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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why so many great DS games sold so poorly?

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Why so many great DS games sold so poorly?

They were overshadowed by more casual titles. 18 33.96%
 
Poor distribution. 2 3.77%
 
Lack of word of mouth or advertisement. 9 16.98%
 
Piracy. 13 24.53%
 
Lack of interest from the userbase. 11 20.75%
 
Total:53
Darwinianevolution on 30 June 2015

I've been looking for some of the more obscure DS titles to complete my DS collection before the NX arrives. And I am still shocked that some of the best DS titles sold so poorly, in a platform with an userbase bigger than 150m people. Even big titles and recognised franchises suffer a lot. Just look at some of these:

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars 2009 Adventure Take-Two Interactive 0.58 0.56 0.05 0.14 1.32    
The World Ends With You 2007 Role-Playing Square Enix 0.47 0.04 0.21 0.04 0.76
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn 2010 Role-Playing Nintendo 0.49 0.09 0.13 0.04 0.76  
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin N/A Strategy Nintendo 0.43 0.12 0.00 0.05 0.61
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations 2007 Adventure Capcom 0.29 0.03 0.25 0.03 0.60
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon 2008 Strategy Nintendo 0.28 0.02 0.27 0.03 0.60     
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors 2009 Adventure ChunSoft 0.29 0.00 0.03 0.02     0.34
Mega Man ZX Advent 2007 Platform Capcom 0.22 0.00 0.09 0.02 0.33
Mega Man Zero Collection 2010 Platform Capcom 0.16 0.01 0.11 0.01  0.29
Contra 4 2007 Shooter Konami Digital Entertainment 0.27 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.30 

Granted, there are a lot of niche titles that sold decent numbers for niche titles, but some like Contra or Megaman are really low. If some of these games were on the 3DS they would sell better.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor               DS 2009 Role-Playing Atlus 0.13 0.00 0.12 0.01 0.26
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked 3DS 2011 Role-Playing Ghostlight 0.19 0.00 0.06 0.01 0.27*

*Plus digital

Why was that? Why so many DS titles ended selling so poorly (nod bad per se, just poorly in expectations of those franchises).



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Ultrashroomz on 30 June 2015

Guess people were more into first/second party titles, especially Pokemon.



"Just for comparison Uncharted 4 was 20x bigger than Splatoon 2. This shows the huge difference between Sony's first-party games and Nintendo's first-party games."

sc94597 on 30 June 2015

Larger and more diverse library means greater competition.



fleischr on 30 June 2015

The DS long been drowning in a glut of licensed shovelware at retail. Sadly, many DS users and retailers are more interested in games like Barbie, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Spongebob, etc.

Nintendo has done a far better job positioning the 3DS to 'core gamers' than they ever did with DS.



I predict NX launches in 2017 - not 2016

Edwardooo on 30 June 2015

Because they were too many DS games.
And too much piracy.



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Skullwaker on 30 June 2015

The DS had a lot of games. A lot of them were of high quality. The competition was just real; it's pretty much the same thing with the PS2.



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Stefan.De.Machtige on 30 June 2015

Life and by extension gaming can be unfair :(.



In the wilderness we go alone with our new knowledge and strength.

ErikaEinhardt on 30 June 2015

Lack of advertising/awareness, easy to illegally download all DS games, plethora of amazing games to compete with.
Those would be my guesses.



ErikaEinhardt on 30 June 2015
fleischr said:
The DS long been drowning in a glut of licensed shovelware at retail. Sadly, many DS users and retailers are more interested in games like Barbie, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Spongebob, etc.

Nintendo has done a far better job positioning the 3DS to 'core gamers' than they ever did with DS.

And yet we cant even get half as many amazing games on it



small44 on 30 June 2015

It's not games that DS audience look for.
Look at how game like Nintendo dog,cooking mama etc sold



PS4 - over 100 millions let's say 120m
Xbox One - 70m
Wii U - 25m

Vita - 15m if it will not get Final Fantasy Kingdoms Heart and Monster Hunter 20m otherwise
3DS - 80m