Yes DS games sell badly they have only 13 of the Top30 games this week (and this must be one of the worst DS weeks ever)

Perhaps games that do well on home consoles simply do not sell that much on handhelds? Ever thought about that? Because of that Nintendogs etc. will suck on home consoles and FPS do not do well on handhelds.

 I'm sure you're right, but that goes to show another issue you have to deal with when making a game on a system that has so many software offerings. It's very easy for your game to get overshadowed when there's so many other great titles. It makes marketing and hyping a game a very difficult challenge.

Again, as a developer, a huge install base doesn't always work in your favor.

How about RPGs or are those just the exception rather than the rule?

Erm, I don't get it.  All you've shown are games that didn't sell well on a system with a large install base.  Does that actually prove anything?  If there were PSP versions released that sold better, I can see your point, but otherwise it doesn't help the case of lesser selling systems at all.  These are new, unproven IPs - if Dragon Quest IX does bad then you have a case.

Nothing guarantees a game will sell well, however, a larger install base is always better than a smaller one.  If you're trying to pin the failure of these games on the DS' demographics, you don't have a case unless you have examples of PSP games that did better.  Otherwise, all I see here is Square Enix struggling to break out with new IPs, which has little to do with the DS.

That's actually kind of my point. I'm not trying to say it's a categorically bad idea for devs to make games on the DS. Like you said, a lot of games sell well. All I'm saying is that just SOLELY b/c a system tends to sell a ton of software and has a huge install base, it doesn't mean any and every game is going to sell well even if said game is good.

Another reason many of those games sold poorly is because Japanese gamers are hesistant to buy new IPs and rather buy games in existing series.  Very few series that started this generation have reached blockbuster success in Japan.  The only ones I can think of is Monster Hunter and Professor Layton and manybe a few others I am forgeting

You're right, pretty much. But here comes a subtle nuance. A larger install base is always better than a small one, but a large install base doesn't necessarily lead to large sales. In fact, on a system with a large install base and a ton of software offerings, there are additional challenges a developer faces that they wouldn't have to deal with as much on another system. Most of the time the benefits of the popular system outweighs those additional challenges. That's why the DS gets so much support. But sometimes, like in the case of these two games, those challenges aren't able to be overcome and good games aren't able to take advantage of that huge install base.

Actually it's quite simple to understand. If the install base is X consoles, the number of games sold will end at N.X, where N is the final tie ratio. N can vary with a few factors, like if it's a handheld or a console, how much the games cost, is the console really a console, etc. Moreover, N tends to be smaller when the install base is bigger, because core gamers represent a smaller percentage.

So the numbers of games sold is quite fixed by the hardware itself. Now if there are 100M games to be sold on a console and 20M on another, you can be sure that developers will make about 5 times more games for the first one, resulting in good sales for all the games.

So when games globally don't sell well on a console, it's because there's too many games released on this console. On the other hand, if games sell excessively well on a console, it's because there aren't enough games on this console.

Anyway developers are quite good at maintaining a good balance, except for shovelware that tend to hurt a bit the sales of good games on the leading console.

I've just heard a lot of folks wonder aloud things like "Why is Square Enix supporting the PSP so much when they could make these games on DS," or "why are developers ignoring the Wii; there's so many systems out there."

My original post is in response to these questions along with the arguments I mentioned in the first paragraph. IMO, devs are seeing what I'm seeing, which is that a large install base doesn't necessarily mean the dev is going to generate big time sales and profit by releasing their game on this popular system. They might actually be better off releasing their game another system where they don't have to compete with many other games.

Finally, someone who gets it. I didn't think what I was saying was that crazy.