Topic: Official DS Sales Thread

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: Arbok
Well, you know, why not get a DS then? GBA library + DS library > GBA + GBC

*Bzzzt* Wrong!  As long as Link's Awaking remains limited to GBA/GB, then the GBA+DS library will never be better.

God, there needs to be a Link's Awakening re-release for the GBA...

[Mario]

On the bright side, perhaps in 5 years time the DS will be doing what the GBA is now. (while the new Gameboy struggles to get a foot in)

[18 Days]

Links Awakening isn't even that good.

[Kairon]

I've been called a Traitor because, as a Zelda fanboy and Miyamoto fanboy, I didn't like or finish Link's Awakening.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[UncleBob]

Seriously folks, Link's Awakening is the best game ever created.  Period.  Ever.

I even remember reading at ome time that Miyamoto considers it his favorite game that he created.

[Bill Aurion]

Kairon FAILS!

"Seriously folks, Link's Awakening is the best game ever created. Period. Ever."

Truth!

[capamerica]

Quote
Originally posted by: IceColdHowever, as I said before (twice ), I'm talking about the North American market. If you look at the NPDs for the last year, what I said would become apparent. Of course, the NPD numbers are unreliable and inaccurate, as they exclude some stores and extrapolate and goodness knows what else. However, you can get the general feel of the market from them. And since the PSP launched over here, it outsold the DS at first, evening up with it later on. Since then the sales have been around the same for both handhelds, so the DS is in the lead due to its early launch. I thought that, with the rush of wonderful DS games in the last 6+ months, it would pull ahead easily. However, even with all those games, the sales show little improvement.

But I guess that in a world where Over the Hedge wins GameCube GOTY, this is not a surprise..

I still think your being fooled, The only reason the PSP did as well as it did for the first couple weeks is because of all they hype Sony made for it. After that they system dropped down drastically, Its not holding its own as it did that first couple weeks. If the PSP was doing well in the US then why doesn't Sony release sale figures and promote the fact that the PSP is doing as well as the DS which is a run away success here in the US too. Why are movies studios dropping UMD support? Why are game developers not creating original content and are only releasing PS2 ports 80% of the time, And why are the game developers scaling back their PSP support? If the PSP was doing so well in the US why don't we have more American developers making games for it?

Nintendo DS sales for 2005:
Japan = 5 million
North America = 4 million
Europe = 3.5 million

Seems like Nintendo is doing pretty well in the US. While on the PSP front all we know is they have "Shipped" 15 million units world wide. Systems being shipped means jack, all we know 10 million units are sitting in warehouses in the middle of nowhere.

I know that where I live the PSP barely sold any. GameStop and EB sold 3 each to people who pre-ordered them. Best Buy sold 1 and Toys R Us and Circuit City didn't sell any for the first 2 weeks, after that I just stopped asking. And watched as Best Buy, Toys R US and Circuit City moved their PSP selection into the same area as all the other console accessories were, Which is away from the PSOne, PS2, Xbox, Xbox360, GameCube, DS and GBA sections. And this morning I saw at Wal-Mart that the PSP section has been moved to a little rack at the end which holds about 4 games on each row. This is a huge down grade from where it was last time I was there where the PSP had a section bigger then the GameCube and DS sections combined.

Maybe the PSP is doing better in your area then the rest of the US? But from what I've seen and heard the PSP is a disaster and isn't any where near selling as well as the DS which is selling very well, infact the DS even sold out here around the time Mario Kart came out.

[couchmonkey]

Without proper figures we'll neer know how PSP is doing vs. DS in North America.  Just as Sony isn't bragging about selling as well as/better than the DS in North America, Nintendo isn't bragging about outselling Sony in North America...and sales in your local region don't tell you the story either.  I know more PSP owners than DS owners (3 PSP owners vs...me), and I see PSP way more often on the bus, but we can't conclude anything from that.

Until I hear something authoritative about DS vs. PSP sales, I'll assume they're about even in North America.

[Artimus]

Don't NDP sales not include WalMart or something?

[animecyberrat]

Wal Mart is dropping UMD sales also i heard. at my Wal mart they already took them down and put them int the bargian bin, 5.00 to 15 a pop. that means they are finished here.

Also it should suyrprise anyone psp is selling close to DS in NA, PSP is selling as a multi purpose electronic dvice that plays movies, mp3s, stores digital photos and has web browsing capabilities, in the US its a mini PC and thats how it is being sold, screw the games peopel buy it because it has other features, and without all the other jazz DS is still neck in neck, so of cxourse once the good games start rolling in and PSP support starts dropping off people will see it as a fad and start to shift.



fully expect that once psp owners realisize that some stores are dropping umd support and that major releases have slowed down theyw ill start to feel cheated and figure that it is dieng. Once potential new customers see that support is widning down they will hodl of purchase out of fear of gettig burned. PSP is and will continue to be a failure, Sony is shifting its focus to wards promoting the multi media aspects and is trying to salage ymd sales above all else because PSP is the Ipod killer to them and they know that DS cant be touched and therefore are shifting focus. Wait till E3 I bet that sony will talk a lot about how PSP is doing better than people think and will continue to brag about SHIPPEd numbers whiel Nintendo will once again hodl up thier pie chart showing how pathetic everybody else is compared to them.  

[KDR_11k]

Donkey Kong is superior to Link's Awakening.

