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35 Million DSes Sold, 6 Million Wiis By End of March
Wowzer writes "Nintendo just announced its quarterly sales for the end of 2006. Sales for the 9 months were up 72%, while net income was up 43%. From the article: '[There will be] worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii systems by the end of March 2007. Nintendo has sold 35 million DS and DS Lite to date ... As for the next fiscal year, Nintendo expect to sell around 23 million DS Lites, bringing the estimated total of DS units to 58 million by March 31, 2008.' New Super Mario Bros. seems to have legs of its own with 8.64 million copies sold worldwide and continued strong sales. But they seem slow to ship out those Wii with 4 million manufactured last year and 810,000 of those not arriving to stores until now."
So, does this mean Nintendo might just as well print the money itself now?
I know they're making them as fast as they can, but demand just won't let up! Here in Toronto, they are never in stock for more than 15 minutes, and nobody ever seems to know when the next shipment will be arriving. Most retailers get 10-20 units every 5-10 days, and they just fly off the shelves. I would have though that by the end of January the supply would have caught up with demand, but with all the new gamers trying the Wii, seems like it could go on for a while.
(For the record, this will be my first gaming system since the original NES, which I played as a kid.)
I'm looking forward to Wii Sports as a fun way to get my somewhat rounded body back into shape. Guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer. That or stop eating junk food.)
Reality has a liberal bias
3.19 million is the number of Wiis shipped by the manufacturer worldwide. 1.1 million is the number of Wiis sold by retailers in the US. The significant difference here is the US vs worldwide numbers.
If PS3 has showed us a lesson, is that we need a new metric for "x millions sold" with game consoles, that is, "x millions sold minus y millions returned after being unable to sell them at ebay for a premium price".
No, seriously, most PS3 were bought for reselling, while most wii's are bought for playing. And it, for me, it's a pretty big difference.
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P.S. Can we fix the ecode tag so that it's no longer broken? It's annoying to no longer be able to lay out tabular data correctly.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Maybe it's the lack of vision that makes the DS so popular--the fact that it isn't a wannabe jack-of-all-trades like the PSP
... when it was released it was wildly different than anything that had come before it and it was Nintendo's unique approach of creating hardware that suits their idea of what software they want to produce that created the popular product they have today. They envisioned the demand for games like Brain Training, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing Wild World, and The New Super Mario Bros. (some of which use a greater subset of the features of the DS than others) and produced the hardware to meet this demand. They knew you didn't need the best LCD screen in the world to be popular and the added cost would drive customers away, thus they choose "grudingly inferior LCD screens".
I don't see anything about the DS that could be classified as a "lack of vision"
The reason people choose a DS is because they want to play unique games which are appropriate for portable gaming; the PSP is far behind because far fewer people want a portable PS2 which has a MP3 player and proprietary movie format.
If you think the DS is hard to find now (apparently, it's hard to keep in stock, just like the Wii), just wait until April. April sees the release of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. The Pokemon series has always been a huge seller for both the games and the Game Boy, but these DS games also include the functionality to use WiFi to battle and trade online. Battling and trading with friends has always been a staple of the game, but you'd have to physically find someone to battle/trade with first. Now you have the entire world to choose from.
I know that's when I'll be buying my DS. (Well, a bit earlier, to beat the rush.)
I'm trying to figure out what point you are trying to make. What do you think Nintendo should have done differently with the DS? Who uses the chat app anyway? And who really cares about the 2 second health warning? These seem like trivial complaints.
6/01/07 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass nuff said
It's a manufacturing capacity problem. Nintendo's business is sized according to the requirements of their previous generation of hardware. This unexpectedly high demand for Wiis has left them in dire need to increase their production capabilities. Unfortunately, it takes months to tool up a new factory and begin moving parts to that factory. And that factory won't even be able to work at full capacity if there's a shortage of some particular part. For example, the Wii cases are highly customized pieces of plastic. If the provider of those cases can't make enough to meet production needs, then the entire pipeline won't be able to operate at maximum capacity.
All I can say is that it's a good thing that Nintendo gets their chips from IBM. IBM is probably the only company that could provide Nintendo with enough customized microprocessors to scale with their needs.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I'd strongly recommend getting the wireless Gamecube controllers instead of the Classic controllers. At least wireless Gamecube controllers can be used with Gamecube games and they work with all of the VC games. If you buy the Classic controller, okay, it connects to the bottom of the Wiimote, so that makes it wireless, but if you want to play any GC games you'll need to buy GC controllers anyway.
... that whole Wii "continuity" thing, I suppose.
I play all of my VC games with wireless GC controllers after returning the unopened Classic controllers that I bought. Haven't regretted it for a second. And now that rechargeable batteries are dropping in price, there is no reason to get the Classic controller unless you simply want it for the sake of having it
And I've not seen a place out of stock of wireless GC controllers while the CC area remains out of stock.
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People forget that Nintendo is a GAME COMPANY, while Microsoft and Sony have their hands in a much much bigger cookie jar.
