Nintendo sells 21 million DS systems worldwide

You guys can keep on bickering over details and semantics.

All I gotta say is that Nintendo's done a good job with their DS line.

Nintendo is selling pretty pictures to the blind, promising them they will see again.
This non-gamer market may or may not exist.

Most DS games cost half as much as PSP games.
Hence, you need to sell 2M DS game units to gross as much as when you sell 1M PSP game units.

The big secret of the DS is that it's cheap. Anyone can buy it without feeling any sense of expense or risk.
The same goes for DS games. When you pop $19 for a game, you consider you won't lose much if it sucks.
Finally, kids and Nintendo fans buy Nintendo products on brand loyalty alone.

@16

I don't thing the numbers will get more even.

Even if all other territories are roughly equal between the two, in Japan, the DS regularly sells 4-5 times as many as the PSP.

That equals, at minimum, roughly 100,000 more DS every week...and in a year at least 5 million more. From the numbers, it's more like 6-8 million when including Golden Week (their holiday season) in Japan.

Assuming a 4 year lifespan for the DS, (with the first year being relatively neck and neck) the PSP would have to sell for 5-6 more years than the DS to make that difference up at their current sell rates.

I don't see the PSP or any possible revisions selling to 2014.

This would of course ignore the units sold of the inevitable Nintendo release following the DS.

@DB

Hey I agree with the comments about the rants of fanboys and such and how it shouldn't matter but you forget that some of those fanboys were developers and industry insiders. When developers and the like are making comments like they're fans then that's a problem.

The Xbox lost MS 4 billion. That's a success?
Gamecube was third place but it did turn a profit for Nintendo so I guess that's saying something. Gamecube created the same niche that you just mentioned but it's not viewed in a positive light like you portray that position with the PSP.

Justin Credible (great name) puts it perfectly. People (developers as well) are still predicting doom for the DS while they forget that it's the games that are keeping it in the sales charts at the worst time of the year....summer drought season. The games, man, DS proves that you don't have to have the best graphics, they just have to be good enough. Personally, I don't want to pay $250 to $300 on a portable. I sure as hell don't want to pay $50 per title for a portable. That's ridiculous.

I can see why Nintendo is trying to keep the hardware affordable. It's business. It helps to maximize profits and it's more enticing to the consumer when the final price isn't almost the same as a next gen console. Would I want 8 megs of ram and a higher resolution screen? Sure. But not if it's going to drive the price up another 100 bucks.

Like I said. I have a DS and a DS lite. I'm an early adopter. I complained to Nintendo about the putrid library at launch and badgered them about a port of 1080 and Waverace. I was considering a PSP but there's nothing I really want to play on it. A few games worthy of mention but not enough to justify the investment. I want Sony to fail until they realize that this is game market. Support the PSP with quality, original titles, stable hardware and not all of this extra functionality garbage. I think the fans deserve that. Don't you?

#52

Yeah, just as much as other people who are Sony loyalists will buy the PSP and it's games for brand loyalty alone. But, hey, if you want to take the conspiracy theory route, go right ahead.

I just think you have some sort of problem with Nintendo, and like to hate on their systems. Since all your comments are in these blogs are about how Nintendo somehow sucks, or how they somehow decieve people into buying their stuff.

"In addition, 2nd place is NEVER failure, in the home console or handheld market."

Tell that to the Game Gear.

@55

Yet, I own a DS Lite and no PSP. Makes sense.

I made a mistake buying a DS Lite against the advice of my Japanese friends who told me: "DS is for children. PSP is for adults. You should buy a PSP."

I will soon buy a PSP and bash that too if it's not better than my DS Lite.
Crap is crap no matter what you take as a system of reference.

striderhayasa

This is where we differ, the niche that Gamecube created was only like 20% of the market at the end of the cycle. PSP has already taken 34% in less than two years.

