The Legendary Handheld
In the United States last month, the Nintendo DS sold about 100,000 units. Sadly this was much less than the 167,000 sold by the PSP, despite the releases of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and Nintendogs. But what is really suprising, is that the GBA SP, even without any special game releases, OUTSOLD BOTH THE DS AND PSP at approximately 180,000 units.
The legendary Game Boy, the console which dominated the portable game industry for 20 years, is still kicking it today. Despite having a very powerful console on one hand, and a very innovative console on the other, the GBA SP still comes out on top. If I recall correctly, there has NEVER been a handheld that sold as well as the Gameboy in the same time. The Atari handheld, the Sega Gamegear, the Bandai Wonderswan, the Nokia N-gage etc, all couldn't even compare to the amount of popularity the Game Boy received.
So how long can the Game Boy rule the market? At least for another few years, if Nintendo continues to create cool apps like the Play-Yan, and the rumours of a Game Boy Evolution in development are true.
Sales statistics for the following months should be interesting, as more killer titles for the DS are released, including Wi-Fi enabled games such as Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Metroid Hunters. The Game Boy Micro will launch in the States on September 19th, so we should also see an increase in GB sales. And the GBA SP will continue to sell, combining sales with the DS and Micro, I am sure Nintendo can easily maintain its current domination over the handheld gaming market.
4 comments:
That shows how popular the gameboy brand really is!!
Ha! Even if the psp sells more now, its still nothing against the GameboySP and DS combined!!
Agreed. Sony still hasn't realised that power doesn't equal popularity. The Gameboy always had competitor consoles that offered superior power and graphics. The Atari handheld for example, was the first console to have colour. It went up against the old chunky Gameboy and was owned badly in sales. The Sega Gamegear came out shortly after. Colour screen and GBA graphics, and yet it also couldn't compare to the original Gameboy in sales. The Bandai Wonderswan launched at around the same time as the GB Pocket. the Wonderswan had a larger screen, and the console was only about a centimetre thick. It had some decent games and was cheaper than a Pocket and yet, the Gameboy dominated.
But on the other hand the PSP will be the hardest to take down in the history of handhelds, Sony has many fan(boys) who'd back up their company even if it means buying a pathetic handheld for $400 (au). But with the undefeatable GameBoy on one side, and the innovative Nintendo Developers System on the other, plus an iPod Mini sized handheld coming out next week, I'm positive that Ninty will be able to hold them off and maintain dominance :).
What was the Atari console called anyway, I've nenver heard of it
Atari Lynx, please refer to my handheld history thread :)
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