Nintendo Announces GBA Sales Milestone

Thanks to TotalVideoGames.com for their article highlighting Nintendo's announcement that there have been 15 million GameBoy Advances sold in the U.S., at a rate of "...more than one unit sold every six seconds since the introduction of the Game Boy Advance in June, 2001." Nintendo also officially announced two new colors for the GBA SP, Flame (red) and Onyx (black), and even lay out their reasoning for those picks: "Color psychologists believe that certain hues generate specific, and often very strong responses in people. For example, black can foster strength and encourage independence, while red empowers and can stimulate the mind." Feel empowered yet?

Comments

16 bit era strength

[Metroid72]

The popularity of this platform proves that the 16bit era was the golden age of videogames.

Gameplay was king, and that was the primary selling point of the Genesis and SNES.

Hopefully developers will continue to expand it with original ideas, instead of ports of older games.

It still also constitutes a potential entry for the new game programmer.

Re:16 bit era strength

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

You think that if the GBA hardware were offered up in a home console it would have sold 15 million units? There are plenty of games on the XBox/PS2/GC that have great gameplay. If the GBA were up against a platform that had PS2 level graphics, at the same price point, the GBA would get crushed. The fact is that people have a certain idea of how much a handheld should cost - they want the best graphics they can get for that price. Posts like yours are very perplexing - I can't believe people actually believe this type of stuff.

PARODY: You know, back in the great days of the NES - gameplay was king. With the release of the Genesis and SNES, graphics got so much better that people became obsessed with them and didn't care about the gameplay.

Come on...

Re:16 bit era strength

[macrom]

Gameplay was king, and that was the primary selling point of the Genesis and SNES

Wrong. Graphics always were and always will be a primary selling point (from a marketing perspective). It's funny how quickly everyone forgets how the 2 consoles competed on games having better graphics than the other. Sure, we now see how the gameplay was awesome back then, but at the time you didn't see comercials or ads where Nintendo promoted the gameplay of their titles over those of Sega's, and to insinuate so is to show yourself for the fanboy (or girl) you are.

We always look back on a console and it's games for the fun titles, but make no mistake that companies promote the graphic prowess of their systems when trying to sell to gamers.

Well then

[Phexro]

"Nintendo also officially announced two new colors for the GBA SP, Flame (red) and Onyx (black), and even lay out their reasoning for those picks..."

The fact that those colors have been available in Japan since the launch of the SP had nothing to do with it.

Right.

Non-silver Gameboy SP

[MyDixieWrecked]

Are those actually released in the US, yet? I heard they were going to be released in August, but I haven't heard anything since.

I picked up a Japanese GBASP off half.com that's black, and I was still under the impression that I was special, especially since I haven't seen anyone else with one that's not silver. I also get the occasional comment from these 9 year-olds as they walk by "Wow! that guy has a black gameboy!"

It's always nice to have children be fascinated by you gaming device. ;)