yes, but nobody is carrying them in-store - which is how games get major sales figures, rarely by dorks like you and me special-ordering from the internet! And yes, franchise games could be good, but they're not. And yes, that's a tremendously subjective statement to make, but I stand by it. Most of them are, in fact, craptastic. See my Barbie Horse Adventures statement for more details on that.
I don't understand your complaint with my praises of the DS. It's been around for longer than I've had one, yes. Steam has been building up that entire time, but it truly seems to have gained an even greater momentum in the past maybe twelve months - I hear FAR more about the DS now than I heard about it this time last year, and I don't think all of that is just because I own one now.
N64 and Cube both -did- lose a chunk of marketshare. They got 0wned by Sony in sales figures in the US, and a big part of the problem, I believe, was a lack of games on the US market. We got all the usual mario, metroid, etc games, which were all very fun - but Sony did what Nintendo used to do, which is build up a pretty huge software library in a relatively short time. Meanwhile, we were left playing the same few (admittedly mostly fun, but still) games on 64 and Cube, waiting and watching our buddies play hundreds of titles on PSX and PS2...
Yes, Nintendo is recovering now. That's what I said. That was the point of my post. They're getting better. For them to get better, they have to have fallen some. We may not agree on the fine points, but we agree on that. And yes, one more time I add for completeness, in the American market. QED.