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But I just read $80M on another website: http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm Wait a minute, it's still in development right? So the number changes every day...

It's a record that's hard to compare. SMB wasn't available across multiple vendors' consoles. THPS was on several platforms. This list hasn't been updated since 2007, but you can look for yourself. For some reason, SMB isn't listed, but I don't doubt it had strong sales.

Seth

It looks as if these sales are more likely down to people trading in their old fatter PSPs for the new slimeline model rather than sales to new customers.

Here's some statistics for you: http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

This year alone, the Wii has sold over three times as many units as the PS3 in Japan. It's sold over fifteen times as many units as the Xbox 360. Why would Square-Enix, a Japanese company, want to release the next entry in their largest franchise for the weakest system? You should keep in mind that the rest of the world is a secondary concern for them.

And even with Blue Dragon, you have a console chart that looks like this: http://the-magicbox.com/toptenlast.htm/. You're not going to a lot of growth in Japan unless you have a sizable cache of jRPGs.

That's pretty much sums it up. Look at the 20 most anticipated games in Japan.

http://the-magicbox.com/topten3.htm

6 DS games
3 Wii games

6 PS3 games
3 PS2 games
1 PSP game

1 360 game

Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey simply aren't enough. They need 3-6 times this many Blue Dragon's and Lost Odyssey's.

If you look at the total picture:

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

The PS3 sold 76K units in Japan in December, while the PS2 only sold 46K units. So, unlike in the US, where the PS2 was still the top-selling console, the torch appears to have been passed in Japan.

And both of them are crushing the XBox 360, at 17K units sold.

Jon Acheson

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game20061207.shtml Nov 27 - Dec 3, Zelda for Wii sold 139,011 copies. But it didn't sell enough to hit the charts during Dec 4 - 10? Or did they just forget to list it?

According to http://the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm Blue Dragon outsold Nintendo Wii software for the week with a weekly total of 80 thousand units, in total Wii sports has sold 248,549 units since the Wii has launched, and Hajimete no Wii has sold 237,160 units; The legend of Zelda sold 146,250 units on its opening week and is likely near the 200,000 mark by now.

Next week Blue Dragon will probably drop out of the top ten whereas much of Nintendo's software will remain near the top for quite a while.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

For 2006 through the end of October, 84,949 360s sold in Japan. 81,639 PS3s sold at launch.

From what I can find, there were 100K 360s sold in Japan in 2005.

So it looks like somewhere around 190K 360s vs 82K PS3s in Japan currently with Microsoft's 1 year head start.

Value Japanese sales in the greater scheme of things as you please.

xbox 360? japan? more ps3's were sold on the first day in japan than the number of xbox 360's sold in japan all year long

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

of course DS sales (and presumably the wii) > ps3 + xbox360

Yeah, they sold a quarter of a million DS lites in Japan this week alone.
They launched the pink one this week, so it's a bit of a sales spike, but they're still doing fine. If they need saving I don't want to see them healthy.

I beg to differ. Look at the latest numbers for the top 10 console games sold in Japan

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

The top 3 spots are DS games and 7/10 spots are DS games.

And on the US charts for July 2-8

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153855.html

DS games are right up there, but only pushed down a bit due to the World Cup frenzy that pushed all the soccer games up the charts.

Nintendo's last gimmic did rather good for its self.

Japanese Console Hardware Chart From: May 29 - Jun 4, 2006

• Units Sold
• Total Sold (Current Year)

• 135,614
• 2,056,107

• 1,159
• 868,537

• 24,595
• 823,958

Source: http://the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

The PSP is doing better here, by all accounts, than in Japan.

