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Quantifying the DS Lite's Japanese Dominance
kukyfrope writes "According to the data trackers at Media Create, for the week of May 29th through June 4th the DS Lite sold 135,614 units in Japan, easily beating out the PSP (24,595 units), PS2 (18,513 units) and Xbox 360 (just 1,245 units). New Super Mario Bros. for DS also sold 334,208 units, putting total sales at about 1.2 million, in just 2 weeks. 'From the end of last year up until right now the sales of DS and DS Lite in Japan have been simply explosive. It was unprecedented in the Japanese game [industry] history for there to be that kind of incredible demand for one platform,' said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata."
You heard wrong, badly wrong. The 360 was outsold by the original Xbox within a week or 2 of release. I'm not 100% certain it even beat the original xbox on week one.
As for DS vs PSP- be very careful. Sony only reports units shipped- the number of units sent to stores. Nintendo reports sales, the number of units in customer hands. Sony is claiming 16 million shipped, Nintendo is at 16 million sales, which probably puts the DS well ahead in actual sales. I personally don't know anyone with a PSP, but I know several people with DSes. COme to think of it, I don't think I've even seen a PSP outside of a store.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
You must have learned how the 360 is doing in Japan in the same place I did... various comments on slashdot with no references or facts!! Only I heard the opposite, the 360 is selling less than the original XBOX.
I have owned every game boy model released in the US except for the Micro and I totally get why the DS Lite has sold so well. I just bought one two or three days ago to replace my DS (which worked fine).
Let's ignore that it's smaller, sexier, fixes the top-heavy problem, etc. There is only one thing that matters about the DS above all else...
The screen is amazing.
It's on par with the PSP for clarity (although I realize the resolution is lower). It is an AMAZING step up. It's like going from the original GameBoy to the Pocket. Remember playing a GB after the pocket? It looked so muddy and blurry and such you wondered how you could ever use the thing. The difference with the Lite is just night and day. The lowest brightness setting is about equivalent to the what the DS looks like. But with the settings on the Lite you can play anywhere. Is it dark? You can see great on the lowest setting. Out in the sun? You can see great on the highest setting. It's possible to play the DS Lite outside on sunny days in the shade, where the DS was basically unplayable there.
But it gets BETTER. It's so much sharper and crisper (partially due to the brighter backlight, I'd think). I've been playing Trauma Center and it looks like a different game. I wish I hadn't sold so many of my DS games so I could stick them in to see just how much better they look. It's an AMAZING difference.
People complain about Nintendo doing things like this because "it's the same system", but the difference is night and day. I dare anyone to look at both and like the DS's screen over the Lite's. About the only way I could see you complaining about the Lite is the buttons (they have a different feel and if you had large hands I could see it being uncomfortable).
The thing is selling that well for a reason. It's just that good.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
It'd be appreciated if you didn't pretend the amazing improvements to the screens and battery life didn't exist. These, Ifeel, are much more important than the size change. Your comment is misleading if you mention a not-as-important (in my opinion) feature and ignore the best feature- the screens.
Here are the figures. Seem fairly official.
http://www.gamegossip.com/comment.php?id=17452
There's that, but there is also a whole new segment of usually non-gamers buying DS Lites to play the non-gamers games (such as Brain Age, Nintendogs or Animal Crossing). This is supported by the fact that, on the opening of the stores for the launch of the DS Lite (on launch day and all) you could find women and elders heavily represented, while these launch-day queues are usually filled only with "young" (15-30) men.
I haven't seen numbers, but I've seen some pictures when the DS:L launched and quite a lot of reports on that.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Unlike the US
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Fixed that up for ya.
As I understand, they will take some units back from overstocked retailers, then shipping the unit to someone else. This counts as 2 shipped. Potentially, you could have 20 million manufactured and 25 million shipped.
I've heard of retailers being purposely overstocked by software vendors for the same purpose. I don't know if Sony does the same, but I'm sure they have the means to do so. It's called channel stuffing.
When I see 4 girls in a movie theatre, before the show starting, laughing and giggling out loud with a DS in each of their hands playing a multiplayer game wirelessly, Nintendo has done something right.
When I see a mom and her 5 year old daughter (well she looked around that age), playing with their DSes wirelessly together, obviously Nintendo has done something right.
Okay, I'm not going to be able to mod this discussion now, but...I'm compelled to respond.
I've worked in distribution centers and I can tell you this much: Wal-Mart makes it a condition of buying that they can return items for credit. If you don't agree, you don't get your product on Wal-Mart's shelves. Since they're the single largest retailer in the world, they drive the market. They set the standards, so to speak.
I would expect (because it's just common practice in the industry) most retailers are able to return unsold units for credit. That's just the way it works.
Which is why companies who always report shipped units are being a bit disengenuous at best. Units sold to consumers are the real indicator of a product's success...if they people aren't buying, the retailers aren't re-ordering.
Only in the us it is close, in Europe the DS sells twice as much average than the PSP, there is a reason for that, the US is the only market where the DS and the Playstation portable is close pricewise. In Europe the PSP is 200-250 Euros (one euro resembling a little more than one 1.20 USD afair) and the DS between 100-140 Euros depending whether you want a game with it or not. It is a wonder that we do not get numbers like in japan with the DS outselling the PSP 10:1 yet ;-)
The best part about the DS Lite 'upgrade' is that suddenly people have two DS-es they don't need. So they give their old hardware away or sell it cheap. The old DS is given to someone else who first finds they're really fun to own and play on, and then realise that they'd rather a DS Lite for the additional benefits. So then they get a lite and pass on the DS to someone else yet again.
My old DS was given away to a college-age girl who never was really interested in games. Now I hear she's pretty addicted. Similarly my parents actually want to purchase one (helps I'm giving Brain Age for fathers day, and loaning them my imported lite)
Yes, early adopters of the original brick got burned and have probably paid out twice. But I suspect they're not bitter (I know I'm not) and meanwhile the system just spreads on.
Very very clever Nintendo.
Baka Drew