• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Nintendo: 3DS on track to have first year sales > DS first year sales

G

Guevara

Member
Nintendo said today that its 3DS handheld game system has sold more than 1.65 million units in the U.S., according to sales tracked by market researcher NPD.

The number puts the 3DS on track to surpass the first-year total of the Nintendo DS, which was the fastest-selling game platform before. Of course, this is what you would expect. After, in 2011, the video game market is much bigger than it was in 2004.

The Nintendo DS sold 2.37 million units in the U.S. in its first 12 months in the U.S., with about 50 percent of those sales happening during the holidays. Nintendo hopes that big games such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 will enable the 3DS to keep growing.

Overall, however, the 3DS has been a disappointing launch for Nintendo. The system debuted in March, but some people complained about the quality of the glasses-free stereoscopic 3D. In August, Nintendo had to slash the price of the 3DS from $249.99 to $169.99. That helped triple sales, but it means that the system isn’t as attractive as the old DS was, given the new environment of other portable devices such as iPhones and iPads.

Nintendo said it sold more than 675,000 hardware units in October, including 250,000 3DS units, 250,000 Wii units, and 180,000 older DS units.
Click to expand...
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/11/nintendo-says-3ds-will-outsell-original-ds-in-its-first-year/3ds-6/

Old? Also the bundles this fall are getting crazy. Nintendo is finally getting aggressive.
 
K

Kusagari

Member
Good, but honestly if it didn't beat the DS first year sales after the price drop that would have been embarrassing.
 
Shtof

Shtof

Member
Well, that's certainly good for the industry. But I think both Nintendo and Sony need to rethink their pricing strategy for their handhelds to keep up with smartphone games. Granted, smartphone games are not a real threat right now, but as they get more complex they will be.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
Seda said:
First of all....a couple hours old.

Second, it's on pace, it hasn't been a year yet.
Click to expand...
And considering the holiday season, it'll beat it with more than 3 months to spare. I'll likely end up ~1.5 million units ahead at the end of March.
 
C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Kusagari said:
Good, but honestly if it didn't beat the DS first year sales after the price drop that would have been embarrassing.
Click to expand...
It's kind of insane how Nintendo has turned what's usually a multi year plan of action (introduce a new color maybe twice a year, a new exclusive game-themed bundle, price cuts) into one six month oh-god-this-thing-has-to-sell course of craziness. We literally have all that right now.

Crazy stuff.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
chubigans said:
It's kind of insane how Nintendo has turned what's usually a multi year plan of action (introduce a new color maybe twice a year, a new exclusive game-themed bundle, price cuts) into one six month oh-god-this-thing-has-to-sell course of craziness. We literally have all that right now.

Crazy stuff.
Click to expand...

Nintendo paid a high price for it
 
C

Cipherr

Member
The number puts the 3DS on track to surpass the first-year total of the Nintendo DS, which was the fastest-selling game platform before. Of course, this is what you would expect. After, in 2011, the video game market is much bigger than it was in 2004.
Click to expand...

I love how NOW all of this growth is obvious, and so expected. I mean, noone thought anything other than this would be the case.

Seda said:
First of all....a couple hours old.

Second, it's on pace, it hasn't been a year yet.
Click to expand...

You are right, the holidays, where the original DS recorded half of its first years sales, is where the 3DS will lose ground. Makes sense.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
test_account said:
True, but taken inflation into account, it is probably about the same price (at least not very far from each other).
Click to expand...
Yeah, but inflation is irrelevant. It really doesn't mean much in this case. If anything, the fact that 3DS is doing so much better in a much worse economy is extremely impressive.
 
T

test_account

XP-39C²
BurntPork said:
Yeah, but inflation is irrelevant. It really doesn't mean much in this case. If anything, the fact that 3DS is doing so much better in a much worse economy is extremely impressive.
Click to expand...
The value between the DS and the 3DS price would probably be about the same because of inflation :) But yeah, the 3DS wasnt much cheaper than the DS anyway.
 
S

Seda

Member
Cipherr said:
You are right, the holidays, where the original DS recorded half of its first years sales, is where the 3DS will lose ground. Makes sense.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the 3DS won't surpass the DS' first year. Re-reading my post I come across kinda snarky :/
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
I'd love the 3DS to be a huge success, but the DS was pretty much expected to fail in it's first year. The 3DS is the successor to what looks like being the largest selling console in history. You would expect better. Mind you, it's done it without any big games really, so well doen i guess. It will definately have lost some market share to the smartphone crowd, though to be honest, it's debatable how many games those people would have actually bought for the DS. To me, if they play their cards right, they can get the 3DS to PSP like sales numbers by the end of it's lifespan.
 