Some hard #s:

May 29 - Jun 4, 2006

System - Units Sold - Total Sold (Current Year)
Nintendo DS Lite - 135,614 - 2,056,107
PSP - 24,595 - 823,958
PlayStation 2 - 18,513 - 671,928
GameBoy Advance SP - 4,364 - 150,734
GameBoy Micro - 1,270 - 97,487
Xbox 360 - 1,245 - 51,488
Nintendo DS - 1,159 - 868,537
GameCube - 798 - 51,374
GameBoy Advance - 30 - 2,747
Xbox - 43 - 1,523

As you can see, the DS + DS Lite has sold (this year so far) about 3 and a half times the amount of PSPs sold. While the PSP is indeed a high selling handheld, the DS is a phenomenon. It was sold out for several weeks earlier in the year, a nintendo first.

If you look at current game charts (also on that same link from above), you will see some interesting numbers as well:

1 New Super Mario Bros. Nintendo NDS
2 Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu Nintendo NDS
3 Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju no Nouo Nintendo NDS
4 Metroid Prime: Hunters Nintendo NDS
5 World Soccer Winning Eleven 10 Konami PS2
6 Tetris DS Nintendo NDS
7 Animal Crossing: Wild World Nintendo NDS
8 Eigoga Nigatena Otona no Nintendo NDS
9 Jikkyou Powerful Major League Konami PS2 SPT
10 Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy Square Enix PSP

7 of the top 10 Japanese games are for the NDS. 2 are for the PS2. And 1, #10, is for the PSP. The top game of the week, New Mario Bros, sold 334,208 copies. #10, "Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable" for the PSP sold 15,640.

So yes, the DS is destroying over there. Here, the PSP has the lead from what I have read (though there are no official nation-wide sales figures, so it's hard sometimes to tell). I'm sure Nintendo hopes the DS Lite will turn the tide in the West. We'll see soon if it worked, I guess.

but Nintendo has gone to the "Mario" well a bit too much lately and the poor sales of the cube shows it.

Check the Japanese sales charts. In the last two weeks, New Mario Brothers for the DS has sold ~1,000,000, one of the (if not THE) fastest selling games ever. The demand for (good) games with Nintendo characters is there. Look at the Best Buy and Amazon.com US sales ranks for some more evidence... (NMB is currently the top selling console game on Amazon.com, and #2 at Best Buy).

Mario's (and other Nintendo properties) over- or under- exposure isn't what hurt the gamecube. The console is neck and neck with the Xbox 1 for global sales (it vastly outsells it in Japan), and that is primarily based on Nintendo 1st party games (Mario, Zelda, etc). What hurt the cube was a lack of any games BUT the Nintendo games (with a few exceptions like RE4. People that love Nintendo games bought the cube. But to compete with the PS2, they needed people who like GTA, Tekken, Elder Scrolls, etc... That's where they failed with the cube.

As far as them exiting the hardware business, they have already stated they will not do that. And why would they? They came out of the last generation with tons of profits - both on the cube and the GBA. Again, the Cube is worldwide neck and neck with the Xbox - and they made a profit on every console sold, unlike MS. If they only do just as well this time, they will still be making profit (and it looks like they might do a lot better than last time).

Right now, they consistantly dominate Japanese sales charts with the DS and DS games - DS games regularly occupy 50% or more of the games charts, and the DS outsells every other console or handheld handily. This is giving them a massive war chest, not to mention a lot of fans of the DS who may be easy to sway over to the Wii... On the flip side, if the weird controller scheme is bad, it will hurt them. And if they don't get 3rd party games, that will hurt them too.

Either way, though, Nintendo isn't going anywhere.

Don't forget Japan:

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2005.sht ml

May 1 - 7, 2006
DS Lite: 161,010 (total 2006: 1,383,391)
DS : 24,428 (total 2006: 842,947, 2005: 4,002,871, 2004: 1,095,930)
PSP: 37,946 (total 2006: 720,552, 2005: 2,225,799)

For a grand total (as of May 7th 2006)
Nintendo DS + DS Lite: 7,325,139
PSP: 2,946,351

So the DS has outsold the PSP by 4 Million units, is currently selling over four times as many untis and has (in total) sold well more than double as many units ...

