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DS Fastest Selling Japanese Console
Gamasutra reports that the DS is officially the fastest selling console in Japan. The console has taken just twenty months to sell 10 Million units. From the article: "As noted in the report translated by consumer website GameSpot, the Nintendo DS has been credited with reversing the shrinking Japanese games market, with Nintendo DS software and hardware dominating sales charts for at least the last twelve months. With a population of around 128 million, these latest results show that nearly 8 percent of Japanese consumers now own the console." Update: 08/02 21:20 GMT by Z : Fixed reversed month/unit numbers. Sorry, apparently lisdexic today.
Hmm, I don't personally classify it as a console but a handheld. Then again I'm sure I'm wrong in the matter. Personally I'm waiting for the Wii.
Not only is the price far below most console systems, but the games are affordable too. Plus there are some really great games on the DS. A game doesn't need the most up to date hardware to be awesome. Super Puzzle Fighter II still keeps me entertained.
The DS isn't nearly as powerful as the PSP. Yet the DS vastly outsells the PSP.
This is a great example of innovation and gameplay beating out a focus on horsepower and flashy features.
This, combined with the eventual connectivity between the DS and the Wii is a great thing for the Wii. Thanks to the fact that the DS already has wireless connectivity, there are essentially 20 million possible Wii controllers in the hands of people around the world.
I wonder if the Wii will be able to blow those numbers out of the water? (the correct numbers I mean) ;)
The hype for the Wii, silly/stupid name or not, seems bigger than any I've ever seen for a single console. DS didn't really have a huge number of early adopters, it had to prove itself to many before it really started to take off...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
You can possibly use the Wii as a DS connect station or whatever it's called. So you could, for example, download game demos and such through it. That's great right there.
I always imagined the problem with the GBC adapter and the GBA cord were that third parties didn't want to rely on people having an extra bit of kit to make it work. If Nintendo did the whole shebang wirelessly, I imagine a lot more devs would buy into it (though probably not the majority, I imagine).