T

thuway

Member
Good for Nintendo, I'm probably gonna pick one of these bad boys up after the redesign w/ the second analog nub.
 
M

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
DS, except for launch and Holiday months, never did more than 200k per month in its first 20 months, so until the Lite came out.
This happened because of the strenght of GBA: USA have been its best market, after all.

So far the price cut has done a good job in what Nintendo wanted: an acceleration in the change between 3DS and DS in sales, something that, until August, was not happening at all and even in a worse way than the GBA - DS times.

Let's see if this Holiday will see the first very great signs of a mass market success.
 
A

a posh hammer

Member
A new Mario and Mariokart were things the DS did not have in its first year. And the Zelda port/remake/whatev is better than the Mario 64 one.

I don't know why Nintendo felt they needed to be so aggressive in the first year in terms of so many bundles and variations though. The price drop it did need.
 
V

VGChampion

Member
I'm still sad I picked one up a month before they announced the price drop. And then all those stores allowing the price drop early so "late" adopters could get the ambassador status. I'm jealous I wasted so much money. Plus I bought a second one for a family member.
 
B

BurntPork

Banned
test_account said:
The value between the DS and the 3DS price would probably be about the same because of inflation :) But yeah, the 3DS wasnt much cheaper than the DS anyway.
Click to expand...
I don't think that people take inflation into account when making purchases. They do take into account how much money they have, however, and people have less money now. Then you have to take that $80 GBA into account...
 
F

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
I remember the DS doing horribly out of the gate. IIRC it sold like 57K in one month just after the New Year.
 
S

Spiffy_1st

Member
It's going to get quite a few more sales thanks to this, including one from me.

caf3922216cd139b87c569e22375e03a934ecdf9.jpg__620x493_q85_crop_upscale.jpg
 
G

Guevara

Member
Fuzzy said:
I remember the DS doing horribly out of the gate. IIRC it sold like 57K in one month just after the New Year.
Click to expand...
This too. I think a lot of people forget how "doomed" Nintendo was when the DS came out. Remember the whole "third pillar" strategy? The GBA was an absolute monster.
 
T

test_account

XP-39C²
BurntPork said:
I don't think that people take inflation into account when making purchases. They do take into account how much money they have, however, and people have less money now. Then you have to take that $80 GBA into account...
Click to expand...
Probably not that much in this case because it have only been about 7 years. I cant say for sure how people looked at their money purchases 7 years ago compared to today. But looking purely statistical on the inflation, it is about the same :)

Yeah, if the GBA was only $80 at the time, it was probably one of the reasons why the DS sales were hold a bit back.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
Big deal. The DS didn't do impressive numbers outside of Japan until the Lite hit. In the US, it's sales figures were so bad, NPD used to combine its sales with the GBA and it'd still be in last place.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
Leondexter said:
Big deal. The DS didn't do impressive numbers outside of Japan until the Lite hit. In the US, it's sales figures were so bad, NPD used to combine its sales with the GBA and it'd still be in last place.
Click to expand...


Huh?
The GBA was destroying the PS3 for months.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Coming off the heels of a really successful console before it and having a massive price drop soon after release?

I AM TOTALLY SURPRISED!
 
D

donny2112

Member
Leondexter said:
Big deal. The DS didn't do impressive numbers outside of Japan until the Lite hit.
Click to expand...

Exactly. PSP was almost completely caught up before the DS Lite hit, and look where it ended up for U.S. sales.

AceBandage said:
Huh?
The GBA was destroying the PS3 for months.
Click to expand...

Months when GBA and DS were combined: Feb/Mar 2005
Months when PS3 vs. GBA GIFs were teh rage: Feb-June 2007
 
K

Krev

Unconfirmed Member
The DS was expected by most to be outsold by the PSP. The 3DS is the successor to the highest selling dedicated games machine of all time.
It's not time to celebrate just yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[VGC] Nintendo has now dominated Japan game sales for 19 consecutive years
34
2K
Hudo replied
1 new Wii U was sold in the US in September. First time a new Wii U sold since May 2022.
Community Event Hype 2
60
5K
Dr. Wilkinson replied
[VGC] Capcom says it’s on track for an 11th straight year of growth after strong sales
News Business
4
633
Dick Jones replied
Famitsu 2023 annual report — NSW#1 (-15%), PS5#2 (+124%), XBS#3 (−47%) | Zelda TOTK#1, Mario Wonder#2, Pikmin 4#3 (physical software only)
Analysis Sales-Age 2
60
4K
Celine replied
Switch hits 30m lifetime unit sales during July in Japan
Sales-Age
8
1K
EverydayBeast replied
Top Bottom