Topic: Wii/DS overtake NES/Gameboy sales

[idolminds]

Amazatron!

Family Computer System, called Nintendo Entertainment System or NES in short in overseas markets, had sold 61.91 million units, which was the largest unit sales figure for any Nintendo home videogame consoles.

The cumulative sales of Wii hardware from Nintendo to our distributors and retail customers reached 67.45 million units as of the end of December 2009. It has replaced NES to become the best selling Nintendo home videogame console of all time.

Among handheld hardware, GameBoy series have sold through 118.69 million units in total since the launch, which was the largest unit sales figure among all Nintendo's hardware products.

As of the end of December 2009, when Wii marked the record LTD sales as the number one selling Nintendo home console, the life-to-date shipments of Nintendo DS series reached 125.13 million units, which has now become largest sales figure among all of the Nintendo's videogame hardware.

Needless to say, these are just two milestones of a larger journey in our efforts to reach the ultimate goal of bringing one home console for every household and one handheld for everyone.

[Quemaqua]

Quick, better release a new model so we can resell the same product to the same people and bump up the numbers!

It hurts me to say that.  I love my DS, I really do, even more so now because it's compatible with games from all regions.  But still...

[Cobra951]

That's true.  I hadn't thought of that.  They make a slight change to the thickness or add a camera, and today's idiot consumers buy it again.  I confess to buying a GBA SP after getting the original GBA, but that was because I was really unhappy with how dim the original was under most real-world conditions.  My original, thicker DS is fine by me for the duration.  A DS without a GBA slot isn't a DS to me anyway.

Another big difference then and now is who's responsible for the console sales numbers.  The NES was the mainstay of console gaming during its day.  The Wii is a different animal entirely, selling so well because of its novelty value to people who never cared about consoles before.  That's not to say that real gamers don't buy them, only that the numbers are way inflated by a different demographic who won't help the sales of a good, diverse Wii game library.

[idolminds]

Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Light (in Japan), Gameboy Color....with each of those releasing over time in a bunch of different colors. So its not like the GB line didn't have the same multi-model repackaging/rebuying thing going for it.

[Quemaqua]

That's very true.  At least the color had something substantially different about it, though.  With the DS it's essentially been the exact same thing with slight tweaks each time.  I forgave the DS Lite redesign, but from there it just seems too much.

I do have a Lite and a regular brick, though.  My brick now does nothing but constantly run this, so I'm often using that to translate games I'm playing on the Lite, heh.  Recharging ftl.

[idolminds]

I want a new DS just because the screen on mine is pretty scratched up.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, that's definitely a valid reason to get a new one.  And I confess, it's tempting to get a DSi just to use with this dictionary because I use it so much and the big screen would be completely epic.  But that's a lot of money just to buy a new, still-somewhat-small sreen.

[idolminds]

I'm waiting for that XL model that should be out in a couple months. I use my DS at home more and I'd really like the larger screen. Thing is a beast compared to the regular DSi.

[Quemaqua]

Apparently I haven't heard of this.  How big is it?

[idolminds]

That shot doesnt really do it justice. And my mistake, its the LL, not XL. Just a quick google to see other shots. The screen is like the PSP screen sized.

[idolminds]

Ok, heres better comparisons. I was at the library last night when I posted so didn't really have time to look.

[Quemaqua]

And there you show it to me displaying the very software I'm most interested in running.  You bastard.  Ugh... that's really far too tempting...