[IceCold]

Quote
I still think your being fooled, The only reason the PSP did as well as it did for the first couple weeks is because of all they hype Sony made for it. After that they system dropped down drastically, Its not holding its own as it did that first couple weeks. If the PSP was doing well in the US then why doesn't Sony release sale figures and promote the fact that the PSP is doing as well as the DS which is a run away success here in the US too. Why are movies studios dropping UMD support? Why are game developers not creating original content and are only releasing PS2 ports 80% of the time, And why are the game developers scaling back their PSP support? If the PSP was doing so well in the US why don't we have more American developers making games for it?

Nope.. you can look through this thread if you want. Look at all the NPD releases for the last year or so. The PSP was released in March IIRC, and after outselling the DS for a couple of months the sales evened out here. Even through the holiday season, the DS at best had a slight lead. There was one month where Sony decided to withhold their numbers, but that was only one month (September I believe). Again, NPDs are not 100% indicative of the actual figures, but they're not way off either. Enough so that we can actually use them and get a feel for the sales. So, even though the DS library is in every way superior to the PSP one, it is still not a runaway succcess here, which it should be.

To answer nearly all your other questions: software tie-in ratio. How many games people buy with the system. And to say that the PSP's tie-in ratio is horrendous  is an understatement. It all stems from the fact that the PSP takes the focus off gaming. It's also a multimedia player, and games just aren't as important. With all the functions it has, the software sales are bound to be much, much lower. The DS, on the other hand, focuses almost purely on games. It's what Nintendo has always done; make a system for games and nothing else. This has many advantages, not the least of which protecting the tie-in ratio. That's one thing the DS has going for it over the PSP; its software sales are significantly higher than those of the PSP.

So why does this matter? Well, when developers decide to develop for a system, the tie-in ratio is just as important as the userbase. The PSP itself can sell as much as it wants, but if no one buys games for it, then there obviously won't be any support. That's why it has such a weak lineup of games, including ports. Same with UMD sales.. The multimedia people dismiss it because it plays games, and the people involved with games dismiss it because it's multimedia-focused. Quite a situation.

And that's why I'm scared for the next generation of consoles. Microsoft and Sony are just taking too much of their focus away from games. Nintendo is the only one who is focused solely on delivering games to us. But that's a different discussion for a different thread..

[Hostile Creation]

"Seriously folks, Link's Awakening is the best game ever created. Period. Ever."

Absolutely, and I give an angry glare at all naysayers.
It redefined the Zelda series, too.

[Bill Aurion]

In with the sales before Mario again...

1 NDS Brain Training 2 - 71,000 (1,877,000)
2 NDS Brain Training - 52,000 (1,930,000)
3 NDS Animal Crossing - 49,000 (2,462,000)
4 NDS Densetsu no Stafi 4 - 48,000 (48,000)
5 PS2 Guilty Gear XX Slash - 44,000 (44,000)
6 NDS English Trainig - 43,000 (847,000)
7 NDS Pokemon Ranger - 38,000 (359,000)
8 PS2 Final Fantasy XII - 25,000 (2,151,000)
9 PS2 Pro Yakyuu Netsu Star 2006 21,000 (73,000)
10 PS2 Pro Yakyuu Spirits 3 21,000 (89,000)

[RiskyChris]

Wow, are the brain training games going to sell more in the games' lifetimes than FFXII?  That's pretty intense.

[Kairon]

The astonishing thing will be that it probably cost SquareEnix 250 times as much to make FFXII compared to the entire Brain Age series.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[PaLaDiN]

Wait, why is Animal Crossing doing so well? As in, better total than FFXII and still selling better?

Is there just an FFXII shortage or something?

[KnowsNothing]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mario
FFXII was a one-month gimmick never to be heard from again from those non-lotsoftime-gamers. Everyone who was interested in it bought it straight away, it's a dying fad, and the mainstream gamers ignore it.

[IceCold]

And the DS is only a year and half into its life cycle, and has a significantly lower userbase than the PS2..

[animecyberrat]

but ps2 is the SH#* man and Ds is the tiku tiku tiku!  

[Louieturkey]

Just remember though, FFXII will most likely sell more than either AC or BT worldwide, despite the amazing Japanese sales.  It'll be up with FFX without around 5-6 million worldwide.  

Though I'd be pleasantly suprised if I'm wrong.

[Mario]

The hardware numbers are here, DS keeps chugging along, though the numbers are slightly down from last week. Software numbers in general are down too, but it's great to see a Brain Training 1-2.

DS Lite: 140,969
DS: 37,204
PS2: 27,549
PSP: 26,340
GBASP: 6,372
GBM: 3,676
Xbox 360: 1,926
GC: 1,080
GBA: 46
Xbox: 30

Not much else happening except PS2 trades places with PSP, sales for every system are down slightly. I'm glad they are continuing to track the Xbox sales! I could have bought 31 pies last week and it would have outsold Xbox.

EDIT: Actually, GBA sales have gone up a little bit, they should go up more next week with the release of Mother 3. Mother 3 came out yesterday and apparently has sold out of it's 300,000 shipment already.

[KDR_11k]

Great. Another Starfi game and we didn't even see ONE of them.

[Louieturkey]

DS is on the way out, it didn't sell 200,000 systems this week.

[thepoga]

are there still hardware shortages in Japan?