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.

Comments

Console?

[kannibal_klown]

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.

Re:Console?

[mouse_clicker]

So if I were to slap a portable screen and a battery to my Gamecube, would that make it a handheld, not a console now, too? Does the Gameboy Player make GBA games console games now and not handheld games? What exactly differentiates consoles and handhelds if not a self-contained power source and dedicated screen?

-Moses

Re:Console?

[7Prime]

It's an extension of the criterion that a video game system designed to output to the family TV set is a console. The Super NES with Super Game Boy is a console. The GameCube with Game Boy Player is a console. But no console available to the public as of August 2006 runs DS software.

I think what he means is, "what use is this as criteria?" Being able to be played on a TV or off a TV does not drastically change the marketting demographic or style of gameplay. Portability does, but it seems that this is not what we're talking about. There has to be a compelling reason to divide objects into different catagories. Defining a handheld as "something that can never be played on a TV" is meaningless catagorization. It may be true, but it has no real value as a catagorical feature. Defining a handheld in terms of how it is played, and where it can be played, are far more useful features in defining the catagory, as they have a noticable impact on the demographic, style of gameplay, marketting, etc.

There are subtle differences between consoles and handheld consoles, but probably the only large difference is that today's handhelds = yesterday's consoles, in terms of ability, and to a lesser extent, style of gameplay (GameGear is a Master System derivitive, GBA is an SNES derivitive, the DS is basically an N64 with a whole new interface system, the PSP is a PlayStation derivitive), there may be some differences in hardware and programming, but generally, their aim is to achieve the level of power and style of the last generation system.

The DS is the first major handheld (unless you count the Virtual Boy) to take the console genre in a drastically different direction from its TV-based counterpart. Nintendo finally used the fact that it is a self contained, portable, piece of hardware, as a way of prividing functionality that a TV-based console can't do. This is an exception... not the rule.

But for the most part, the only really notable differences between handhelds and TV-based consoles are:

1. They're portable
2. They're generally a generation behind, in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay style
3. The games are weighted toward being able to quickly pick up/put down the system (though, often this is simply the addition of a "quick save" feature).

One can make a pretty good arguement that these differences are fairly irrelivant, in terms of gameplay experience, at least to their last-gen TV-based counterparts. So, yeah, I would consider handheld games to be a slight varrient on the TV-based console world. Although, since the DS and PSP are able to handle the same KINDS of graphics as their current TV-based counterparts (if not up to their quality, but at least their style), the generation gap is becoming less and less apparrent. Metroid Prime Hunters is solidly a current generation title, for instance (even if I thought it was terrible in comparison to its GameCube counterparts). GTA: Liberty City Stories is (supposedly) able to replicate the gameplay experience of GTAIII; in fact, it was popular enough to be the first game ever (I believe) to be ported from a handheld to a TV-based console.

Revving up for Wii?

[posterlogo]

It seems that if the rumors of DS connectivity with the Wii are true, this could be a nice little rev up for the Wii launch.

Re:Revving up for Wii?

[trdrstv]

"if the rumors of DS connectivity with the Wii are true."

Rumors?

Summary is wrong

[edwdig]

The summary says "The console has taken just ten months to sell 20 Million units", but it should be "20 months to sell 10 million units." The DS was released in Nov. 2004.

Re:Summary is wrong

[keithpreston]

Obviously another attack from Stephen Colbert. Not only have the elephant population tripled, but the DS population has doubled.

Re:A good solid product, fun games.

[ggKimmieGal]

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.

This bodes well for the Wii

[dividedsky319]

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.

Re:bad at math?

[Frac]

DS was first available in November 2004, which makes it roughly 20 months. The article is not out of date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS

Several Corrections.

[trdrstv]

Ok. Here's the Break down:

The DS debuted in North America in November 2004.

The DS debuted in Japan in December 2004.

The DS Lite debuted in North America in June 2006.

The DS Lite debuted in Japan in March 2006.

The 21 million sold Includes all versions (including lite, and multiple colors) from Every region from the earliest launch (USA) until July 24, 2006.

10 million of the 21 million were sold in JAPAN alone. Japan's Population is about 128 million people meaning about 8% of the population (of Japan) has one.

Any questions?

DS vs Wii

[ZephyrXero]

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...

Re:The precedents back that up -- but 3rd parties?

[Suddenly_Dead]

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.

Re:The precedents back that up -- but 3rd parties?

[Hitto]

OBJECTION!

Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles had a gba hook-up mode IIRC, although I've never played it.
Rogue Squadron 3 : Rebel Strike also allows for such connectivity, although it was limited; in versus battle, you could use your GBA to issue orders to your squad without your opponent seeing them on the TV. Oooooh. ... And those are the only two examples that spring to mind. Hmm.

So, yeah, we may call it a failed attempt, or we can call it a stepping stone for the next generation to truly try and give it a huge push. After all, Nintendo has everything to gain by saying "...and if you're one of the TWENTY MILLION people who own a DS, you'll have even more fun with the Wii, the console made by the people who made the DS and brain training! No need to buy a stupid cable anymore, too!" At this point, they rely on their handheld to be an advertisement for their home console - it failed with the GBA because of next to no support and frankly milking customers dry, but things are a lot less complicated when you don't need to buy one cable per friend you wanna play Zelda four swords with.

Do I have any other proof? Sure. One of the biggest believers of this kind of connectivity is Sony. Sure, their whole "299$ retroview mirror in a racing game" idea is a bullshit tech demo. But it reveals the fact that they also think about handheld-home console connectivity. Because they're afraid it's a weapon Nintendo alone could use to their advantage!

Re:Sales stats

[Kazzahdrane]

Here's the numbers you mentioned:

* DS Lite: 262,453
* PSP: 35,938
* PS2: 22,288
* DS: 6,344
* GBA SP: 2,953
* Xbox 360: 1,472
* Game Boy Micro: 1,410
* Gamecube: 1,076
* GBA: 20
* Xbox: 0

And a link (which in turn links to the original source):
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/28/japanese-hardwar e-sales-17-july-23-july-bad-comparison-week

Re:The precedents back that up -- but 3rd parties?

[Rydia]

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).