I bought a PSP because of its good graphics and flexibility to do other things than gaming. I find the fact that I can play flash games (free), get on AIM, and the homebrew community justification enough for my $250 purchase (which is now like $199 or so). If Sony could incorporate this community into their Playstation Network, it would be a successful service (they have hinted at the ability to submit indie products to the network).

I agree that the original titles have been lacking for the PSP, but if you look at the upcoming titles the future will be different as they've started to see the benefits of simple entertaining games. Sony has always been good at adjusting to changing markets, but that takes time and won't happen over 6 months. The DS didn't exactly have all these exciting titles in its first 9 months. I personally am looking forward to console sellers like MGS and Gran Turismo, but also unique fun games like LocoRoco. I just wouldn't count Sony out of the game as they've got the PSone emulator, movie downloads, and the PS3 connectivity that builds a simple closed environment that has made the Ipod/Itunes a run away hit. We've got a few good more years in this war and it looks to be entertaining.

I'd rather pay an extra $100 to get another year out of the device than to purchase a DSphat and then a DSlite a year later. Sony has created a device that is flexible enough to hold its ground for a longer product lifecycle through firmware updates. It's pretty much the same way I rationalize a PS3 purchase. If it's going to last me 5 years and I know all my past games will still work then it's worth the upfront costs.

I'm getting both. The games that I've played for the DS are good, so that's why I'm buying it. I'm waiting for a few games on the PSP to come out, but loading times on a portable system don't intrigue me at all.

"Crap" is also a speculative view, so not everyone has to think it's crap if you do. :P

@ Mosquito Control

"In addition, 2nd place is NEVER failure, in the home console or handheld market."

Tell that to the Game Gear.

LOL! I hear you

#58

Both the Xbox and Gamecube had a little less than 20% of the market at the end of the cycles, so you'd have to say that both the systems are a failure. If you think the PSP is going to have a lifecycle a year more than the DS, you're kidding yourself. Unless Sony doesn't make another attempt at the handheld market. Being released 4 months after the DS doesn't mean it will last a year after, especially when Nintendo releases their new handheld. The PS2 was released a year before the Xbox and Gamecube, so that would mean with their more powerful systems and advanced technology that they would last a year more than the PS2. The DS Lite changes are merely asthetic, and DS Phat users don't need to go Lite to get the complete DS experience.

That $199 comment doesn't take into consideration the memory sticks you need to buy to play games and go online.

"48. @8

I honestly think its a dig at Sony and their "iPod killer".

I think it out of place, but I think that's a partial reason for the statement."

LOL, true. I had almost forgotten that. Layered, indirect swipe for the win. :P

Personally though I think Nintendo's so successful that they don't need to prove anything, but that makes a little sense.

@DB

Okay, I see where you're coming from. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Personally, I see the firmware updates as a double-edge sword. Is a great way to add functions but it also attempts to lock out the Mod community. On that note, have you forgotten that DS has a dedicated mod community as well? I don't activately support it and I'm not a fan of ROM downloads. I have always thought it ironic that the same games that Nintendo gets ridiculed for making have become a selling point for the PSP through illegal emulation.

PSP's added functionality doesn't cut it for me. It sucks as a movie player because the screen has a terrible refresh rate. It's stinks as an MP3 player because it's too big. It's suspect as a game player because of the library. I'm not going to even attempt to surf the web with a PSP with that analog nub let alone a D-pad. It's retarded. Instead of using r & D to make killer games for the PSP we get a PS1 emulator? Where are the original titles at man ? Cmon! MGS, Gran Turismo? LocoRoco? DS owners are getting FFIII, Castlevania, Zelda, Diddy Kong Racing, Panzer Tactics, Bleach 2, JumpSuper Stars 2, Star Fox, FF Crystal Cronicles, Children of Mana, Tales of the Tempest, Hotel Dusk 215, Elite Beat Agents, Phoenix Wright 2....cmon it's no contest.

So what do you really get for another 100 bucks? If I want to listen to music I have an ipod for that and it smokes the PSP. If I want to watch movies on the go, I'll get a video Ipod or just say screw it and get a portable DVD player that has better battery life a better screen and plays all of my DVDs. If I want to play great games, I get a DS.

