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Pokemon Leads Game Sales Up 31% in May
Gamasutra has several coverage elements about last month's NPD figures, which unsurprisingly show Nintendo's continued dominance of console sales numbers. A combined 569,000 units sold for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl probably helped some. "According to official sources and a number of independent reports, total industry sales were up 49 percent to $815 million for the month, with hardware sales up 79 percent to $221 million, and the Nintendo DS selling an impressive 423,000 units for the month. The rest of the hardware sales revealed that the Wii sold an impressive 338,000 units for the month, with the Xbox 360's sales down somewhat at around 155,000 units and the PlayStation 3 sold just 82,000 during May in the U.S. On the handheld side of things, the PSP trailed the DS but still sold around 221,000 units, and the Game Boy Advance sold just 80,000 units for the month. Rounding off the major players, the PlayStation 2 sold 188,000 units during May." Those DS sales are nothing to sneeze at, as an analyst group estimates that by 2011 there will be some 112 Million DS units sold ... with an 89% install base in Japan. The site has a further breakdown of last month's numbers, analyzing the dip in overall console sales and the potentials of each platform. The Curmudgeon Gamer is the mind behind that analysis, and he had two further points to make about the numbers on his site.
Anyone know if Japan still has new GBA games coming out? I find it slightly freaky that the PS3 only sold 2K more units than the 80,000 GBAs.
More Twoson than Cupertino
It may be an old, rehashed concept, but the new Pokemon games are great RPG's once you get over the kiddy factor of them. The 3D graphics in the new ones especially are really cool. One thing they really should have fixed up is those damn 8 bit sounds when a Pokemon makes a noise - surely there would be enough space on the DS GameCard to store the Pokemon's noises from the TV Anime series - like Pikachu
Let me show you them.
Pokey mon? With the pokey and the man and the thing where the guy comes out and there's a thing and he bites the fall down the sidewalk awk awk awwwk!
You must be new here, Pokemon isn't as gender oriented as most other games. It got so popular with girls even, that the newer games all have the option of a female lead character. I don't think 5 year old ballerina wanna-bes who play the Bratz games hang around here, by the way.
Does the average Slashdot reader fly to space in his free time for $250,000? Man, just worry about educating yourself rather than being personally catered to by every website you visit.
I like basketball!!1!
Shoe vs. Lambtor ... Discuss!
When I saw the new DS Pokimon game out, I thought it was crap. Its not like they even bother to inovate. I thought it would tank hard.
br. I guess it is true, if you live and work with the 8-14 year old demographic, it never gets old:P
Plenty of Nerds play Pokemon, behind the grind (thank you save modification programs) it is actually a pretty decent online game, with plenty of depth and tactics
theres info on console sales as well, pokemon is a highlight
i'd say RTFA, but it looks like you didnt get as far as the summary...
It matters because it's probably going to be the biggest selling videogame of this year. Those of us who are interested in the industry as well as the games care. And before someone flames me, games-industry-watching is actually fun! The companies are rude to each other, try to outmanouver each other - it's like watching sport.
My sales figures.
Let me show you them.
--riney
Pokemon has made a resurgence among my classmates in the last two years. Everyone is playing the new Pokemon Pearl/Diamond, and there's a few 'retro' people like me that still play the original Blue and Silver versions. Sure, it may be a kids game, but when high school seniors are playing and enjoying updated versions of a game, I think we can all agree that Nintendo did something right with this franchise (although the anime series is lacking).
While I personally never got swept up by the whole Pokemon craze, I must admit the couple games that I have played (Blue and Red) were addictive and VERY fun.
I can only imagine the newer ones sticking to the same formula but with updated technology are just as addictive and fun.
Living With a Nerd
I consider myself an average Slashdot reader. I love Linux and Google, and hate Microsoft and Sony. I also play Pokemon.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Actually, this makes me think it may be a good time to finally sell the original cards I have.
