The 3DS is approaching half of DS sales all-time in Japan. But it is only now approaching a quarter of DS sales all-time in North America, Europe and the "other" territories
The 3DS would have to sell another 30+ million units worldwide to hit the half-way mark of the DS. It's hard to see it happening at this point.
Even a large minority of the Japanese market is abandoning Nintendo in favour of Apple and Google. The 3DS is approaching half the DS install base. So Nintendo has kept the majority of their customers (50% +1) there at least. But it's still a significant loss and Nintendo has already rolled out the "New" 3DS in Japan now. Which is going to force Japanese gamers to buy the new hardware to play the games that are not backwards compatible with the 3DS. Artificially inflating the 3DS' install base numbers in the process.
As for PS Vita, there's a reason why I didn't even mention it to Sean Malstrom. It was DOA and SONY has given up on it. They learned absolutely NOTHING from the PSP. The PSP carved a niche for itself in 2004-2008. Offering PS2-like gaming on the go as well as a video and audio player on the go (and great homebrew. LOL). But then the iPhone 1st Gen started offering third-party apps in 2008 and the iPhone 3G that came after it started a smartphone revolution. After 2008, PSP was done in the west. And by 2012 (or was it 2011?), the Vita was DOA in Japan too. Sony is left to focus now on the media set top box market (Playstation TV) to compete with Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV.
Now iPhones and iPhone 2 year plans are expensive (the no.1 argument that people still use in 2014 on vgchartz to argue against smartphones). But you can get a budget or mid-range Android or Windows Phone smartphone for $0 on a reasonable 2 year plan that doesn't cost much more than what you were paying for your plan for your old flip phone. Canada is a rip-off for cellular phone service. And you can get a decent budget smartphone for $0 on a 2 year plan with 500 anytime minutes, unlimited evenings (5pm-8am) and weekends, unlimited text/picture messaging and 500 MB mobile data on a national network for $45/month. For a mid-range smartphone, $50/month for the same plan. An iPhone plan here goes for $80/month minimum and you need to pay $265 for it upfront. We get ripped off in Canada. If you are one of those people who just want to use Wi-Fi on their smartphone and don't care for mobile data, you can get a budget smartphone for $30/month (100 weekday minutes + 5pm-8am free + weekends free + unlimited messaging. no data) and a mid-range one for $40/month (200 weekday instead of 100 + 50 MB data). The barriers to entry in the smartphone market are so low now. The value proposition for a 3DS or Vita just isn't there now for parents or casuals. Only the Nintendo hardcore and PSP diehards.
| ganoncrotch said: So you wrote a fairly boring email to someone on this forum and you put it on this forum now as a thread? What is the point of this? just a rant thread? I don't get it. |
Sean Malstrom is a member of vgchartz? Since when? That's news to me (and no I'm not being sarcastic. I haven't posted here regularly in 3 years. And posted a bit last year).