Also ... Didn't the DS Lite launch in the US in April ... I wonder where it is on your chart?

Don't forget Japan:

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2005.sht ml

May 1 - 7, 2006
DS Lite: 161,010 (total 2006: 1,383,391)
DS : 24,428 (total 2006: 842,947, 2005: 4,002,871, 2004: 1,095,930)
PSP: 37,946 (total 2006: 720,552, 2005: 2,225,799)

For a grand total (as of May 7th 2006)
Nintendo DS + DS Lite: 7,325,139
PSP: 2,946,351

So the DS has outsold the PSP by 4 Million units, is currently selling over four times as many untis and has (in total) sold well more than double as many units ...

Also ... Didn't the DS Lite launch in the US in April ... I wonder where it is on your chart?

Really, do you think that creativity is limited to Japanese game developers? It seems to me that there are a lot very good game developers developing solid, inovative concepts- Will Wright with the Sims and now Spore. Peter Molyneax with Black and White and the Movies, to name but a few off the top of my head.

I'm absolutely certain that the top Japanese video games contain just as much innovation, or lack of it, as the North American ones do. I did a google search for japanese game charts and found http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm. I looked at it and found that out of the top thirty games, no less than 17 were obvious sequels. I'm almost certain that many of the other ones were sequels too.

I'm not trying to say that Japanese developers aren't innovative, but maybe its just that we're seeing the very best games that are made there, and the mediocre sequels- the ones that make up the majority of the titles- don't make it over the atlantic. I think that I'm justified in saying that in Japan there are undoubtably people on Japanese message boards complaining about the lack of innovation in Japanese games and wondering why Japanese games aren't as innovative as North American ones.

Following a trend is not perticularly risky. Came you name many companies that set their vision straight and follow it despite of the rest of the industry? Not only that, you can take alot of risk and loose everything, but they are actualy very succesful with their ideas. It was said here very often that Nintendo is racking up huge pile of money with its handheld division, something I don't find hard to believe if you add the numbers.

If you actually think that it is just "Japaneese RPGs" that are holding the XBox 360 down you should really look at this:

(Top 100 selling games in Japan in 2005)
http://the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2005.shtml

You're right in pointing out that several of them are "Japaneese RPGs" but you'll notice that the vast majority of big sellers in Japan could be described as games that Microsoft isn't interested in Developing, doesn't encourage other people to Develop for the XBox, and would not advertize for a third party who produced a game like that.

If you take a look at the list, a large majority of the list is composed of Nintendo titles (many of them being Pokemon). Obviously MS (nor Sony) can't get any of those games. Also, I'm not sure where you get that MS isn't interested in developing those types of games, or wouldn't advertise for a third party that made those games. I think part of the problem may be that Nintendo and Sony are both primarily Japanese companies, and a large number of the games on that list are titles we don't even see in the US. Quite a few are anime-inspired (Naruto, DBZ, Gundam, etc.), for example. Nintendo and Sony have much better access to those types of games, and that's probably one large reason why those consoles fare better in Japan than the Xbox or 360.

Now there IS a MS game studio in Japan that's supposed to be focused on making games for the Japanese audience. So either it's not doing a good job, or they're just having a difficult problem acquiring developers, etc.

For the most part, if some developer approached Microsoft with Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Brain Training, or Katamari and wanted Microsoft to publish it for the XBox, Microsoft would have replied "It's a cute game, but we really don't think that our audience (12-30 year old insecure North American Males) is all that interested in a game like that".

A few weeks ago, I would have agreed 100%. But it looks like that attitude is changing. See Viva Pinata, Rare's newest game. I think MS is finally understanding that it needs to do more than just appeal to the hardcore audience. (Xbox Live Arcade is certainly helping there ... I've heard of a lot of wives getting addicted to Zuma on the 360)

In order for Microsoft's XBoxes to survive in Japan they'd need exclusive support from several of Nintendo, Bandai, Namco, Capcom and Konami; and this point in time they don't have exclusive suport from any of those companies.