Jack-of-all trades, master of none technology never sits well with me and just because the tech has a Sony label on it makes me twice as suspicious.

LoOpey I understand how your trying to post something that will amke people think the PSP isn't dead but look your thinking doesn't back any crediability. NPD has come out and said that they think that the psp has sold around 10 million units world wide and with Nintendo saying that they have SOLD OVER 21 MILLION UNITS a 11 million unit gap is big. Also the DS lite has just come out and with that new look I expect sales to jump even more. The DS lite was the number 1 selling videogame console in the U.S beating out the PS@,360,and PSP and everything else. It's also the same thing in Japan and europe.

Now if you take that into consideration then I think RIGHT NOW the psp is screwed. Also this year seems to be another win for the DS and its games. You think that ffIII and zelda are the only big games that are going to come out for the DS this year.

You have Zelda:Phantom Hourglass, Final Fantasy III, Megaman ZX, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin, Mario hoops 3 on 3, Starfox Command, Children of Mana, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Rocket slime from dragonquest, DS Air(Its a Jet fighter game from Nintendo), the 2 pokemon titles coming out later this year, pokemon Daimond and Pearl are the other 2 titles which make a total of 4(Also just to let you know these are really big titles that usually sell over 2 million each)Lunar Knights from Kojima creator of Metal gear Solid, Harvest Moon DS,MarioVs. Donkey Kong, Diddy kong racing,Yoshi's Island 2, Pheonix Wright:Justice for All, trauma center sequel, Death Jr.

All these games are going to come out and are going to be big hits and you say that the DS will have a hard time for next year and this year because GT:PSP is coming out and some other franchises from sony. look you have to look at all the games that are going to be released for the DS and if none of them look good then you can say that the DS will have trouble but for this year and next I think that the DS will have no problem giving its gamers games for them to play that are really good and are AAA titles. As for the PSP I think that 3rd parties and sony it self will have to work harder to make games that really make use of the handhelds potential. The PSP has the Potential to really compete with nintendo but right now it doesn't look that good. i hope one day they can cause more competition the better it is for us gamers.

I want to the Gamestop in the mall though, and PSP had at least 2 wall sections right next to the entrance, and the rest of the wall was PS2, while the xbox/360 had like, an entire half of the store(WTF?), and the ds had a tiny half wall in the back corner right next to the gamecube corner. And they didn't even have Meteos, which was what I was lookin for -_-.

Number 18 I feel your pain. At the gamestop I go to in the Bronx I have noticed the same. Ps2 psp and gba is at the front entrance PS2 has one big section the psp umd and psp umd game share one big section, and the gba has a small descent section. More to the back is xbox and xbox360 both share a wall, and then to the left side is gamecube and ds both gamecube and ds sections are messy with gamecube and ds game boxes are neglecgted by the gamestop staff. But then again i live in a predominalty hip hop centric neigborhood and hip hop people usually go with anything playstation. PSP might be dead but to many of the puertoricans and african americans in my nieghborhood psp is the shit! UMD is better then DVD, and the psp is better then the IPOD this is what they say. PSP entire UMD movie section sells more then the entire ds software section. Today when I went to gamestop i told them about the situation of the psp, they could have not belive about the ds selling 21 million and they cant belive many retailers are pulling off the psp umd movies and they didnt know psp games suck. PSP and psp related products sold so well in my niegborhood that gamestop staff thought if the psp sold well here then sells were anywhere which was not the case when I told them about the psp situation. Were i Live the Ds sucks but im stll proud to own a DS. DS owns Japan and the DS owns Europe and soon will own AMerica, The only two demographic the psp has right now is the tech savvy crowd and the hip hop crowd, those are the only two crowds holding it up for the psp here in the states, IF sony looses the tech savvy or the hip hop crowd against the ds the psp will become a hardcore gamers device and the Ds casual.

Aaaargh! Joystiq. Do you do this just to stir up the insomniac fanboys (it's way late over here in the UK).

