MDMAlliance said:
#1: The total sales of the 3DS have been outpacing the DS when it was at this point in its life. #2: You called these systems losers of this generation, that means it is completely irrelevant to bring up the DS since it is considered to be part of a different generation. #3: I never said they'll give the 3DS a 150% increase in unit sales for Holiday 2013, but does it matter if the overall yearly sales end up being higher? I also never even TRIED to argue for the 3DS selling higher than the DS, if it did, the 3DS would be the best selling console system in videogaming history. I have no idea why it has to accomplish that in order to be considered anything other than a loser. Losing and gaining parts of the market share is normal, and it's constantly changing. This makes the actual number of sales relative, and your statement makes little sense. Also what do you even mean by "not very different?" The Gameboy sold, and the Gameboy Advanced sold regardless of not being very different. How different do you consider the DS? Two screens, one being a touch screen? It seems like your standard of "different" is the weird one here. I also think that the PS Vita is considerably different to the PSP. They added a touch screen, a reartouch, two analogs, and added several things among its software. I also called you a retard in the "if" situation because it appropriately insults the notion of anyone thinking such a ridiculous thing is actually true. I can ONLY see the 3DS being a "loser" in respect to not being able to hold something up to expectations, but that would also mean that ANY system that doesn't sell as much, if not more, than its predecessor is a loser. This makes the PS3 a loser. |
1. Its only out-paced the DS if you are doing non-aligned launches. Go look at the same point in time in 2006 for the DS and now for the 3DS. That is critical to the observation, as the DS continued to see huge yearly gains starting in 2006. Comparatively, the 3DS is down from last year. You can justify this due to the huge price drop, but that should show you how weak the 3DS is - it took a huge price drop and its at ~24m units through November of its 2nd holiday.
2. They're losers this generation because they aren't going to achieve strong results for their owners. If the 3DS and WiiU see their unit sales drop by 50% life to date in comparison to their predecessors, isn't that a huge loss? Only in some crazy world would such a huge cut not be considered a loss. But that has been the core of my argument: the 3DS, Vita and WiiU are going to see less than 50% of the units sold of their predecessors. Regardless if that is PS2>PS3, Wii>WiiU, DS>3DS, or PSP>Vita, its bad news.
3. The reason I mentioned the 150% increase in unit sales is because that's what it'd take to keep up its sales pace with the DS next year. If it doesn't, its going to continue to have a notably slower sales pace vs. the DS. That is not good, and tantamount to my argument about the 3DS.
"Losing and gaining marketshare is normal" - sure, but by how much? If there's a catastrophic loss, its going to hurt a company's profit margins, which will hurt them in the long run. Look at Sega. They had reducing market share from the Genesis through Dreamcast, and it cost them dearly.
My argument about different is that the DS was hugely disruptive in 2004/5. No handheld had anything close to what the DS offered. Capacitive touch screens were barely available for mobile phones, yet the DS had them at a very affordable price. That was hugely beneficial to its success. Comparatively, the 3D nature of the 3DS has done very little in regards to perception of the device - making it little different than its far more prolific competitor, the iPhone or Android systems.
The PS3 is in fact a loser. Its lost Sony billions of dollars. If a system fails to turn a profit for a company, its a loser, is it not?
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
