Enterbrain charts 6-13 Feb

[DeanoC]

Anyone have any clue how well DS is selling in the U.S.? All we've been getting lately is Japan numbers.

There has been 3000 sales in the UK, which isn't bad as its not released till next month! (Nintendo have a special promotion in Europe to enable a few shipped early).

Got mine yesterday.... All portables should have touch screens, its great

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Chap at the local monthly Computer Fair had imported DS's and PSPs for sale. I went to see. He only had DS's in stock - sold out of PSPs a week earlier. I got chatting with him about this. He says PSP is an impulse buy - it's just too damned cool for people to resist!

I quite liked the DS at first, but reflecting on my experience I don't see it as anything amazing. I think the visual design sucks, I'm not one of those that thinks dual screen is an amazing innovation over 'large single screen that can be divide in two if that's what you want', and the buttons seemed very small. That touch screen was cool and made the game I played (Mario minigame I think, shooting a catapult) easy to get into in the same way EyeToy was, but I imagine such games would become as tiring as EyeToy as quickly. Touch screen doesn't add meat to a game, only an interfacing method. My experiences are vastly too limited to come to any conclusions though.

As for noticing the DS, it was sat on a table maybe 2/3rds open. The top screen was quite clear but the bottom screen was black. It was only when I got close I could see the bottom screen was actually on, and to play it really needs to be all the way open otherwise the screens aren't fully clear. Bloke selling these things was saying what we've all known for ages (though I haven't seen first hand), the PSP screen shines out like a beacon. No-one can miss it and it draws in punters like moths to a flame. PSP is cool and sleak, if not to your tastes certainly to the majority, and I think Sony knew what they were doing. PSP isn't a handheld gaming device, nor a portable media player, but a fancy widget that appeals on so many levels and offers portable functionality not otherwise available. Whether much of this will be any use I don't know, but having it appeals to people.

As the guy in the computer fair has experienced, PSP has broader appeal than DS. That's probably why it'll go on to displace DS as the larger user base. Nintendo tend to know how to provide fun experiences and have got by on that, but Sony have the upper hand in knowing how to appeal to the masses.

 

[London Geezer]

I think what's helping PSP and will help it a lot in the future is the gazillion of customers that were very satisfied with PS1 and PS2.
And that PSP is just sex.

 

[cthellis42]

The stats may contradict you...

2.5 games per 1 PSP unit (Japan)
1.7 games per 1 NDS unit (Japan+US)

Out of curiousity, where did you pull those figures from, and is there a region breakdown for the DS?

 

[Teasy]

1,650,000 DSs sold vs 800,000 PSPs, if PSP ever actually outsells DS then we can talk about why its happening.

To be exact in Japan total sales are as follows:

DS - 1,801,275

PSP - 844,607

 

[Deepak]

From MB:

Japanese Console Hardware Chart
From: Feb 7 - 13, 2005

System Sales this week Total this year
PlayStation Portable 45,972 362,355
PlayStation 2 39,889 393,137
Nintendo DS 26,205 305,679
GameBoy Advance SP 10,372 137,877
GameCube 4,499 52,172
GameBoy Advance 573 4,022
Xbox 262 3,300

**********

Top 10 Japanese Console Games
From: Feb 7 - 13, 2005


Rank Game Title Developer System Genre Units Sold
Total Sold

1 DragonBall Z3 Bandai PS2 FIG 426,896 426,896
2 Popolocrois: Pietoro Ouji no Bouken Sony PSP RPG 33,759 33,759
3 Shinsen Gumi Gunraw-Den Sega PS2 ACT 22,273 22,273
4 Shin Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu Spike PS2 RAC 21,654 21,654
5 Catch! Touch! Yoshi! Nintendo NDS ACT 18,009 109,078
6 Radiata Stories Square Enix PS2 RPG 17,405 230,472
7 Super Robot Taisen Original Generation 2 Banpresto GBA SLG 15,841 133,717
8 Another Century's Episode Banpresto PS2 ACT 14,827 235,676
9 Gran Turismo 4 Sony PS2 RAC 14,766 943,817
10 Biohazard 4 Capcom GC A.AVG 13,491 184,124

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I've always felt Nintendo were mistaken to believe people didn't want the existing gameplay mechanics and to try to win people over with something new. I think these sales figures show that. Even PS2, that long-toothed perennial favourite, is outselling DS, and over the past four weeks it seems to me DS sales have been dropping.

I wonder if anyone new to gaming has got a DS, or is it only going to existing GB customers? Have Nintendo managed to win over a new userbase as they hoped, or are they stuck selling to their exisiting fans still?

 

[StarFox]

Sales for DS and PSP have both been dropping. PSP's are still higher because its userbase is less then half the size of DS. Which leaves more stock and more early adopters left on the PSP side.

As someone posted earlier:

DS - 1.8 million

PSP - 0.8 million

 

[Kolgar]

But Nintendo continues to do much better in software sales. Seems like the PSP is a rehash of the PS2. The Japanese are buying it more for the multimedia features than for the games.

Ha! That's classic. Sony detractors said exactly the same thing when PS2 came out!

 

[Evil_Cloud]

I've always felt Nintendo were mistaken to believe people didn't want the existing gameplay mechanics and to try to win people over with something new. I think these sales figures show that. Even PS2, that long-toothed perennial favourite, is outselling DS, and over the past four weeks it seems to me DS sales have been dropping.

