400,000 Additional DSs Available by Year's End

SetupWeasel writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that 400,000 additional DSs will be shipped to the US by year's end. This will bring the US total to 1.4 million by the end of 2004." There's also a story running on Gamesindustry.biz regarding DS sales being in line with the sales of the Gameboy Advance.

Comments

Demand

[bludstone]

While Nintendo has a large buffer in case of a failed console, ($1b) they still try to minimize possible economic hardship. Rather then have a massive run, then lose to a failed console, they slowly introduce new consoles to the marketplace, maintaining profits throughout.

That being said, PSP vs. DS should be fantastic. Both systems have fantastic games lined up for them, and both look to be really, really cool.

I had a chance to play with a DS. First impression? Nifty, but nothing to make me buy it... yet.

Re:hmmm

[mumblestheclown]

I know (think) you were trying to be funny, but there will doubtlessly be a few readers who think that there is a real MBA conspiracy at play here.

In reality, it takes only a few moments thought to see that a strategy of keeping supply artificially low for such a product is foolish and doomed to failure.

In reality, the better strategy is to get people to *think* there is a shortage, and reinforce this notion by having a short-term shortage around now, but quietly slip market-clearing quantities into the market closer to christmas.

Re:Number Crunching

[HeghmoH]

IBM isn't even a big player in the PC market.

I don't know what color the sky is on your planet, but here on blue-sky Earth, IBM's PC business is the third-largest in the industry.

Furthermore, you're comparing purchases for a product that just shipped to the revenues for an entire year. The comparison just doesn't make sense.

Re:Touch screen is schweeeeet

[Apathetic1]

I dunno, I think it would be hard to qualify Metroid Prime: Hunters or GoldenEye DS as "cute". I think there's going to be scores of RPGs (most of which are similarly not-cute) for the DS because of the capabilities provided by the second screen, e.g. tapping menus instead of scrolling through them.

Even if the majority of Nintendo's first- and second-party titles are cute, I have yet to play one that I didn't enjoy. Windwaker, despite its cartoonish appearance was fun and challenging, and the characters were all very expressive even when under player control. I found the attention to detail amazing.