DS Shortages in Japan See Prices Soar

NOOOOOOO!!!!

MIS-USED [Quote] TAGS!!!

MYYYYYY EYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!

I agree we here in the UK seem an anomily where the PSP is selling more than the DS. I work part time in a large UK retail chain which sells both PSP and DS. Looking at the sales figures for them both its currently very tight. Our DS sales have been hampered by the fact we cant get enough of the pink and blue ds with nintendogs bundles. If it wearnt for the shortage of those in the run up to christmas DS sales in the chain would have no doubt been higher than the PSP. Its now after christmas and we have copious amounts of PSPs and still none/ very few of the ds with nintendogs bundled in in-stock at stores.
(btw I work at ARGOS and am stock manager for the essex county stores)

This is true, the C64 just ruled the 80s in the UK. Home computers were a larger market than consoles and the C64 was the 800 pound gorilla of the home computer market.


Again, Commodore ruled the roost until the early 90s, about '92-'94 or so. At this point the PC started taking over the home computer market, Doom hit and the 32-bit consoles were being talked about.


This is an interesting thought and one that bears analysis. Given that the launch of the PlayStation coincided with the descent of the home computer market in the UK, it does seem that Nintendo haven't had a commanding position in the games industry here.

As far as I can remember, Italy and Germany had similar computer over console preferences in the 80s and 90s, to say nothing of the Nordic countries! I think this may have been a phenomenon across Europe. It could be that neither Nintendo nor Sega have ever "owned" Europe and the first European console "super-power" was Sony.

This would certainly account for the huge brand loyalty that PlayStation has in Europe. It may also account for the, sometimes over-stated, anti-Sony feelings among the Nintendo and Sega faithful that we see on the forums here and on other sites.

See, that is your opinion, but it's not one that others share. See Kid 77's interesting point about Nintendo never being "top dog" in the UK.


True, I agree with you there, but just because David has a shiny helmet doesn't make him Goliath. Sony was the one with something to prove, the PSP was the one that had to carve out its own place in the hand-held market. However you slice it, in the worldwide hand-held market, Nintendo is the 800 pound gorilla, or Philistine.


In that case I misread it and I apologise. However your terse and slightly "txt" style of writing does you a disservice when you are trying to get an informed and thoughtful point across.


That's the problem with a purely written medium like these forums, it's so easy to fail to get your point across if you don't use precise language. The trend on forums these days seems to be towards less precise language and I suppose I'm struggling to keep up.

Grr, you young-uns! I remember when this were all FTP. We used to have to download our documents by hand, both ways, etc, etc...


I'd say something about you missing the intended humour, but after what I wrote above, I'll have to put it down to mis-communication.

siberdib makes a good point about why the DS isnt top here, but i do see your point though. Appologies for the txt style writting, just lazyness i guess. do get your cartmen bit but just wanted to be awkward :p. wudnt say wudnt say i was that young at 22! Probably should have put my point across better, not the best with the old english. more of a maths fan.

Very interesting stuff, Siber. I still think that a lot of u.k casual gamers still don't get the DS much and judge it on graphics. On top of that they are also led by what the media say is good.

When you switch on MTV what do you see? Win this PSP, yada, yada, yada.

The truly rare japanese gems of the DS like Ouendan, etc will never reach these shores, so that the masses can sit up and take notice of how good the DS really is. Some will, but will they have enough impact.

I think once more online games like Metroid Prime Hunters, get out of the door more people will take notice, but that's not all we need. Once upon a time Nintendo's marketing power and ad power were so great in a pre -sony era. I'd like to see that come back to the level Sony has theirs at.

Its a pity so many great ds games never get released over here. Ive heard alot of talk about a re designed ds is on the cards. Perhaps thats why we havent been able to get in many ds units. Nintendo running down stocks on purpose? Although saying that we have plenty of silver ds in stock, its just the nintendog bundles which we cant get in. We are still selling large amounts of the sp, it dosent seem to have been affected by the ds.

Reasons aside and just for interest's sake since I don't have access to actual figures, but MCV have a story today about PSP vs DS sales in the UK. And I quote;


Now since the word "offically" was in there, this means ChartTrack figures that are based on over-the-counter sales, not the oft quoted "sell-in" figures.

However MCV didn't publish any actual figures. Take this with the last story they published on the web being pulled and you have to think that somebody is preventing them from quoting the ChartTrack data.


Well since I'm 33, I get to do the old man act!


I used to be useless at English, but working with DoctorDee for most of the last nine years has made me shape up.

Apologies for replying to my own post, bad form I know, but more sales-related news has come to my attention.

The official Japanese hardware sales figures from Media Create show that the DS hardware shortage is really making its presence felt.

Figures for the first week of this year show the PSP outselling the DS for the first time since March last year. DS sales dropped from 408,770 units, 579,628 units and 390,181 units for the last three weeks of 2005 to 91,379 units in the week commencing 2nd January.

In contrast, the PSP sold 95,689 units, 161,332 units, 110,740 units and 132,757 units in the same four weeks.

The DS holds a huge lead in Japan, having sold 5,720,331 units since launch compared to the PSP's 2,815,718 units.

They'd better start getting more units out there, then; Japan is their saving grace, and they don't want to lose it leading up to Revolution...