I think it has to do with the view of games in the US vs other regions, games are still viewed in a negative way here moreso than other regions by the mainstream, thanks in part to people like Jack Thompson and even with the WiiDS effect its still in a transition period, so its just recently started to gain more support. On the other side the traditional gamers arean't helping it by claiming that Nintendo is somehow killing gaming by going more mainstream.

From a little chart research, it looks like the DS was regarded by Americans as very similar to the GBA until the DS Lite was released. Nintendo of America failed to convince Americans that the DS was a clearly better device than GBA until the iPod-inspired redesign.

Don't forget that the GBA has sold around 16 million units in America since the DS launch. Compare that to Japan, where fewer than 3 million GBAs have sold since the DS launch. Remember that America's total handheld sales are not that disproportionate to Japan's, given their respective populations (estimated PSP + DS + GBA since Holiday '04: Japan = 26 mil, US = 34 mil).

Indeed, until the DS Lite, the DS tended to sell similarly to the GBA. After the redesign, sales diverged, mostly due to increased Lite sales. Note that the ratio of Nintendo handhelds to Sony handhelds sold in the past 30 months is similar in both Japan and America (about 78-22% and 75-25%, respectively).

So, short answer: America thought GBA and DS were roughly equivalent until the DS Lite hit the scene.

Rumor is that Target plans to quit stocking GBA consoles and games soon, and other big-box retailers are likely considering it. It would be a good idea, particularly before fall. If retailers quit carrying the GBA, look for a decisive boost to DS sales vs. PSP, perhaps enough to push it close to the 2:1 installed base in Europe if not quite to the 3:1 installed base in Japan.

Japan already has had pokemon revelotion for the wii/ds for awhile. America will get it soon. Once the wii games come out that make use of the DS as a controller here, there will be some boosts to DS sales.

Reason #1:

GBA. Consumers aren't purchasing the DS en-masse since the GBA is still selling very well. Even @ 80k/mo, thats FAR better than Japan, which dropped the GBA like a smelly turd.

Reason #2:

PSP. The PSP still sells very well in the US, and unlike Japan's 5:1 ratio, it's more of like 2.5:1 in the US. There are only so many handheld sales to go around in the US.

Finally, to sum it up: The US handheld market sells around 700,000 units a month. In Japan, it's around 600k. However, the ratios are far different. Not only this, major uber-J games like Brain Training, and such have not caught on in the US like Japan. They sell well, and Nintendogs is huge, but there aren't any 4m+ sellers in the US aside from Nintendogs and Pokemon (shortly). In Japan, 1m is nothing anymore. In the US, it's still kinda sacred.

mrstickball said: Reason #1: GBA. Consumers aren't purchasing the DS en-masse since the GBA is still selling very well. Even @ 80k/mo, thats FAR better than Japan, which dropped the GBA like a smelly turd. Reason #2: PSP. The PSP still sells very well in the US, and unlike Japan's 5:1 ratio, it's more of like 2.5:1 in the US. There are only so many handheld sales to go around in the US. Finally, to sum it up: The US handheld market sells around 700,000 units a month. In Japan, it's around 600k. However, the ratios are far different. Not only this, major uber-J games like Brain Training, and such have not caught on in the US like Japan. They sell well, and Nintendogs is huge, but there aren't any 4m+ sellers in the US aside from Nintendogs and Pokemon (shortly). In Japan, 1m is nothing anymore. In the US, it's still kinda sacred.

 Totally agree. 

I didn't even know about the DS really until the DSLite came out. I don't think it was ever really pushed here until then.

DKII said: I didn't even know about the DS really until the DSLite came out. I don't think it was ever really pushed here until then

 It seems that Mario Kart was the trigger that started the rush in the states to buy the system.  I don't think many people noticed the DS up until that point.  Once Mario Kart hit, things went nuts...  then the DS Lite came along and things went even crazier.  Just not GBA crazy as the GBA has cheap games and a cheap price.  You can buy a GBA, break it and not feel bad about it as it's cheap.  The DS looks expensive (not kid friendly lookswise) and is almost double the GBA's price so of course the GBA is still selling well.

 

Ultimately though, only the GBA has sold ultra-fast in the US. GBA did somewhere near 1.5m or more on it's first month. Outside of this, handhelds have sold slow but steady. I think that the DSL has a splendid future in the US, but I only see it reaching around 30~35m in the US once the succuessor is released.

However, that really doesn't hurt it, as it's still going to be a major market. I guess everyone just expects the US, since it's larger for most every system, to magically do some insane sort of numbers. However, I do think that the DS is just a great case of an oddity. In Japan, it's selling faster than anywhere - which really does show that Japanese tastes in taming are truely different than the US and Europe. Europe is adopting the huge handheld push that Japan is, but it's not entirely in the DS (PSP still sells very well there, ala US).

I think also that Nintendo just isn't entirely catering to a US fanbase with their games. There are tons of great games, don't get me wrong, but it's still taking time for handheld makers to adopt to Western DS fare, whereas in Japan, we see huge 3rd party games release every week there. Go look at the DS US charts: It's flooded with junky, poor titles that really are just cash-ins on little kids like Hanna Montana, movie tie-ins, and such. It leaves Nintendo to bear the entire burden of sales, to which it really shouldn't. If 3rd parties can wake up and realize that they need the DS's sales capacities, the DS should do better.

But ultimately, the DS isn't doing bad in the US. 12m+ units and 400k/mo isn't anything to balk about. It's just something of an anomaly when one can extrapolate that the DS could do anywhere from 40-50m units in Japan alone before DS2 comes out.

Well it's still got plenty of time til a successor haha. We are talking 2012 timeframe until a successor. So another 5 years for DS to try an overtake GBA.

...Although I agree that it'll be 2011~2012 until a succuessor, an early PSP2 could disrupt Nintendo's sales and R&D, and cause them to jump the DS1 ship ala GBA, and release a design earlier.

Ultimately though, the DS family of systems will easily out-sell the Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advanced family of systems that were from 1989 to current. Those family of systems sold around 200 to 210m units over their lifetimes. Thats 11.6m units per year. The DS family is selling around 18m per year.