c0rd on 03 December 2008
There are a few things about handhelds that give them major advantages over consoles. I'm not sure how much they would affect sales, but it should be enough to push DS over the top:
- A console can satisfy an entire household, whereas a handheld may be purchased for each person. This is most obvious in Japan, where the DS sales are going beyond home consoles' limit.
- People lose their handhelds. I personally know ~4 people that "acquired" their DS by finding it lost somewhere. Remember, many DS owners are kids.
- They break. People drop them, and the DS isn't as sturdy as old Nintendo handhelds. Again, kids break stuff. If it were the PS2 we were talking about, this may be cancelled out, but the Wii is much more reliable and won't be replaced much.
- Different models. We know for sure the DSL and DSi will/is adding plenty of sales, whereas the Wii will probably never change. The console is already smaller than the slim PS2.
I think the Wii will outsell the DS in America, but it will be very hard to keep up in Others. Even if it's selling faster from launch, the Wii will hit its saturation point much faster. There just aren't enough families out there to reach those heights...