Well obviously they can't get support from Nintendo. ;)

But I agree. The key is getting exclusives. Currently they're doing a good job of at least getting multi-platform support from said companies, but they'll have a hard time beating Sony, as long as they keep getting titles like God of War, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Katamari, etc.

If you actually think that it is just "Japaneese RPGs" that are holding the XBox 360 down you should really look at this:

(Top 100 selling games in Japan in 2005)
http://the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2005.shtml

You're right in pointing out that several of them are "Japaneese RPGs" but you'll notice that the vast majority of big sellers in Japan could be described as games that Microsoft isn't interested in Developing, doesn't encourage other people to Develop for the XBox, and would not advertize for a third party who produced a game like that.

For the most part, if some developer approached Microsoft with Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, Brain Training, or Katamari and wanted Microsoft to publish it for the XBox, Microsoft would have replied "It's a cute game, but we really don't think that our audience (12-30 year old insecure North American Males) is all that interested in a game like that".

In order for Microsoft's XBoxes to survive in Japan they'd need exclusive support from several of Nintendo, Bandai, Namco, Capcom and Konami; and this point in time they don't have exclusive suport from any of those companies.

The Xbox 360 is doing really poorly here in Japan... Nintendo might steal the show but it's much more likely to be Sony - if they can keep Final Fantasy exclusive to Sony they basically win in this market. So I don't think the 360 is a threat to the PS3's success, they're very likely to dominate at least 1 of the 3 markets and they'll be backwards compatible with the previous most-popular console everywhere.

sales figures

As for the cost - they're not stupid, they wouldn't have designed it if it couldn't be mass produced cheaply. I would bet all my savings that it launches for under $500. However, that doesn't mean that HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray players won't be $200 by the time it comes out.

p.s. I strongly dislike Sony, but them's the breaks...

According to http://www.the-magicbox.com/ last time Kingdom Hearts II was on the top 30 list (feb 6 to feb 12), it sold a total of 1,088,607 copies. According to the newest (feb 20 to 26), where Animal Crossing DS is number 5, AC:DS has sold a total of 1,957,677 copies.

This does not correspond with TFA.

Hooold on. Wasn't Sam and Max cancelled? Oh no wait, it's apparently resurrected. I don't know, maybe it's still cancelled . I'm so confused.

Um, hooray?

in Japan. Where Animal Crossing[Forest] is pulling another Nintendogs and widening the gap even further. Nov 21 - 27.

I'm not going to accuse you of being a Luddite. I'm going to accuse you of having no idea what you're talking about. The original gameboy is the best selling videogame system of all time, the DS is currently outselling the ps2, and over 150 million of the various types of game boy have been sold. Nintendo makes plenty of money on handhelds. (Hence the occasional speculation that Nintendo will go handheld-only)

You can be playing a game on DS or GBA in less than 5 seconds . (Not having played with the PSP for any length of time, I don't know exactly how long it takes to be playing a game on that system. Anyone know?)

There are games of varying complexity, just like on any other system. The Warioware series is one of the best pick-up-and-play games I've ever seen: you can enjoy it for 60 seconds, or spend 2 hours playing the various minigames. On the other end of the spectrum are games like Advance Wars or Fire Emblem. Strategy games may not seem like ideal handheld games, but they work very well. Both of these save after every move, which lets you easily play them on a bus or something and not worry about losing any progress.

This year, for example, 150,931 Gamecube units were sold so far. A small number, of course, much less than the 1,349,842 PS2 units, or 1,520,298 Nintendo DS. But nowhere near the disaster that is XBOX: only 9,977 units sold in 2005.

All of this if you live in Japan.