I wonder if anyone new to gaming has got a DS, or is it only going to existing GB customers? Have Nintendo managed to win over a new userbase as they hoped, or are they stuck selling to their exisiting fans still?

January and February didn't had any big releases (Yoshi in Japan, WarioWare in the States, but that's all), might explain the drop in sales of the Nintendo DS. Also, the first months after the holiday season are traditionally 'slow', might be a combined effect.

 

[jvd]

In the states march should be a decent month I believe there are 8 or 10 games for release that month . For the ds that is

 

[Shifty Geezer]

January and February didn't had any big releases (Yoshi in Japan, WarioWare in the States, but that's all), might explain the drop in sales of the Nintendo DS. Also, the first months after the holiday season are traditionally 'slow', might be a combined effect.

Wouldn't seasonal variation in sales also affect PSP and PS2? It's not the drop in sales that's 'interesting' to me, but the position in the hardware charts. Nintendo believes they can attract a new breed of gamers. Does the DS achieve this? If so, why is it not selling more than PSP or PS2? It looks to me that purchasers of DS are GB owners upgrading. I could be wrong, but given DS's initial sales were comparable with GBA's, it doesn't look thus far that they've won over the masses of casual gamers that they were gunning for, and Joe Public would rather have a media device with conventional gaming than a gaming device with a unique approach.

 

[Teasy]

Wouldn't seasonal variation in sales also affect PSP and PS2?

Not as much when its only got an 800,000 userbase.

 

[Almasy]

DS thankfully seems to be running out of steam. The launch period was pretty damn good for the device, but now that the dust is settling on both fronts, it seems PSP is starting to become the preferred handheld of choice.

By the end of the year I expect the PSP to have a bigger userbase than the DS, worldwide.

 

[Kolgar]

Almasy, perhaps you and I agree that the DS is the machine that never should have been. Nintendo released it in knee-jerk fashion as a stop-gap to combat PSP, but aside from the gimmicky dual screen, its technology doesn't really impress.

Nintendo should have been working more ambitiously on a proper Game Boy sequel, but it appears that in this case, success bred complacency and the company got caught by Sony with its pants around its ankles.

Now we'll see how Nintendo fares with the arrival of PSP into its beloved handheld territory. Suddenly it feels like 1995 all over again, except this time, Nintendo doesn't have dominance in another big market segment to fall back on. This is its last bastion, so one would expect a ferocious response.

But that's what I expected with N64 and Gamecube, and I'm still waiting for the company to wake from its slumber.

 

[Almasy]

Almasy, perhaps you and I agree that the DS is the machine that never should have been. Nintendo released it in knee-jerk fashion as a stop-gap to combat PSP, but aside from the gimmicky dual screen, its technology doesn't really impress.

Nintendo should have been working more ambitiously on a proper Game Boy sequel, but it appears that in this case, success bred complacency and the company got caught by Sony with its pants around its ankles.

Now we'll see how Nintendo fares with the arrival of PSP into its beloved handheld territory. Suddenly it feels like 1995 all over again, except this time, Nintendo doesn't have dominance in another big market segment to fall back on. This is its last bastion, so one would expect a ferocious response.

But that's what I expected with N64 and Gamecube, and I'm still waiting for the company to wake from its slumber.

I agree completely with what you´ve said. Nintendo grew too complacent, to the point of not even having a technology roadmap for its GB line.

Nintendo´s president stated as much, so it feels like when they saw PSP, they looked around in their R&D department and picked out one of their toys and went ahead with it. Nintendo fans like to think it wasn´t a knee jerk reaction, but given the way Nintendo´s technology R&D seems to operate, then that´s the most likely scenario.

It´s obvious it wasn´t planned enough, the technology is ancient, the gameplay innovations are minimal and not even Nintendo was ready to launch it: a port of Mario 64 with a simulated analog stick of all things, instead of a Mario that properly demonstrated the "DS philosophy" is proof enough of this.

 

[Ty]

Frankly I think both of you are being too negative on the DS. Yes, from a technological perspective it isn't exciting, but I think from an interface/gameplay one, it could be. Whether or not it lives up to the potential, of course, depends on the software.

I don't think we can argue factually with regard to whether or not the DS was a knee-jerk response to the PSP as none of us know what went on inside Nintendo when the decision was made to go forward with the DS.

I also don't know why you would be 'thankful' that the DS is running out of steam.

 

[Almasy]

I also don't know why you would be 'thankful' that the DS is running out of steam.

Well, I know that sounds like flamebait, but I´m thankfull because I don´t think the DS is good enough to deserve a huge success, that´s all.

 

[DeanoC]

I expect the DS will have more affect on future portable gaming machines than PSP.
The introduction of touch screen tech to gaming is truly revolutionary. Many games that simply couldn't be done on a portable device (without a mouse) can now be done.
Whether or not the DS succeeds over PSP, I'm willing to bet the PSP2 has a touch screen...

 

[Jabjabs]

You do have to rememebr that PSP did have the shipping problem, the sales are probably only now picking up since there are actually units in the shops now. Give it about 1-2 months before you can really start to see how the PSP will do against DS. So far though I have the feeling that Nintendo have under estimated the impact that PSP would have.