Nintendo Ships 100 Million DS Units
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Nintendo, DS, 100, Million
This afternoon Nintendo said that it has shipped its 100 millionth DS system. Sorry, golden ticket not included.
There's no question that Nintendo rules the world when it comes to portable gaming, remaining undisputed on its throne of cash and yen since the original GameBoy first hit the market back in 1989... twenty years ago this April in Japan--August in North America. From monochrome graphics to full color visuals, from a greenish-yellow dark screen to a bright backlit screen, Nintendo has shaped and molded the portable gaming unit into the successful Nintendo DS system flying off store shelves today.
So what's so great about these things? They're portable, they're fun, and for the most part, they're somewhat cheap. Other competitors have tried to tackle the mammoth GameBoy/DS beast, namely Atari, Sega, Sony and a few others, only to crumble in defeat at the sheer awesomeness of Nintendo's amazing sales figures. Today's announcement is no exception: Nintendo knows how to work the portable gaming business, and does it exceedingly well.
This afternoon, Nintendo reported that it shipped its 100 millionth DS system... 100 million units as of March 6. The overall number encompasses all three generations of the Nintendo DS since the franchise made its debut back in late 2004: the original "vanilla" version, the thinner yet yummier DS Lite, and the new DSi set to make an appearance next month in North America (but selling extremely well in Japan).
“Consumers have shown their love for Nintendo DS – 100 million times over,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “We are grateful that people of all ages continue to respond to our products, and we will continue to look for ways to please current gamers and create new ones.”
Featuring dual screens (DS), the Nintendo DS brought innovation and interactivity to portable gaming through its touch screen technology as well as voice recognition and its ability to connect to the Internet, opening up a whole new world of multiplayer interaction. With the release of the third incarnation--the DSi---next month, innovation and interaction will take a new leap forward by providing two cameras, the ability to record, manipulate, and play sound files, and the ability to access the Wii Store online, allowing gamers to purchase and download titles straight to the hardware.
There's no question that sales figures will continue to rise next month and beyond. Unless a Nintendo competitor catches on and creates an innovative, interactive, and fun portable gaming device, the DS line of products will continue to dominate the industry. Still, Apple may eventually pose a threat with its iPhone /iPod Touch, especially if AAA third-party developers take full advantage of the iPhone/iPod Touch technology.
John Carmack of id Software even commented on the device's overall abilities. "The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox," he said. "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. … You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can’t support that yet."
For now, though, Nintendo will still rule the world, and consumers -those who can't get enough of portable gaming- will continue to eat up the new incarnations like a kid on candy store eating spree.
Do you own a GameBoy?
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Yeah, a gameboy advance. Wait... you weren't calling my DS a gameboy were you?!
Grrrr.....
"There's no question that sales figures will continue to rise next month and beyond. Unless a Nintendo competitor catches on and creates an innovative, interactive, and fun portable gaming device, the DS line of products will continue to dominate the industry."
This article already states that this has been tried before and failed. I wouldn't call the PSP a total failure though since it is still on the market. Fact of the matter is that while Nintendo may not always have the lead in graphics (Sega Nomad was a portable 16-bit Genesis console that also competed with the Gameboy Pocket), Nintendo has always had little niche fun games that sell very well and that is what gives them a strong arm in the market. Sony is more focused on the graphics and does not necessarily offer the same 'fun factor' in their games as most novel Nintendo DS games do. Nintendo could still possibly even be afloat on the old original B&W system due to that fact.
To me, the gameboy color was kind of an inbetween system. Carrying the Nintendo brand, it sold rather well even though there was not a large variety of fun games like the original system had. Gameboy Advance got beyond that and most people forgot about the GBC system and then the DS did so even more.
The DSi system makes little sense. Nintendo does not need a new iteration of the system with built in cameras. It will still sell well since most people have moved on from GBA, but it is very unnecessary to their growth.
I wonder if some day we will see a Nintendo handheld with better graphics. For the time being, Sony has the edge on that and it looks like they aren't going to give it up any time soon.
Well they're are trying to cater to the ipod/iphone crowd. Just check out some of the DSi adds.
I still play my Sega Nomad, the AC adapter is a must, unless you only want to play for 2.5 hours, which is how long 6 AA batteries will last you
Its funny. More than 50 million PSP's have been sold worldwide. Compare that to 20 million PS3's, less than 30 millions 360's and - unbelievable - less than 45 million Wii's... Yes, more PSP's were sold than Wii's.
Don't get me wrong, I know Sony would love to be #1 on the handheld market. But it hasn't "failed" by any means. There is enough market for both Coke and Pepsi. The DS is obviously cheaper, but those who can afford a PSP will certainly find it worthy to spend the extra ca$h. I don't regret having bought mine.
I also wouldn't say PSP games are "less fun". I've had tons of fun with the games I played on it. Some people have fun playing solitaire, others have fun playing flight simulators. One is simpler, the other is more complex. Both can be fun, if that's what you're into.
I hate when articles are written rehashing misconceptions propagated throughout the media simply based on sales figures. Let my niche exist (though it's a pretty large one, you've got to admit).
I'm not necessarily trying to say that all the PSP games are less fun, it is just that the DS offers a larger library of fun games than PSP does. I like some games on PSP such as Lumines and some imports Bleach, Macross: F, etc. But my DS has seen more gaming time than my PSP although yes I can run Sega Genesis and SNES games on my PSP
I sold my Nomad long ago because all it did was sit in my drawer and had no memory expandability at the time (which it does now if you know where to buy the right hardware) and the screen on it was even inferior LCD technology at the time I purchased it (since I bought it on sale for $50, that was well past its production date). I agree about the 2.5 battery hour, but I had the large rechargable battery pack and I think it might've lasted longer but I never took that brick anywhere with me outside of home. That large of a handheld game looks too dorky unless you are a very young child clinging onto it.