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Soundwave on 10 June 2015
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mountaindewslave said:
Soundwave said:

Actually I think you're selling the GBA fairly short. 

Do you know what the fastest selling game platform in US history is from launch? It's not the SNES, Playstation, Playstation 2, DS, Game Boy, or even the Wii. It's the GBA. Its sales were monstrous here out of the gate. GBA would've easily crushed 100 million LTD if it had been given a normal life cycle, I don't think you will deny this because it's plainly obvious. 

Also inflation adjusted the GBA is $133, which is about the price of a 2DS and not so far off from the regular 3DS price of $169.99. 

The 3DS is not "extremely expensive" compared to past Nintendo handhelds. Like I said a Game Boy in 1989/90 is $190 with inflation, that's a whopping 10 bucks shy of a 3DS XL and more expensive than the 2DS and vanilla 3DS. 


already established that GBA sales declined drastically after its initial release, there's no debating that. no one is arguing that it didn't sell well its first year or 2, but obviously it slowed down considerably

3DS price point (for the current newest version throughout its run) has been 200$ (or 199$) everywhere. that has not changed, at least in the USA. not sure where you're shopping finding it 169$, unless you're referring to older models. current regular top model would be at the 200$ range at all major US retailers, sometimes with a game packaged in

also the 2DS is hardly a comparable, besides maybe the Gameboy Pocket (which was superior to the Gameboy in some ways, especially size) I can't think of one way in which the 2DS has advantages over the 3DS, hence its price point


GBA sales actually peaked in 2003 I believe with the release of the GBA SP. The SP was a huge seller (figures because you could actually play the damn thing without having to be directly under a light source at all times). 

If you're saying sales slowed after that, well no shit, that tends to happen when you have your legs cut off from under you with a successor released. 

If Nintendo released "4DS" 3 years into the 3DS life cycle it would wither up and die at 50 million LTD. 

The standard price for the 3DS has been $169.99. People PREFER the more expensive $199.99 3DS XL, that's the only reason NOA has phased out the vanilla 3DS here. Americans don't want the rinky dink smaller handheld for a whopping $30 less. Which if anything doesn't really help the "handhelds should be cheap as dirt" arguement. And of course the 2DS is going to have fewer features. It's lower cost, which is a basic tenant of like ... uh every product in consumer history?

Lower price usually means less features. You can't have it both ways and say "well 2DS doesn't count because it has less features", well you can't have the lower price without less features, the two factors don't exist in a seperate vacuum.