OceanJ said:
Well Ninty fans are hesitant to recognize it, but when you look at 3DS's sales in 2011 vs 2012 calendar years you see that: 1) It only had 10 months on sale in 2011, launched Feb 26, 2011 2) Despite this, it sold 600k fewer units in the U.S. in 2012, than in 2011 3) Similarly it sold 3k less units in Europe with more months on sale 4) In Q3 alone, globally 3DS sales were down from 7.9 Million unit sales to 6.38 million, 2011 Holidays outsold 2012's by 1.5 million consoles. 5) The weekly average sales rate of 3DS in 2011 was 301k over a 10 month period from Feb 26 - Dec. 31. The weekly average sales rate for all of 2012 was 264k. A 36k per week drop-off. 6) The only reason it was up from 2011, from 13.25 million to 13.75m was because 2011 only saw 10 months of sales availability, otherwise we'd see a YoY decrease this year. Some have argued that Pokemon in 2013 will put the 3DS back on track. Some point to the fact it's still "outpacing the DS" over a similar 97 week time-period. But as to that last point, I have to reason that 3DS sales when it launched...leveraged the "blue ocean" of the DS owner market to sell to, so it essentially just stood on the shoulders of the DS. Trust me nobody wants to see the 3DS reverse the downward trend of 2012 more than me. I just recognize the facts is all. |
Dont forget though the PSP was a much more formidable opponent to the DS than Vita is to the 3DS. On a launch aligned basis, PSP beat DS for a good part of their respective first year, what allowed DS to win that race was one after one after one of software releases. PSP software release peaked in 2007, DS continued to pump out first and 3rd party titles. 3DS's 2013 software lineup just seems to me to be so solid that it might even win marketshare from PSP userbase.
