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

Touch screen is schweeeeet

[chroot_james]

I had the chance to play one of these with Metroid. I really liked it. There seems to be some discussion over the usefulness of the touch pad and I've found that the touch pad servers to mimic a mouse in fps's quite well. I felt at home pretty quickly. It was quite responsive too. I'm still holding out for the PSP though. I think nintendo games are a little too cute for me.

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.

NNNOOOO!!!

[Kjuib]

My EBay DS Sales will go down the tubes... Now where am I supose to make all my Christmas Money?

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:Advantage: Nintendo

[nuknuk]

just in case anyone is not aware, the Nintendo portable systems are the most popular consoles on the planet. I don't have the hard #s in front of me, but I think there are probably twice the # of GBAs owned by people than Playstation 2s. And we all know how much of lead the PS2 has on the xbox and gamecube.

Does this mean the PSP will be doomed because the previous generation of handheld gamers are used to nintendo? Certainly not. As technology increases and people become more tech-savvy, i think people start to lose more brand loyalty and start going to the items that have the features they want. If the PSP is what someone is looking for in a handheld device, they'll pick one up. Similarily for the DS.

The one big advantage I see is that the DS can play all previous gameboy games. For those millions upon millions of people with GBAs already, the DS gives them a new system with new and innovative games, and a way to play their old games too. Don't underestimate that. Hell, that may be one of the reasons the Playstation 2 has done so well throughout the years, even though it's graphics technology is inferior to the other consoles... Food for thought

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:Call me ignorant, but...

[BRSQUIRRL]

I'm not going to call you ignorant, because I myself have noticed be a bit of acronymic presumption on the part of Slashdot editors...and it seems to be especially common in gaming-related stories. I've lost count of how many stories concerning the "DS" or the "PSP" (products that have barely been released) have been posted that fail to actually mention what they ARE.

Now I can understand not defining "PHP" or "RIAA"...but not everyone stays on the cutting edge of game technology. Anyway...

DS
PSP

Re:I found out...

[sacherjj]

Yeah, no kidding. A little more description might be nice. My RSS feed said "400,000 Additional DSs Available by Year's End"

I'm thinking Domain Servers? (Do we need them?)

Dhrystone per Second? (But shouldn't we concentrate on benchmarking Floating Point too?)

Data Sources? (There is already too much to read out there, I really don't need 400,000 more places to get data.)

Digital Signals? (I didn't think broadcasts in the US had to go digital until 2006?)

Just the word "Nintendo" would have been good for those of us too busy to play games all the time.

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:I found out...

[Mike the Mac Geek]

Actually, it's code name was "Nitro".

On the Warioware sire (Nintendo's developer portal), there was development for the Gamecube, the GBA, and the "Nitro" shortly after it was first shown.

Also, look at the part numbers on each component. On the Gamecube it is "GCN-XXX". On the GBA, it's "AGB-XXX". On the DS, the code is "NTR-XXX". The easiest way to see is on the game cards, on the back for the generic cart number (NTR-005) and the front sticker for the game-specfic part number (NTR-ASME-USA for Mario 64 DS.)