| FishyJoe said: Unless a new sexy slim model is released.... and a game called Dragon Quest IX. |
I do believe there is such a thing as the "DS Lite". Not sure if you've heard of it or not. I think it's their re-model ;)
I know DQIX is certainly going to re-ignite sales in Japan, but when your trending down that strongly, DQIX might have as much impact as FFXII did on the PS2: It's going to move lots of software, a good bit of hardware, but in the grand scheme of things, really not effect the market as much as you'd want it to.
That's not saying that I think the DS will stop selling, or anything. I think Nintendo can get another 10-15m DS sales out of Japan alone. But I don't think we're going to see the DS break the 2007 record for hardware.
Anyone find it mega-odd that the PSP is actually the top-selling Japanese system of choice in 2008? Never woulda saw that coming.
And for the whole RPG's will make the DS sell better: What about Pokemon? Final Fantasies? Tales of? If the DS base was going to increase due to RPGs, the fact is, they're already there. The only one that can/will help the DS would be DQIX (which I could easily see DQIX move 300,000-500,000 hardware units). But aside from that, they'll have very little effect on the DS as a whole. The DS is already very genre-saturated, and I just don't see alot of "hope" for it having a huge revival in Japan, unless there is some sort of pent-up demand for the device at the $79 or $99 equivilent price level.
Again, that's not to say the DS H/W sales won't be spectacular: but I don't see it selling over 6m units/yr in Japan. Nintendo needs to focus more on the west. Why is it that the Wii and GBA can do gangbusters in the US, but the DS is very weak?
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