I've said it before, but I feel I must say it again.

First:

PSP and DS are not interchangeable products (though their capabilities do overlap), and they're not aimed at exactly the same market (though their markets do overlap - hence the number of people on this site at least who own both)... Hence all talk of 1st or 2nd place in some notional battle is almost meaningless.

Second - and most importantly:

Handheld sales are not a zero sum game. A sale for one company or system is not automatically a defeat, and by implication one step closer to commerical death, for another. Both products can happily co-exist (a fact that Nintendo seems to accept by not deep sixing its all of its other handhelds).

*sigh*

But this blog piece about Ninty's sales/shipping figures does raise one question for me: how come I see so few of either system around? When I bought my PSP, I bought it partly in anticipation of taking on complete strangers in ad hoc gaming battles on the train to work. And yet I've never even used my PSP in that way. Why? Because I just don't see many other PSPs around. And before somone says the obvious, the same goes for DSs. It's very rare to see someone playing one out and about, and I've never seen any wireless gaming going on.

So a serious question: why haven't the latest gen handhelds taken off in the way that, say, the iPOD has?

now THIS is IMPRESSIVE, not like the xbox 360 thats making a big deal of 5 million WORLDWIDE.

*whistles at the flame war*

Make that 21,000,001. I just convinced a friend to buy a DS so he can play chess. Does anyone happen to know if Ultimate Brain Games's chess AI is any good?

Now I just need to make sure he follows through on it. Hmm, there's a good chinese resturant next to a gamestop nearby... Sounds like lunch tomorrow. :)

Actually, that leads me into another bitch - game stores have crap for DS game selection. I don't think I'd be able to find that game there.

MrD

The system comes with a memory stick and it costs like $30 for a 1GB stick.

striderhayasa

I only mentioned games that I'm looking forward to playing and not the entire library. I'd personally rather just get emulation (which has proven popular as seen in the homebrew community) than to continue to get remakes. We're just looking for two different experiences.

The playstation is a machine with many features and I'm not sure you've spent enough time to master them all. The PSP does function well as a movie player if you encode your videos correctly (PS3 will simplify this). It's significantly better than playing it on a smaller video ipod that lacks a fast forward or reverse function. Surfing on the internet is one of the best implemented features on the device and is significantly better than any cell phone or other portable device available in its price range. I agree it isn't the smallest MP3 player, but the point of the device is that I don't have to carry all these other devices on a trip to do these individual tasks. A DVD player and DS alone would be more bulky than a PSP and you still can't play MP3 music.

What I get for my extra $199 + $30 1GB card ($230 vs. $130) is the ability to do multiple tasks with a single device on the go. I don't have to carry my video ipod and DS combination to satisfy my gaming and music/video needs. I can accomplish that with one device that's significantly cheaper than the two.

^^^number 66

I Dont know what part of AMerica were you come from but i thought the same when I got my Ds so i can play people wirelessly in the number 4train in nyc but to my demise hardly see people with ds, i mostly see people with gba or psp on a daily basis. In every train car there is somebody using a psp or a gba but nobody using a ds. THe DS started to pick upstream up here recently in NYC with the DSlite. Ds probably pick up mass audiences in different parts of America probably around the seattle area or san francisco area. PSP is from what i know of is popular in NYC because of the hip hop culture here in the city. But in a gaming perspective i really feel sorry for IGN for calling the psp the the walkman of the 21st century and i feel sorry for gamespy for calling the psp the IPOD of Gaming, psp failed at being the ipod of gaming or walkman of the 21st century. And the psp failed to kill 2 birds with one stone nintendo and apple. If anything sony should try real hard to hold on to the homebrew tech savvy crowd and the hip hop crowd, if sony looses both of those crowds to the ds the psp in North America will then be officially not be a failure but however doomed!

Just for fun:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=Nintendo+DS%2C+Sony+PSP

Spot on DBX00! The PSP is an attempt to package a number of entertainment solutions in one device, and that's what I think many of its owner use it for. Sometimes we're in a movie mood. Other times we're in a music mood. And on yet others we fancy a few minutes of a video game.

