US 3DS sales double Vita's total in July - analysts

[mike_intellivision]

RolStoppable said:

mike_intellivision said:

I wasn't into handhelds -- or sales -- when the DS came out. I do remember it doing poorly at the start in the US as it was routinely outsold by the PSP (which was predicted to end Nintendo's stranglehold on the portable market). 

I do know the software has not been as strong as some would have liked it to be ... basically because Nintendo tried to help third parties and they just don't seem to want to be helped.  So I agree that a lack of software would limit sales. However, since it is backward compatable, it should not have been as much of an issue until the recent price drop made the DSi so much less expensive.

Mike from Morgantown

The DS could play all GBA games, but it didn't really help the system's sales in 2005 and the first half of 2006.

Even before the recent DS price cut, the DS was still selling quite well while the 3DS was struggling. If there was no price cut, the 3DS would sell basically the same amount as it does now and the DS would sell less, because the sales increase for the DS can be attributed to consumers who aren't interested in a 3DS anyway (i.e. the typical late adopter of hardware). They just want a cheap system with a lot of cheap games available. The sales that the 3DS is not getting are those of DS owners/people who are on the fence and waiting until a certain number of games they want are available for the system. A DS sale doesn't equal a lost 3DS sale and blaming another system for a lack of sales is always the easy way out. It's not the DS that is holding back the 3DS in America, it's the 3DS itself.

I had never really noticed that -- but you are correct.  I had been focused on Global numbers which paint a different picture because of the sales in Japan. What is even stranger is that half -- or more -- of the worldwide DS sales are in the US.