The honest truth is, thats a lot of the reason why they are getting their asses kicked right now, they just throw money at a problem from other divisions while Nintendo MUST turn in a profit in the end and cant take huge risks unless they set aside enough money to because thats all they do is sell games and make systems, there is no computer line and tv line and os line. This means Nintendo's also more willing to explore things before going ahead with it, while Sony and Microsoft will just charge ahead and let their other divisions make up the loss.
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It's not because of marketing, Sony is no slouch there, nor because there aren't people loyal to Sony's platform. Sony's product simply makes it difficult to be loyal. Why do people want to re-buy their DVDs in a low res medium they can only play on the handheld, with no TV output, especially when Sony wants people to buy movies again in the high def Blu-Ray now? If the DS utilized UMD, I doubt it would be as small nor have the same battery life as the DS light. The media would be larger as well. Handhelds get carried around, sometimes on long trips, and these factors can be important. My wife and I used our DS systems on our last trip to Japan and had no worries about battery life on either ~11 hour flight - nor the extra connecting flights in Narita. No problems fitting both DS systems and all our games in carry-on luggage.
We picked up a bit of software for the DS in Japan as well, including DQM:Joker, a Japanese dictionary application for myself that uses the stylus to recognize input Japanese characters, and an English TOEIC training game for my wife. We also left a game from the US for my brother-in-law's kids. The lack of region coding (this even extends to the AC adapters between the US and Japan, both unlike the Wii unfortunately) in the DS systems makes it ideal for our usage. Not sure about the PSP, perhaps it also has no region encoding, but it felt good to not have to worry about regions.
GPL: Free as in will
Your post makes me wonder if we'll see DSLitesque sellouts.
From what other responders have said, the DSLite remains sold out even as we approach its first birthday. Were the Wii to duplicate that kind of demand, it's only criticism could likely be Nintendo's failure to provide adaquate supply.
I sincerely hope they can meet demand sooner rather than later. Eventually some rather beautiful and stunning games will come out for the PS3 and 360, and if Nintendo doesn't match those in a timely fashion with games that really show what their controller can do they may lose the momentum they have.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
I haven't been having any problems with updates or the store (just got my Wii this past Sunday - did the initial system update, downloaded the internet channel, and bought a couple VC games). If you haven't, try changing your wireless channel to 1 or 11 if possible (in the US, anyway). This is supposed to help slow/timing out connections, but I haven't needed to try it myself.
Manufacturers introduce new parts all the time. They usually take over the manufacturing facilities of the parts they're replacing. Accelerometers have been around long enough to where supply shouldn't be that big of a problem.
Actually, the Wii/GCN optical discs are the exact same technology as DVDs. The only difference is in a firmware update that allows the drive to read discs in Nintendo's custom format. (Nintendo didn't want to pay DVD licensing fees.) The GCN discs are mini-DVD sized, which are very similar to the 3" CDs from days gone by. They're often used in digital video cameras, and should fit in most standard DVD drives. The loading mechanism is probably custom, though. Very few slot-loading designs support the smaller CD/DVD formats. Of course, that's just a matter of mechanical parts.
"Broadway" is a pretty straight-forward update to the "Gekko" chip used in the GCN. It's manufactured by IBM, one of the largest chip manufacturers in the world today. Similarly, "Hollywood" is an update to the "Flipper" chip used in the GCN. It's manufactured by ATI, another company with massive manufacturing capabilities.
If I were to hazard a guess, the problem is not with Nintendo's partners. The problem is getting caught with their pants down, expecting that the Wii would sell only slightly better than the GCN did at launch. As a result, they're months behind on scaling up their manufacturing to meet demand. They may even be cautious about doing so, just in case demand were to suddenly drop off just after Christmas. Now that they know that demand is holding steady, expect Nintendo to get their act together something around... oh... June. Maybe July.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Try Kmart. Last time I went to Walmart they had one of the originals left, but no lites. A few weeks ago our local Kmart has (seriously) around 30, and it didn't look like they were selling any. I guess when most people think electronics they don't think Kmart. Of course, no Wii's. However, Walmart is advertising a minimum of 5 Wii's per store on Sunday (28th).
Manufacturers don't introduce the first single chip three-axis accelerometer every day. We're talking about a new unique single-sourced chip from a manufacturer with relatively limited fab capacity.
Mechanical parts need manufacture too, you know.
And just because the companies have fabrication capability doesn't mean they have spare capacity that can be tooled for a temporary production ramp-up for a single client. I'm sure if Nintendo threw a ton of money at them, they'd be willing to do it, but why should they when demand will level off in a matter of months?
That's assuming demand stays peaked, which is won't. Otherwise it makes no sense to invest in ramping up production to meet demand that will level off by the time the factories have tooled their lines. They currently project six million units in the next fiscal year and have publicly commited to shipping two million in a single quarter. A little math implies their current production capacity outstrips their projected demand with plenty of wiggle room.
This link redirected me to a server named pr0n.encyclopediadramatica.com instead of www.encyclopediadramatica.com. I just hope my job doesn't automatically red-flag employee URLs browsed through the mandatory proxy, or I may soon be out of a job.
So, thanks. Thanks for sharing that.
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