Granted it doesn't excel at any of those, but:

a) it does them all more than tolerably well;
b) it's not bad for a first iteration.

I suspect I'm one of the few regular visitors to this blog to remember the very first Sony Walkman. It was a monster. It was the size of a paperback novel, and rewinding one D-90 (now I'm really showing my age) sucked the life out of the FOUR AA batteries it required in seconds. But - and it's a big but - it paved the way for the cassette players that followed it, and pretty much every portable music device that followed them. I'm beginning to think of the PSP in the same way: flawed, but more than function, and a big step towards the future.

One final thought before Mistress Sleep clutches me to her soft, ample bosom: I never fail to be amused that the PSP - a multimedia device - is forever being slated for being overpriced, whilst the iPOD - a single media (or at a push two-media) device rarely recieves any critism for its pricing.

I know the PSP's lack of memory is one huge issue here (and I still curse Sony to this day for not loading it with at least 1gb of onboard), but surely...?

Ahem the DS is expected to sell 20 million units this 2006 fiscal year. DS sales numbers are increasing in all terrioties while the psp is either dropping or staying the same.

Christmass time is going to be huge for the DS.

@ DB, The refresh rate isn't from encoding dude. You can see the piss poor refresh rate in the games. Burnout, NCAA, Madden, Midnight Club...it's there. Also, how big is a DSLite and a IPod Nano? Are you kidding me? Those things are small enough to not even care. Then we talk about battery life. Playing MP3s, watching UMDs and playing games....how far is your PSP going to go on one charge. Good luck with that one. Or you can suit up like Iron man with extra packs strapped to you belt.
If I really need to surf on the go, I'd do it on the DS even with the limited functionilty because I have stylus control and the touch screen,

Then we have the additional costs of mem sticks since we all know that movies game saves, music and emulated ROMs from the PS1 era will take their fair share of storage.

I'm good. I want to play games with my gaming portable. First and foremost. If my portable has a crap library but offers me average-at-best functionality for MP3s and movies and web surfer, I'd sell it. That's like having a car that looks great but runs like crap for 3 miles to the gallon, but it has a kick ass system and the phat rims....who gives a crap! As a car it DOESN'T GO ANYWHERE. That's the PSP

why does the DS sell more? Because it makes a better gift than a PSP. the price is low enough to give one to your nephew, stepfather, girlfriend, plus a game that they might enjoy.

You can't say the same about the PSP. It's more expensive, more sophisticated (i.e. complex), and your father-in-law, or grandma doesn't care about it's best games: GTA, Syphon filter, Tekken.

striderhayasa

See post #71

Btw, with the Nano you're still missing video playback and for some reason I don't have a problem with video playback on my PSP so the refresh seems fine. I wouldn't try to compare the cost of ownership for a Nano and DSLite combination to a single PSP even with two 2GB or a single 4GB memory stick.

Like I said before, we're in the market for two different devices. Even if you don't appreciate rims and a phat system. There is a whole market that is surrounded by that and a high performance sports cars. THAT's the PSP. A high performance machine that provides a ride like no other single machine. Okay, I'm done. I'm going to play some Mario 3 and it ain't on a DSLite.

I bought a ds last night with brain age and new super mario bros. and I love it. the touch screen is awesome and the system does have some pretty good graphics. I can do without all the multimedia crap ala PSP. that's why I have an MP3 player. it just goes to show that nintendo will always rule the portable market!

TO be honest my IPODnano told me to get a DS, I would have gotten a psp if i did not have an ipod or a DS, But having both a dedicated portable music player and a dedicated portable video game machine equals endless hours of fun at work or at the college campus. But i did realise that i could have easliy bought a psp since i the price of my ds cost me 150 and my ipod nano2gig cost me 189, i could have bought a psp and a descent size memory stick, but my gut had to go with Apple and Nintendo. Psp is not a bad system it failed its promise about killing two birds with one stone. Atleast it stills sells well in North AMerica. Even though people in my neck of the woods call me an idiot because I own both an Ipod and a DS. WEll any way tomorrow im going to walk into the sony style store in manhattan and going to walk in with both a DSlite and an IPOD Nano and make sony fanboys upset.

