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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
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...
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
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.
Is it not the case that Pokémon you raise from a lower level yourself end up tougher than ones you catch in the wild at the same level?
1. But your Geodude that you raised from L4 to L30 will be stronger than a Geodude caught at L30. Or possibly even 32.
2. The dichotomy between HM moves (which are generally useless in a fight except Waterfall) and 'real' battle moves is just an element of the game. The fact that trees don't stay cut, rocks don't stay smashed or moved, and so forth is really just tradition since the original games didn't have the memory space to keep track of this. And it's a pain in the ass, I'll admit. The HM moves are just keys that are used Metroid style to force you to progress through the game in the order it wants you to. In Diamond/Pearl this is even more gratuitous than previous generations in that there are eight HM moves, seven of which become essential for beating the game and the eighth (Fly) is just damn useful to have around. Cut, Rock Smash, Rock Climb, Strength, Surf, Waterfall, and Defog (arguably) are all required to progress at certain points of the plot. Rock Climb and Defog are new ones (Flash has since been retired, but it is an optional out-of-battle move for one dungeon) bringing the total of required wasted move slots up to seven, worse than five (originally) and then six (third gen) and tying up a significant portion of your team. The best way I know of it is to get ahold of a Bibarrel (easy) which is unique in that it sucks royally in battle but can learn almost all of the essential HM moves except Fly and I think Defog, which you can relegate to a weak flier. Then you can leave the rest of your team for real battle, and Bibarrel can be your organic multi-tool to cut, climb, shove, and smash as you see fit.
The mitigating factor is that once you've beaten the game and seen what there is to see in the plotline there's very little reason to keep most of the HM moves around with the exception of Fly and Surf. Once you beat the Elite 4 and start playing the post-plot events and getting into the metagame you really don't need to keep that crap around as much. Also, by the time you're doing Serious Business like battling powerful trainers, breeding, multiplayer, et. all you'll probably be breeding or trading for Pokemon to round out your ultimate team that won't be the ones you kicked the Pokemon League's asses with. After you win it's pretty painless (and often preferable) to retire your starting team to storage and start breeding/training customized, tuned up ones now that you have access to breeding, the National Dex (and Dittos, for breeding with), enormous piles of cash to buy vitamins and TM's with, and so forth. If you find that you need to whack down a tree or smash a rock someplace it's easy to fly back to a Pokecenter and temporarily grab one of your rock smashers or climbers or tree cutters or what have you. Most transitional obstacles like water or fog can be circumvented once you pass them once with Fly, since you can just fly from town to town right over them.
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
Generally, one you've raised from a lower level will be stronger than one that's freshly caught. However, in the older generations you could continue training them even once they'd reached level 100, and they'd be the same. For a better explanation check out http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Effort_valu es
Surf and Waterfall, despite being HM moves are legitimate moves for battle as well. Waterfall is a physical water attack with decent power and is a great match on a Gyarados since it gets STAB and is a physical heavy pokemon. Surf is simply the best special water move because of it's high damage and accuracy (moves like Hydropump are not reliable enough).
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
Masterful RPGs can be masterful for different reasons.
I'm certainly not going to argue that Chrono Trigger, or Panzer Dragoon Saga aren't masterpieces of their craft. But a couple of thoughts for you:
1) Different parts of RPGs are held up as awesome. Very few games are groundbreaking on ALL fronts. Chrono Trigger, for example, had pretty standard graphical faire for the time. (Not a complaint, but a statement.) What made it awesome was an interesting storyline (that actually managed to handle time travel well), well-executed storytelling that preserved the illusion that the player was in charge, and some neat improvements to standard RPG battling. (Double and Tripple attacks!) Oh, and marvelous music by Mitsuda and Uematsu.
Pokemon games do not have groundbreaking story. Or music. But they have a battle system that is as deep as anything in the genre, as well as a sheer, unprecedented DENSITY of stuff to do, in the form of side quests, missions, or just widgets to play with. No game I have ever played felt as deep (in the game-design meaning of deep, as in, lots of layers to explore) as the most recent pokemon games.
So to sum up this point, just because panzer dragoon and chrono are awesome, doesn't mean that pokemon can't be a different kind awesome, while still being legitimately awesome.
2) So a bunch of 10 year olds are buying pokemon, instead of playing "old classics". Boo hoo. What do you think they'll go looking for in 5 years, when they're wishing they had more games that featured turn-based battles, giant worlds to explore every nook and cranny of, and towns full of "I am a walking signpost" style people? Where will they turn, when they say "man, gaining XP to go up in level and get new powers sure was fun. I wonder if there are any other games like that?"
Think of Pokemon as a gateway game. You can get them into the harder stuff later, but for now, is getting them used to ideas like "having a 'party' of characters", or "this is my item 'inventory'" or even "I have x 'hit points' before I fall down" such a bad thing?
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 :-)
Wrong. A wild pokemon will have "stock" base stats that haven't been modified by EV's yet. A Pokemon that you've battled will have EV's accumulated, and as it levels its stats will be greater in some aspects than a wild Pokemon at the same physical level.
Me. Woefully, shamefully, me.
Gamertag: WyleType