| d21lewis said: I haven't read any of these doom and gloom threads so if I'm saying something that's already been posted, please forgive me. Remember when the PS1 and Saturn launched? The best selling console that year was the Snes. Remember when the PS2 launched? The best selling console that year was the PS1. Remember when the 360 launched? The best selling console was still the PS2. Nintendo now has two full fledged portable consoles on the market. One is still selling like hotcakes and the other has backwards compatability but the library isn't too enticing, yet. When the 3DS come into its own, it will do well. In the mean time, like pretty much every generation in the past, an established console with a great library of games, and a user friendly price is going to take the top spot. Right now, Nintendo is its own competition. This is nothing new and nothing that hasn't happend before. You guys aren't new to this, are you? *this is all from memory, mind you. there may be a couple of exceptions......but I doubt it.* |
It depends. The Wii outsold the PS2 by about 5.2 million units in 2007. Now I know the Wii released Nov 2006 in NA and Dec 2006 in Japan, EU and Australia but close enough. Sadly vgchartz doesn't have monthly charts anymore (unless they made that a "paid" feature).
And the DS outsold the GBA by 2.1 million units in 2005. Once again DS released Nov 2004 in NA, Dec 2004 in JP (it released in 2005 in EU and Australia) but close enough I guess.
I bet if we looked at year on year sales ending March 2012, the DS still outsells the 3DS. The 3DS is historically quite expensive for a Nintendo handheld, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the 3D (plenty of people getting headaches, a significant minority not being able to see the 3D effect very well, etc.) and I'm afraid Nintendo will be shooting themselves in the foot by revolving their system around the 3D gimmick (after all they call it a 3DS). The 3DS was a very risky move by Nintendo (so was the Wii but not all risks work out). Most of the Nintendo fans will defend the 3DS no matter what because they defended the N64 and Gamecube too (except for the Malstrom faction that doesn't want to see Nintendo go back to the N64/Gamecube days. I can't say I agree with everything Malstrom has to say. But I'm one of those Nintendo fans who historically liked the NES/SNES and Nintendo handhelds but wasn't too keen on the N64/Gamecube). They'll buy anything Nintendo. But I don't see the 3DS replicating the success of the GBA, let alone the sales of the DS. I feel that Nintendo is going the wrong direction (the N64/Gamecube direction) with their handheld. The 3D gimmick is also waning in movies. It's a fad.
And the NGP will basically be relegated to niche status outside Japan. It will be even less successful than the PSP outside Japan. The smart device gaming market has been really hurting the PSP and it will also hurt the NGP. As for Japan, I think it comes down to the pricing. The 3DS has a huge profit margin apparently but the NGP's profit margin will likely be slim. So Nintendo has more leeway for price cuts. If the NGP isn't that much more expensive than the 3DS, it should win I think. Historically we've have seen the PSP perform strongly against the DS even at higher price points (look at amazon.co.jp. The PSP's are actually more expensive there than the DSi's and the PSP is tearing up Japan like a ravaging tentacle monster. Apparently the PSP didn't get a price cut there like they did over here.)
