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[Amir0x]

How many times has the DS been sub-100K?

werent they at that level at a few points early in the life?

 

[Magicpaint]

Those 3DS numbers don't even seem possible. This handheld generation is going to very interesting, that's for certain.

They're possible. Because the DS also did sub-100k figures around this time in its lifespan. But the 3DS definitely deserves these sales imo.

 

[Nirolak]

werent they at that level at a few points early in the life?

I'm not sure. I don't have a good source for 2004/2005 era.

 

[jvm]

How many times has the DS been sub-100K?

April 2005: 70K
May 2005: 57K
July 2005: 80K
August 2005: 100K

Didn't bother to check weekly rates (i.e. accounting for 4-week and 5-week months).

 

[Amir0x]

yeah there we go. Thought so

 

[Nirolak]

April 2005: 70K
May 2005: 57K
July 2005: 80K
August 2005: 100K

Didn't bother to check weekly rates (i.e. accounting for 4-week and 5-week months).

Thanks.

Well, this isn't wholly unprecedented then, but I feel this is much weaker than Nintendo would have hoped.

 

[Amir0x]

Thanks.

Well, this isn't wholly unprecedented then, but I feel this is much weaker than Nintendo would have hoped.

i think this paints a picture that a judgment must be withheld until Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. If they don't give the system a meaningful bump, then Nintendo should start getting worried.

Ocarina of Time isn't going to sell systems.

 

[Shalashaska161]

3DS numbers seem about right considering how little reason there is to buy one. And Nintendo must be thanking it's lucky stars that the Wii is still able to sell so well considering there has been literally 0 software for it since Christmas.

 

[Seda]

I wonder how much of a boost OoT will have on the 3DS in June.....if any.

 

[SolarPowered]

I never would've believed these numbers for a 3DS launch year if someone told me.

Damn

April 2005: 70K
May 2005: 57K
July 2005: 80K
August 2005: 100K

Didn't bother to check weekly rates (i.e. accounting for 4-week and 5-week months).

It's faring a lot better than expected in that case.

 

[Nessus]

They should have delayed the launch, and released at $199 with some actual games.

I have every Nintendo console and portable (except for Virtual Boy) but I don't even have a 3DS yet because there simply aren't any games I care about on it.

I'll get one eventually for Super Mario 3DS and Resident Evil: Revelations, but both should have been much closer to launch.

 

[plagiarize]

i think this paints a picture that a judgment must be withheld until Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. If they don't give the system a meaningful bump, then Nintendo should start getting worried.

Ocarina of Time isn't going to sell systems.

i'm figuring a short term bump, but it's not going to lift sales and keep them there like Mario Kart should.

still, i'm sure Nintendo want to be doing a lot better, and saying 'the DS did similar sales at this point' only really shows that the situation they're in is salvagable.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

It did but dropped to $129 very, very shortly after that. Like a month or something.

About 9 months. The price drop, Advance Wars and Nintendogs all hit at the same time iirc. Then in the next 9 months the Nintendo hits came fast and furious (Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Mario & Luigi 2, Tetris DS, Prime Hunters, Brain-Age, NSMB, Big Brain Academy, DS Lite). I think 3DS very much needs the same sort of thing, time a $50 drop with the first fall killer app (Kid Icarus?) and then follow up with an avalanche of Nintendo games. Release a new model late next year to compliment Wii U.

 

[CoolTrick]

Yeah people are not remembering the DS's first few months being sub 100k.

 

[mclaren777]

I really think Nintendo should have announced a $50 price drop at E3, especially after learning what the PSV will cost.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

I wonder how much of a boost OoT will have on the 3DS in June.....if any.

Should at least put it over 100k. By how much remains to be seen.

 

[Mashing]

Yeah, I totally forgot about how poor the DS sold at the beginning. The 3DS will probably outsell everything during the holiday season like the DS routinely did.

 

[Atomski]

Price drop and Mariokart.. I'll buy one.

 

[onQ123]

we really need to see how close the PSP & 3DS numbers are.

 

[Mr. B Natural]

Yeah people are not remembering the DS's first few months being sub 100k.

different time
different situation
different expectations

Nintendo's in a whole new level and a whole new light now than they were when they were struggling 7 years ago. The DS was not a proven concept, while the 3ds is the successor to the best selling portable console of all time. The two letters - DS mean totally different things now for consumers, for nintendo, for stock holders, etc.