The way Slashdot talks about the American gaming scene as if it was representative of the whole world pisses me of to no end.

lets take a look at your cited sources.

your sources:
http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
this shows that sales during the first week of august the DS outsold the psp. cool, but if you look at the total numbers for the year, the psp is only behind by 100,000 sales.

also, your link shows that there is a very close gap in the japanese market, but we all know how nintendogs "supposedly" boosted DS sales in that region, so why is the gap so close still?

http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637526p1.html
the article doesnt cite any sources, or give a date for its figures. those could be figures from march for all we know. not your fault, you just didnt realize that is the mark of a bad reporter.

for example:
http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/psp/psp-by-the-nu mbers-001026.php

Try 2 million PSP sales to 6 million DS sales, with DS sales outpacing PSP sales by a factor of 2:1 in Japan since March. 1 million of those DS sales were in Europe, primarily the UK. Stats posted just under a month ago when last we got a peek at financials.

The DS outsold the PSP in ALL regions by a factor of 2:1 including the US. Worldwide it was 3:1. If the PSP manages to equal DS sales in Europe when it's released it will only narrow the lead down to 2:1. Titles on the PSP simply are not moving off shelves at any real pace. Swallow the pill already Sony fans.

...the next arcade shooter won't have fighter jets?

Kick ass. I'd love to be a express train op, blasting any local-stop trains that get in the way.

Yes, I can imagine it. Raiden IV--blast militant gangs, corrupt cops and the occasional billionaire Mayor (in his giant metallic mothership, of course)...with a missle-toting flying train. And a purple proton laser. Or something.

(Well, III was taken, so...)

Soul Calibur sales in North America:

Gamecube: 767,000
PS2: 709,000

http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml

I don't have a link for it but the same story is repeated in both Europe and Japan. The only reason (I suspect) that Namco is going PS2 exclusive with Soul Calibur is that Tekken 4 and Tekken Tag Tournament both sold over 1 Million units in North America and Japan and they suspect that Soul Calibur III can match those numbers if it were PS2 exclusive.

"10% of users interested in online multiplayer? half of the people that bought halo2 wouldn't even have bought it if it didn't have online multiplayer"

Certain games do have higher levels of interest in Online multiplayer but, for the most part, it is still an unused feature in most games that are sold. Just looking at sales charts, and comparing games without Online Multiplayer to those that have it, demonstrates that Online Multiplayer does not sell any more games. In the US, over the past generation, these are some of the biggest selling games ( http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml ) :

Over 1 Million Games Sold

PS2 Activision Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 2.07
PS2 Activision Spider-Man: The Movie 2.01
PS2 Activision Tony Hawk Underground 1.60
PS2 Activision Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 1.57
PS2 Activision True Crime: Streets of LA 1.34
PS2 Activision Spider-Man: The Movie 2 1.12
PS2 Atari Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 1.69
PS2 Atari Enter The Matrix 1.34
PS2 Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2004 3.43
PS2 Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2005 3.27
PS2 Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2003 2.72
PS2 Electronic Arts Medal of Honor Frontline 2.24
PS2 Electronic Arts Need for Speed: Underground 2.05
PS2 Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2002 2.00
PS2 Electronic Arts NBA Street 1.66
PS2 Electronic Arts Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 1.48
PS2 Electronic Arts Need for Speed: Underground 2 1.47
PS2 Electronic Arts Simpsons Road Rage 1.45
PS2 Electronic Arts James Bond: Agent Under Fire 1.45
PS2 Electronic Arts Medal of Honor: Rising Sun 1.32
PS2 Electronic Arts NBA Live 2005 1.26
PS2 Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2001 1.21
PS2 Electronic Arts NBA Live 2004 1.22
PS2 Electronic Arts NBA Street Vol. 2 1.21
PS2 Electronic Arts Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 1.16
PS2 Electronic Arts James Bond 007: Nightfire 1.11
XB Electronic Arts Madden NFL 2005 1.08
PS2 Electronic Arts NCAA Football 2004 1.06
PS2 Electronic Arts Lord of the Rings: Return of the King 1.04
PS2 Electronic Arts The Sims 1.04
PS2 Electronic Arts NCAA Football 2003 1.00
PS2 Electronic Arts NBA Live 2003 1.00
XB LucasArts Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1.01
XB Microsoft Halo 2 4.29
XB Microsoft Halo: Combat Evolved 3.94
XB Microsoft Project Gotham Racing 1.20
PS2 Namco Ace Combat 4 1.54
GC Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Melee 2.66
GC Nintendo Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 1.82
GC Nintendo Super Mario Sunshine 1.80
GC Nintendo Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 1.75
GC Nintendo Luigi's Mansion 1.60
GC Nintendo Metroid Prime 1.26
PS2 Squaresoft Final Fantasy X 2.22
PS2 Squaresoft Kingdom Hearts 2.24
PS2 Squaresoft Final Fantasy X-2 1.29
PS2 Take 2 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 6.47
PS2 Take 2 Grand Theft Auto 3 5.51
PS2 Take 2 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 5.14
PS2 Take 2 Max Payne 1.57
PS2 Take 2 Midnight Club: Street Racing 1.55
XB Take 2 Grand Theft Auto Double Pack 1.50
XB Ubisoft Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 1.46
PS2 Vivendi Universal Crash Bandicoot: Cortex 1.56
PS2 Ubisoft Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 1.06