#52

What does your comment mean?
"Most DS games cost half as much as PSP games.
Hence, you need to sell 2M DS game units to gross as much as when you sell 1M PSP game units."

Don't forget that DS games probably cost less to produce than the PSP games so I don't think Nintendo needs to sell twice as much in games to keep up with the PSP game sales -- or lack of sales. And I have a PSP and a DSPhat & Lite. I do love my PSP for storing my pics, but the DSLite is awesome for gaming.

Then that Krazy Kutaragi will claim PSP had SHIPPED 23 million (..cough..!..10 million sold...cough...!)

#75

It gives you a ride like no other machine? I can agree with that, but I don't think I would agree that the games are better (when comparing it to the DS, that is). I mean, some of the games are great, but more of them are hit or miss with me, while I can trust my senses more with DS games.

I'm just not crazy that I need a memory stick for game saves. Where I can play a game ($20-35) on the DS, and that game will have the save for me on itself. I have to buy a $40-50 game for the PSP (until more of the games that I like go on the Greatest Hits section), on top of needing a memory stick to save games for it. Sony wanted to push their Pro Duos, and that's fine I guess, but it makes us lose in the end.

I also don't like that you have to keep up with firmware updates to be able to play the newest games. I know it's easy to do, but I unfortunately don't have high-speed internet, which makes it harder on me to have to keep up with them. The DS will play any game made for it, without needing firmware updates.

All in all, though, both are great systems. Though, I do think that the advantages of the DS are showing through in sales.

Well I'll say this much as a former dev'r with a 3rd party company a few years back (Midway) and now as part of the online gaming media I keep up on stuff. One thing I got from not the media end, but from working the stuff a few years back is that Nintendo MEANS **sold** when they say it. There are times in periods of their existance when they've used the word shipped, but they literally were saying they had SHIPPED out X units, but they always will clearly state what they have literally sold and put into some consumers (not retailers warehouse) hands.

SONY is the one who lies through their damn teeth and use SHIPPED numbers as their sold totals to have the appearance of moving more hardware and software and have since day one back in the mid 90s. I'm not sure on Microsofts policy as I never owned their gaming stuff so I never bothered checking it out.

Despite the DS Lite surge (expected with the new system, even the Micro sold big at first), we're still looking at about 17-17.5 million PSPs sold, over 20 million shipped and 21 million DS units sold, according to Nintendo's own statements, including the phat and Lite. A total of about 4 million or less difference, which is about the sales lead the DS started with after its head starts in Japan and the USA (four months in US, severe hardware shortage in Japan for December)

So where's this massive worldwide dominance of DS sales the fanboys are pointing to? Where's the 4-5 times higher DS sales other than in Japan? Where's this horrible demise of the PSP so obviously reflected in sales when there's still PSP games hitting top 10 charts (like Best Buy)?

It's all in the rabid anti-Sony sentiment so popular with bloggers, and the usual overvocal, overpresent Nintendo fans who, like Mac freaks, decry anything that threatens their beloved company.

"SONY is the one who lies through their damn teeth and use SHIPPED numbers as their sold totals to have the appearance of moving more hardware and software"

As a former dev, you should know better. 20 million shipped means pretty much almost that sold, maybe 2-3 million less, at most. Do you really think Wal Mart or Target keep 500,000 units sitting on shelves or warehouses? But let's say they did, they still wouldn't place another order for that many the following month, so the 'shipped' total would go accordingly.

I don't doubt Sony benefits from using shipped figures, but if anyone's "lying" it's Nintendo, because they don't have exact sales figures for ALL retailers, either. Sony is giving an exact figure - Nintendo is extrapolating for many retail outlets and exporters.