 

[Scarecrow]

How popular were smart phones back then, though? That's all I see people playing in the auditoriums from up here in projection at a theater.

 

[Vorg]

There's really no excuse for the 3DS' performance. Let's keep in mind that it's the successor to one of the best selling consoles ever. It should be selling a lot more than it is.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I really think Nintendo should have announced a $50 price drop at E3, especially after learning what the PSV will cost.

They still have plenty of time to announce a price drop. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo decided to ride out the holiday season without a drop and rely on their software alone to sell units.

 

[Barrett2]

How popular were smart phones back then, though? That's all I see people playing in the auditoriums from up here in projection at a theater.

Brick Breaker on Palm Pilot was tearing up the charts in 2004.

 

[DMeisterJ]

Yes, the DS dipped below 100k before, and attained success, but you can't just straight-line compare the 3DS and DS because the situation is different now than it was then.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

I really think Nintendo should have announced a $50 price drop at E3, especially after learning what the PSV will cost.

Too reactive. What Nintendo really should've done is launch at $199, like they were probably going to before E3 2010 convinced them otherwise. I don't understand how anyone could've really thought launching at a PSP like price with a PSP like lineup was a good idea?

I do think a drop sooner is better though. It won't happen, but going to $199 the same week as OOT 3D would probably convince a lot the fence sitters to jump in and help get those numbers going in the right direction.

 

[Delio]

So are phones really killing the 3DS now? I hope by the time they get their real games out it picks up like it should if not then :/

 

[UberTag]

we really need to see how close the PSP & 3DS numbers are.

If you're talking about launch-aligned in North America, the PSP comes out way ahead of the 3DS.

If you're talking about 3DS vs. PSP globally THIS year, even with the PSP dominating the entirety of Japan the 3DS has outsold it globally and outsold it in Japan. In fact, it has outsold everything else in Japan this year despite the vacuum of a software lineup and an earthquake that crippled the country's economy a week after it launched.

It's way too premature to say that smartphones have killed portable game systems. Not with Pokemon Black & White outselling everything this year. The only thing phones have killed is the Brain Age franchise.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

They still have plenty of time to announce a price drop. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo decided to ride out the holiday season without a drop and rely on their software alone to sell units.

Wouldn't surprise me either, but it's still the wrong move imo. Nintendo needs to build base asap, and a price drop in concert with their coming lineup would be the most effective way of doing that. That's how they did it for DS.

 

[Rolf NB]

we really need to see how close the PSP & 3DS numbers are.

All I have for PSP is a YOY decline of about 20% for January. If you assume this held for all other months, PSP might have sold 47k units in May.

There's really no way for it to have outsold the 3DS.

 

[opticalmace]

Might there be DS sales numbers too?

 

[Spiegel]

All I have for PSP is a YOY decline of about 20% for January. If you assume this held for all other months, PSP might have sold 47k units in May.

There's really no way for it to have outsold the 3DS.

PSP was up this month compared to last May

 

[Mr. B Natural]

How popular were smart phones back then, though? That's all I see people playing in the auditoriums from up here in projection at a theater.

Well that may actually be a good consideration, not so much the "wait for this and that." Nintendo was HOT at 3ds's inception. Steaming hot. The 3ds should be stomping the ds in terms of projections right off the bat regardless of games, who were far more cold at the time of its release.

What differentiated the 3ds from new and old competitors? The glasses free 3d of course. If people were impressed with the 3d like they were with the motion controls after playing wii sports (aka screw the games that may or may not come, I gotta get me one of these!), then the 3ds would have been yet another lightning strike for nintendo.

The 3ds was not made to allow first party developers to come up with great ideas for mario, luigi and whatever. It's 3d That's the kicker. That's the differentiator. That's the seller.

The fact is that it isn't, clearly. Just like the original dual screen and touchpad didn't just get people to up and pick up a DS. People don't care and now they're gonna have to rely on the back up , nostalgia, yet again to pull them out of this. And if they do, they won't learn a damn thing in the process. The biggest selling games for the DS barely used the DS functionality, and yet here were are with a 3DS as if the Nintendo thought the DS concept really got people buying their stuff. It didn't. Mario did. Mario kart did. etc. I'll probably have to repeat myself when the next portable system comes out with glasses free 3d again because nintendo will convince themselves that was what might possibly pull this system out of its ass. No, nintendo. Look at the sales now. See. that's not true.