Let's find out, all slashdotters that have a love of pokemon... spam this post!
Oops, how did this get here?
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I always liked the parts of the series I did play (Red, blue, yellow, silver and gold). It not only let me wax halycon about my old days of 8-bit bitmap dungeon crawls (a la Dragon Warrior). It provided a unique battle system, additional non-main story arc content, and a lot of replayability (as you spent a good time trying to catch all the pokemon available in your version). They also made an amazing marketing and PR move by releasing separate versions (red and blue, gold and silver, [some two based on gems], diamond and pearl), with different pokemon available on each one. Now, while some people just bought both and traded with themselves to catch them all (and some folks cheated via game genie or other such), some folks specifically bought different versions and used the game link cables to trade pokemon. Being able to do things with friends like that was really what made the pokemon games fun. It changed it from being just about what you could do alone, to being a social thing. I don't know about later games, but Red and Blue had balance problems (Psychic pokemon were way too powerful), but those problems were corrected by the time Gold and Silver came out. I think the series has really progressed and done a good job of adding new content, and keeping type balance.
Ker-spam!
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
- I spent about 15 hours raising a stupid Geodude from level 4 to a level 30 Graveller, only to come to a cave that contains level 32 Gravellers. Well, that was time wasted raising that stupid rock.
- Each Pokemon can only learn 4 moves at a time, and HMs have to be at least one of those moves in order to advance in the game. I don't like being forced to have an HM in my party of critters. Once I use "Cut" on a tree, it should be gone for good!
Other than that, they are fine games. Thanks.The head of my high school's science department is young enough to still be trying to get rid of his cards. He even occassionally catches students using words like 'charizard' instead of 'chameleon', of which I have been lucky enough to experience myself.
Most people have no idea about what a REALLY GOOD RPG is. Kids keep buying pokéjunk after pokéjunk, but have not even heard about masterpieces like Chrono Trigger or Panzer Dragoon Saga...
Awww, is someone upset because his platform/game of choice got stomped in sales by the weaker, kiddy hardware and games that Nintendo makes?
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
less average, more fanboy
Sad. I would wish an average Slashdotter was just intelligent and didn't buy in to all the group think on this site. But you are probably right about that being average.
But I do agree on the point that Pokemon are fun games and the people that insult adults for playing them are probably very sad little people. Seriously, where do you get off judging people for their hobbies? Millions of people love Harry Potter. I can't read the stuff because I hate the way it is written. But I don't insult adult HP fans because they enjoy the series...it just isn't for me. I doubt the people who insult Pokemon players have even tried the game.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Yeah, just throwing my hat into the ring as a slashdot reader who plays pokemon, unapologetically.
t tack-attack..." strings.) There is a surprisingly deep game under the cuteness, and you can actually talk about "high level play" in pokemon, and be completely serious.
I started because I write and design games for a living, and figured "if it's still around after all these years, there is probably somthing behind it." (That was back in the ruby/sapphire days.)
I kept playing, because under the cute presentation, is a surprisingly deep game, of the same nature as Magic the Gathering. (The game of "you have a wide library of abilities, and a limited number of slots to put them into; build a deck/monster/whatever. Oh, and the abilities combine in interesting ways.")
Pokemon actually manages to make turn-based RPG-style combat WORK in one-on-one battles. (Which almost always suck in RPGs, since they degenerate into "attack-attack-attack-attack-attack-heal-attack-a
It doesn't surprise me. I guess barely outselling six year old hardware by 1-2K is what it takes for Sony to admit that maybe it shouldn't make you choose between rent and entertainment.
Yeah. The reason I never got into Pokémon isn't that it's kiddy - it's that it's too deep. I don't play games nearly long enough to get into such a complex game. I actually admire kids nowadays - the games we used to play were much simpler than the stuff they play nowadays. I think we're raising a new breed of super-intelligent humans, thanks to Pokémon :-)
Me. Woefully, shamefully, me.
Gamertag: WyleType