Take Notice that the ONLY game on the list that has a decent level of online Multiplayer is Halo 2; the 3 best selling games (Grand Teft Auto: Vice City/3/San Andreas) have no multiplayer at all. Being that 4.29 Million people bought Halo 2 and only 3.94 Million people bought Halo 1 it is possible that the 350,000 people difference was caused by Online Multiplayer being included in the game; although it is more likely that More people were interested in Halo 2 because they had played Halo 1 at a friends house and really liked it.

"and that I'd take the GBA SP over the DS and PSP - Which is what the general consumer is showing to be the case with their dollar votes right now."
Not in Japan, where the DS and PSP are each outselling the GBA by a factor of about 3:1. I imagine the same thing will begin in America once some decent games are released.

The GC clearly still holds rank with gameplay innovation, but interestingly they sit 3rd overall in the worldwide console battle.

The GC is waay above Xbox in Japan (even the original GBA still sells more than Xbox). The Nintendo DS has been the top seller for some time. Playstation 2 and PSP are second and third, and although the Gamecube is not selling well, it is far from the disaster that is Xbox. Of the 2004 top 100 console games, 54 were for Sony consoles, 46 Nintendo, and 0 MS. Source.

Wordwide console battle != Western console battle.

True, my friend, but I still chuckle every time I see this:

Sales figures (see the second table).

As an employee of a major video games retailer, I can state that we sell far more PSP systems, games, and movies than we sell in DS. I don't have the actual numbers available here, but I'd wager it's almost a 10:1 ratio. Worldwide the DS might be on par with the PSP, but not in my local experience.

Well, the PSP is not even on sale in Europe yet, so obviously the DS outsells it there.

The DS is also currently outselling the PSP in Japan by a pretty significant margin (scroll down a bit), and is now ahead on total numbers there too, coming from behind earlier in the year.

I don't doubt that your individual store in the US sells more PSP's than DS's, but as others have pointed out, the DS is far more appealing to the casual Wal-Mart gaming crowd than the PSP is. It's possible that the PSP may outsell the DS at places like EB and GameStop while the DS destroys the PSP at department stores and discount centers. The latter would be a far greater retail presence. I haven't seen actual sales numbers for the US (US console sales numbers are always hard to come by), but I can almost guarantee the PSP is not outselling the DS by a "10:1 ratio" nationwide, and it would surprise me if the DS was not outselling the PSP just as it is in Japan.

If you go by Sony and Nintendo's own statements, then the DS is outselling the PSP worldwide by about 2:1 overall. Knowing the situation in Europe and Japan, you can basically deduce from that that things are at least roughly equal here in the US, and it's pretty likely that the DS is ahead.

The current generation of PS2 games looks at least as good if not in many cases better then the techdemos they have shown back then. That said, yes, it took them a while to get all the power out of the PS2. This thread has some videos and pictures to compare.

