Report: 3DS sells 400K on opening weekend
Nintendo sold roughly 400,000 of its new 3DS handheld in Japan this weekend, according to estimates. Nikkei (via Andriasang) reports that the...
Nintendo sold roughly 400,000 of its new 3DS handheld in Japan this weekend, according to estimates. Nikkei (via Andriasang) reports that the company shipped over 400,000 units to retailers for its February 26 launch, and most are already sold out of their initial shipments.
Nintendo plans to sell 1.5 million in Japan by the end of the month, and is already sending out its second shipments. It will also ship 4 million units worldwide by March 31, which means plenty to go around in Europe and North America when they hit on March 25 and 27, respectively.
By comparison, the Nintendo DSi sold about 500,000 units in its first month in Japan. Of course, the DSi was more of a minor revision than a major upgrade, so the slower sales make sense.
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replyComment on Report: 3DS sells 400K on opening weekend, by Steve Watts.
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I am not liking this addition of front pagers in the chatty.
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I just assumed since it reminded me of a Youtube post.
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I am still not sure I want to buy this. When it was first announced, I was all for it. But lately I find myself playing my iPhone more than my DS. Also, I bought the big fat boy DS and was bummed when they released the lite with a better screen. So, given their track record with handheld releases there will be a better 3DS in 2 years.
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Except the speakers were better on the DS, and I guess if you really care it was somewhat nicer to have GBA carts not sticking out in the DS, but I ended up not being too bothered.
But yeah, those were pretty minor downsides, and the DSLite was over all a huge improvement on the design.-
I hope the speakers on the 3DS are better than the Lite ...
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I understand your comments, but doesn't apple do the same thing with an iPhone every 2 years? And god knows how long it takes for someone to build a better Android (2 months, 3 tops?).
And the 3DS is way cheaper than a top-of-the-line Phone. (I have heard that someone, I think LG, is making phones with a similar screen, but I think they're a ways away for now.)-
It isn't about one device being better than another. It is more like, if I am only going to carry one device around with me, it will be the one that is also a phone and has a data plan.
Couples with the fact that iOS has .99 cent games and the DS has $35 games, I buy less DS games. I understand that I am comparing casual games vs. full release handheld games, but when I sit on the Metro or the toilet for 15 minute increments, I want something that is sit and go. At home the PC and the Xbox usually beat out the DS.-
If it comes down to only carrying one device then yeah, the phone is always going to win. Back when we carried feature phones and PDA's it was only a matter of time before they merged. And you would either wind up with a feature phone that crammed in PDA features, or a PDA that you would hold to your ear like a phone. And we all know which one won.
I'm very curious to see how the 3DS fares in the post-iPhone world. Back in 2004 when the DS launched, Blackberry made pagers and phones with monochrome screens, Windows Mobile was the joke it's always been, iPhone and Android didn't exist, and cell phones were considered cool if they were really tiny and thin. When Personal Trainer: Cooking was released on the DS it made perfect sense since there weren't any other ubiquitous portable computing platforms to release software like that on. Now there are.
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I've been playing lots of iOS games lately and have struggled with this same problem, but the bottom line is, I can only get Nintendo's games on Nintendo systems, so I will be picking up a 3DS at some point. iOS won't have Ocarina of Time!
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I've gone back to playing my DS a lot more and it's really amazing to me how much better the games are.
Well I shouldn't say "better" but they tend to be more substantial, which can be expected from a game with a budget and a $30+ pricetag.
The key thing is - both platforms have their strengths. Mobile gaming (iOS/Android/etc.) is best when controls aren't important or aren't traditional. Casual and games work well. FPS games sort of work well (or at least when Carmack does it). Fighting games don't work well. I'm not too fond of RPG's on it.
And the #1 thing about a phone game is: it needs to work for short bursts of gameplay. The game needs to load fast, have quick rounds, lend itself to being shut off quickly, and not require you to remember a ton of complicated stuff. Breaking out my phone, playing a quick level of Angry Birds, and then moving on is key.
The DS lends itself to longer affairs, like RPG's and such. Ask the people who have tried to shimmy their existing game to little success - like GTA.
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I want it for the hardware, but there are no launch games that I am interested in enough to drop that kind of cash. Nintendo fucked up by not making Pokemon a 3DS launch game.
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Probably when Animal Crossing comes out, I'll jump.
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Cant wait. Going to be the first handheld I've gotten on launch day.
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Summary: 3DS sells a ton, and it looks like it will sell a ton over here in the States and in Europe as well. Anyone surprised by this news has been in a coma for the last six years.
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i have my doubts that it will sell as well as the original DS did in the states, due to the price point.
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"and most are already sold out of their initial shipments." ?
Nintendo is slipping...-
Slipping? Its marketing! Look at MS with Kinect, they're trying to do this same thing, but it's just not selling. "Blah blah SHIPPED" for MS, "Blah blah SOLD" for Nintendy. With shortages comes demand, with demand comes sales. If there's an over-abundance (eg. Kinect) people see that and think it's not selling and that it's a flop, so only die-hards or fool-hearty buy it. It's a simple and effective marketing strategy. PS. I bought Kinect day one.
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so true.
I can almost believe that they would artificially reduce the numbers shipped in the first month to try to get people talking about how hard it is to find, which makes people wonder why it's so hard to find (it must be really good!), but month after month of artificial shortages once everybody is looking for one? no fucking way.
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is it that hard to believe that supply is actually constrained for something that was predicted to initially sell 3 million during the holidays, then adjusted expectations to 5, and then ended up doing 8?
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Actually, from everything i've read Microsoft and Nintendo actually are struggling to meet the demand for 3DS and Kinect. They're both products that had a demand that far outpaced the available supply. In Microsoft's case it's at least somewhat understandable, since they were launching a new peripheral for an established system, although it's strange to see it happen to Nintendo. Normally they're pretty good at having enough launch hardware for their systems.
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