By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
TheLastStarFighter on 18 April 2013
Edit Thread
Yakuzaice said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
People do forget that the US was slow to adopt the DS as well. It has nothing to do with Nintendogs, or the PSP, or anything else mentioned. Nintendo handhelds lag behind by about a year in the west. This is largely due to Pokemon, which is a year behind in releases. While Japan got its last DS pokemon in 2011, the west saw B&W2 release last year. DS ate a lot of potential 3DS sales with having lots of games and such a cheap price.

This year we should see a much better transition to 3DS from DS, about a year slower than Japan, just as it was with DS last gen.

The DS took off before Pokemon came out.  It started with the Lite and NSMB, at least in the US, and then just ramped up from there.  In the month before Diamond and Pearl came out the DS did 509k in the US, and that was in March.

Black and White 2 was released in Japan in 2012, and it was only about 3.5 months later in the west.  DS sales had largely dried up in Japan before B&W2, and it didn't do much to change that.  It didn't do much for European sales either.  The continued DS strength is pretty unique to the US, and seems to have little to do with Pokemon.  Also if it is largely about pokemon, then why would sales trends be a year slower than Japan when Pokemon X/Y is being released around the same time worldwide?

I'm sorry, I'll try to explain it better for you.  Nintendo handhelds pick up in sales in the US about a year later than in Japan, and their life ends about a year later.  This is for all of their handhelds.  I also didn't say that people wait for Pokemon to buy a system.  What I'm saying is, Pokemon comes out a year later than in Japan, so it keeps the life of the old handheld going longer in the US.  It's not that lack of Pokemon is hurting 3DS, it's that its late release is helping DS.  It doesn't matter if its 3 months or a year, Pokemon launched at Christmas 2012 in the US, when the bulk of systems are purchased.  There was no major title for 3DS.  Combined with great deals on DS, and the fact that the US market adopted DS about a year after Japan did (meaning most owners have owned it for a shorter time) means the market lags.  DS has more appeal than it does in Japan at this stage, and it has been getting way more sales.  It was the same in the transition from Gameboy Advance to DS.  If history repeats itself, 3DS should have an amazing year this year and DS should fade away.