I believe shipments for the PS2 are closer to 157.5M, but we can still use your 157.3M.  Nintendo's financials will probably put the DS at ~154M at the end of the year.  In 2011, the DS dropped by 57%.  In 2012, if we don't have it under/overtracked in EU, it dropped 61%.  This year, it will probably be down ~64%, which would put it at ~155.3M shipped.  But, let's go with a better scenerio and say it only drops 50% this year.  That would put it at around ~155.8M shipped, which is still 1.5M away from what you think the PS2 is at this year.  Now, let's be crazy and say the DS only drops 40% in 2014.  That would put it at ~156.9M shipped, which is still 400K from where you think the PS2 is at now.  Now, let's stay crazy and say the DS only drops 40% in 2015.  That would put it at ~157.6M, FINALLY over the PS2.

Now, the only problem with this scenerio is it paints a rosy picture of the DS's declines, which won't be quite so rosy in real life.  That, and the fact that the DS WILL NOT be on shelves in 2015.  I'm pretty sure it will barely see 2014 before it gets discontinued.  Maybe in time for Nintendo to include its final numbers in their FY2013 report. 

More or less?

Well, as of the end of 2012, I would estimate the DS to be at 154M and the PS2 to be at 157.5M, so about 3.5M in the PS2's favor.  However, with how quickly the DS is declining the previous years, it would take it ~3 years to accumulate that 3.5M.  And if people think Nintendo is going to be supporting the DS into 2015, they are only fooling themselves.  Of course, Sony is still shipping the PS2 to other countries outside of Japan, so its final numbers will probably be ~158-160M.

VGCHARTZ doesn't count PS2 sales. You never know.

I'm with NintendoPie, they are both consoles. It doesn't matter if one is handheld and one is a home system. I mean in Japan Home consoles are dead and Handhelds are the primary platform, not just portable gaming like here, and a lot of home consoles have been modified to be portable. Plus with the quality of games handhelds get, you could be happy with just a 3DS, no problem.

You could buy tv screens which attached onto your PSone making PS1 portable, and same with PS2, and at the same time Nintendo systems play Gameboy games with a cheap adaptor. Wii U is a HANDHELD HOME CONSOLE, so the line is blurred even furthur. If Wii U topped DS sales, would that count? It's a 2 screen system is it not?

But the thing is, the last 3 months, DS hasn't been down by 60%. Now that the 3DS has established itself, and $99 DS sales have begun to stabilize, I don't think DS sales will fall by that much. For the last few months, DS sales have only been down YoY by 30-40%. Last Week it was 36% WW, Quarter 4 of 2012 (A mass of 13 weeks) it was only down 34.1% - http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=5016890

Most of that drop is because Japan has abandoned the DS now, but in USA the drop is much smaller, and since DS primarily in USA, we shouldn't expect much of a drop. DS dropped on 8.8% in USA from 2011 in Q4 2012 for this region. - http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=5016891

IF 40% drops are crazy to you, then the DS is going crazy good, because it's dropping less then 40% lol.

So if DS continues to follow the pattern it's been holding recently, sales realistically shouldn't drop below 2 million annually for 2013. I think 2.5 million is very possible.

Like I argued previously, it's possible that the DS tops the current PS2 value within the next 2 years, 3 is almost certain, unless discontinued.

So the only thing worth debating is the validity of the article. IF PS2 is discontinued, it's very likely DS surpasses it. If not, then it's unlikely because PS2 still sold 2.92 million units in 2012, which isn't that much less then DS.

Also you can't say for certain that DS will not be on shelves in 2015. 3DS is completely backward compatible with DS games, so in 2015 it's very probable there will still be a sizable DS software market, and who could have predicted that the PS2 would have been sold, at a reasonable pace, until it's sucessors sucessor release. PS2 sold over 50 million units after being replaced, I don't think anyone of us would have predicted that in 2006. So DS could shock us like PS2 did.

Yea, sure. You can compare a car, which takes you from house to house legally, to a plane which can legally take you from house to house. Currently, it's illegal to fly a personal aricraft in many large cities and above roadways, so the only planes that work in this situation are plane/cars like these:



They are both personal automobile, aka automatic mobile things, which belong to an individual.

I think a better comparision would be comparing a boat to a car for individuals who live on a coast and do all their commutes/errands to places along coasts. Doesn't matter if you take a car or a boat, it still gets you there, and you can park it in your garage. So just like bith handhelds and home consoles, they still play video games, often in the same place, but not always.

Or another better comparision would be Jam Blasters, or BeatBoxes of the 1980's. MP3's and Walkmans didn't exist back then, but who cares? You had 8 D Batteries and a Stereo on your shoulder. If that system any different from the one you have at home?

Sure we have MP3 players now, but do you listen do different music at home then on the go? Or is it still music? How is miniturizing technology make it any different from the old school Beat Boxes?

I salute you sir for your hard work. But that doesn't change my mind

Did the costs of production exceed sales or do they just hate money?

Also the DS will easily outsell the PS2, but people forget it was a handheld, so it's an apples oranges comparison. Now once the Wii outsells the PS1, that will be something worth talking about.