 

[Kandinsky]

97k HOLY FUCK, thats terrible.

 

[truly101]

I'm going to guess the PSN debacle kept the system from breaking 200K. By May it was a pretty well known issue.

 

[Lambtron]

Wow those 3DS sales are brutal. The launch line up was underwhelming and the price is admittedly high. There's been very little in the way of new games for it since launch, though I am loving DoA Dimensions. I assume OoT 3D & the $25 gift card with purchase at Target next week will have sales ticking up a bit, but I'm assuming it'll stay slower until the real heavy hitters roll out.

Once Mario Kart and Super Mario launch, look out.

 

[Rolf NB]

PSP was up this month compared to last May

Cool. Where is this from? Any more details?

PSP in May 2010 was 59.4k for reference.

 

[venne]

Let's also remember that the original DS was a chunky, dim piece of shit. I didn't consider it until the release of the DS Lite. The 3DS doesn't seem to have horrid hardware or design.

 

[infinityBCRT]

Yes, being like IBM would be awful.

Its not awful from a purely money perspective-- but ask any one of the execs at MS and Google and they'll tell you that IBM is the last company they want to be like. They want to be part of a relevant and exciting company. If they just cared about money, those guys would be working at banks.

 

[Spiegel]

Cool. Where is this from? Any more details?

PSP in May 2010 was 59.4k for reference.

From the OP

Hardware
“The PS3, PSP and the Xbox 360 all experienced unit sales increases over May 2010. The top selling platform for the month was the Xbox 360, which has realized nearly a year and a half of month-over-month unit sales increases.”

 

[starmud]

i kinda expected nintendogs to do something for the 3ds. given how huge the previous games were. the audience just isn't there for that fodder anymore. if they are they wont pay much for the experience. which leaves nintendo in a odd place. they have to value their brand and hardware at some level with the others to stay relevant.

i just cant see a fifty dollar price drop helping the 3ds gain much in the longterm. they need something on the system that can grab attention, if just nintendo titles in 3d can do that...

vita's touchscreen alone seems better able to communicate with the current marketplace. outside of gaf (and japan) all buying one, to actually think vita will take off requires some imaginary thinking... how many people are going to care about uncharted or LBP. handhelds (in this form) really do feel like their on a death march.

 

[Nonoriri]

It did but dropped to $129 very, very shortly after that. Like a month or something.

It dropped to 129.99 in August 2005.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Its not awful from a purely money perspective-- but ask any one of the execs at MS and Google and they'll tell you that IBM is the last company they want to be like. They want to be part of a relevant and exciting company. If they just cared about money, those guys would be working at banks.

But MS hasn't been that company for more than a decade, and even Google has suffered from getting bigger, older, and stodgier. There's an immense brain drain to next gen startups (Facebook for one, but also Twitter, Instagram, 4square, etc)

 

[friskykillface]

lol 97k RIP 3DS...............nah


*looks at 3DS and plays lego star wars i got yesterday* its good

I think a good boost in sales will happen this weekend, i already know my cousin plans to buy one this weekend just to replay OoT.

 

[infinityBCRT]

But MS hasn't been that company for more than a decade, and even Google has suffered from getting bigger, older, and stodgier. There's an immense brain drain to next gen startups (Facebook for one, but also Twitter, Instagram, 4square, etc)

Thats exactly right, and thats why MS will cling to Xbox for dear life because its one of the few non-Windows initiatives thats actually working for them.

 

[Green Biker Dude]

HAHA 3DS

 

[ZoddGutts]

Yeah people are not remembering the DS's first few months being sub 100k.

And having competition at that time.

 

[TheAtomicPile]

There's really no excuse for the 3DS' performance. Let's keep in mind that it's the successor to one of the best selling consoles ever. It should be selling a lot more than it is.

Nothing like this can really be assumed anymore when the market is changing so rapidly.

Has everybody already forgotten about the PS3?

 

[chubigans]

Let's also remember that the original DS was a chunky, dim piece of shit. I didn't consider it until the release of the DS Lite. The 3DS doesn't seem to have horrid hardware or design.

Really? I think the battery, aesthetics, screen scratches when closed, etc. could be fixed in a revision. I know a lot of people on GAF are waiting for one.

 

[Tashi]

Really? I think the battery, aesthetics, screen scratches when closed, etc. could be fixed in a revision. I know a lot of people on GAF are waiting for one.

I'm waiting for one. I really don't like the original design.