And last not least one should never forget that a techdemo isn't actually gameplay. A techdemo allows the developer to prescript everything they want, insert cool effects all over the place and do cool camera moves, gameplay allows none of that. PC games also look quite worse then those 3DMark benchmarsk or the NVidia techdemos, yet they are all rendered on the same hardware. Same with a RE4 cutscene vs RE4 gameplay, the first one looks far more interesting and has little todo with the actual gameplay, yet its all the same hardware again.

So do I expect first generation PS3 games to look as good as those techdemos? Hell no, but its not unlikly that the PS3 will be able to render such stuff in the not to far future as a cutscene. Real gameplay will be of course a completly different thing, unless we get AI that is clever enough to act as 'game master' and insert interesting events in realtime instead of prescripted stuff, gameplay will look nowhere near as good as a random cutscene.

Well, I don't have the worldwide sales for each system at hand, but according to this page: http://the-magicbox.com/topten.htm about 5000 more PSPs have been sold than DS in Japan this year. I imagine it's pretty close in th US as well. If it is, I don't think DS is blowing PSP out of the water, because PSP has not been released everywhere yet. IMO It's not a fair comparsion.

DS has a clear lead at the moment, but I believe PSP will catch up in 2006.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

and

http://www.the-magicbox.com/toptenlast.htm

tell a different story though ...

http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

and

http://www.the-magicbox.com/toptenlast.htm

tell a different story though ...

This doesn't make sense. According to The Magic Box, only 870,000 have been sold this year in Japan. That's only 174,000 per month, and I can't imagine that the demand is high enough in other parts of the world, especially not enough to make 2 million per month necessary.

...except that GC and NDS consoles (and games) are selling fairly well in Japan (unlike, say, the Xbox). I know that Slashdot is USA-centric, but it irritates me that, because Nintendo encourage games fitting to the Japanese gaming style, Americans keep saying that the company is dying. Newsflash: it isn't, and there are those of us who deeply enjoy its games.

You can go straight to the source at Media Create, http://www.m-create.com/ or wait for The Magic Box's console charts to get updated: http://www.the-magicbox.com/

These are for Japan only, though, and I've had trouble finding better results for the US (only other place that the PSP is out, I think) on http://www.gamasutra.com/ --search the news section for recent sales charts.

Apparently the Japanese care about quality and so they realize that 90% of games coming out are crap unlike the consumers over here. ;)

I know you are semi-joking, but it's always amusing to look at the best-selling games every week in Japan. They buy a lot of shitty games, just like gamers in other countries. :D

Actually, they seem to be pretty neck-and-neck (in Japan at least). Check here for details.

Nintendo has this obsessive-compulsive desire to be original and I hope it doesn't dig them into an even larger hole this time. Time will tell, but it doesn't look to be on Nintendo's side a.t.m.

I thought this was going to be a story about Harvest Moon.

It's one of two "concept shots" that EA released a while back showing the estimated capabilities of next-gen systems. They also showed a fairly nice racer screenshot with a very high-poly car and trees with good-looking autumn leaves... quite impressive, assuming that they really do approximate next-gen graphics. The folks over at The Magic Box had both of them a while back, but you'll have to dig around to find them.

Just because it sold well in the US does not put it ahead of the PS2 and GameCube for holiday sales or overall sales. For instance in Japan the XBox is a joke: http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm Add up the world sales too before you claim XBox a success.

Dec 27th - Jan 2nd (129,957/482,252)
Jan 2nd - Jan 9th (62,052/62,052)

Now, are you going to tell me that anything less than nearly all of this 800k are *not* in the hands of consumers ?

Wait 2 weeks. Check the numbers. I doubt more than 87% have been sold(around 700,000), since there shouldn't be a sudden production surge(from 62k in a week to 110k per week) over the past 11 days, nor did some new game worth mentioning descend from the heavens.