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[demosthenes]

97k!?! Oh shit son, 3DS is doing worse than even I thought it was...

I'm starting to think that even Vita may be too expensive at $249, it is just a lot of money for a dedicated gaming handheld. Sony are going to have to really push all of the non-gaming features of Vita to make it a success.

Sony actually has games scheduled at launch.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Nintendo would sell this thing at a loss before they drop it. No way is the 3DS going anywhere no matter how bad it does.

Said like someone who has little to no understanding of how Nintendo do and have done business during their whole period of existence.

 

[Seraphinianus]

Great news for gamers. Nintendo botched the launch and now will have to fight hard to gain consumer interest back (the same thing happened with Sony and PS3).

They really don't have to try that hard. One day they'll be like "Pokemon: Bitches and Sluts editions coming this winter" and bam, 3DS is relevant again.

 

[mentalfloss]

Did someone actually say this is psp-esque? lol

 

[miksar]

Great news for gamers. Nintendo botched the launch and now will have to fight hard to gain consumer interest back (the same thing happened with Sony and PS3).

For everyone except 3DS owners. We won't be seeing decent 3rd party support for a long time if it hardly sells 200k a month worldwide.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

97k!?! Oh shit son, 3DS is doing worse than even I thought it was...

I'm starting to think that even Vita may be too expensive at $249, it is just a lot of money for a dedicated gaming handheld. Sony are going to have to really push all of the non-gaming features of Vita to make it a success.

SW drives HW. I see no reason why VITA can't be spectacular compared to PSP. Not just in terms of games but sales. Nintendo fumbled this one bad in my eyes.

And as others have said, Nintendo needs to do a better job of differentiating this from DS. The casual bystander might see this as a super expensive DS. And thus far, that is true considering my wife is playing nothing but DS games (Pokemon) on it.

 

[DMeisterJ]

Sorry if old.

Pachter says:

Wii: 236K
3DS: 97K


http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...utraNews+(Gamasutra+News)&utm_content=Twitter

o_0

o_0 is correct.

Holy Shit, 3DS is reminiscent of PS3 when it couldn't cross 100k. Fuck me.

 

[Pureauthor]

97K, huh.

Nintendo's silence is deafening.

 

[[Nintex]]

Nintendo would sell this thing at a loss before they drop it. No way is the 3DS going anywhere no matter how bad it does.

Nintendo was proud they lost about $2 for every GameCube sold at launch. It showed their dedication to bringing great tech to market. They aren't going to take a $50 hit on the thing(and they're selling it at a $75(?) premium anyway).

 

[Mr_Brit]

Said like someone who has little to no understanding of how Nintendo do and have done business during their whole period of existence.

So you believe they would drop the successor to their most successful platform ever before at least selling it for a loss for a short while to see if sales pick up?

Nintendo was proud they lost about $2 for every GameCube sold at launch. It showed their dedication to bringing great tech to market. They aren't going to take a $50 hit on the thing(and they're selling it at a $75(?) premium anyway).

They're making around a $110-130 profit per device by my best estimations.

 

[[Nintex]]

So you believe they would drop the successor to their most successful platform ever before at least selling it for a loss for a short while to see if sales pick up?

Yes, Nintendo would do that. Or they'd take the bitter pill and watch it crawl along while they still make a profit on it.

 

[truly101]

Didn't the original DS kinda suck in sales until Nintendogs hit? I really don't remember.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Did someone actually say this is psp-esque? lol

To this point, the SW has been WORSE. The HW is much better but where are those games again? PSP had ports but the launch was still much better than 3DS. You can't argue against that. And it is PSP-esque in sales.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

So you believe they would drop the successor to their most successful platform ever before at least selling it for a loss for a short while to see if sales pick up?

Break even, sure, but at a loss? Never.

Anyway, by cost break downs I have seen Nintendo are making a massive profit per unit, so they can probably afford to cut $90-100 before they get close to loss making territory.

 

[Plinko]

The best news that could come from the 3DS launch issues is Nintendo learning and making sure that the Wii U has a great launch lineup.

I'd place the odds of that happening at 50%.

 

[Father_Brain]

97k!?! Oh shit son, 3DS is doing worse than even I thought it was...

I'm starting to think that even Vita may be too expensive at $249, it is just a lot of money for a dedicated gaming handheld. Sony are going to have to really push all of the non-gaming features of Vita to make it a success.

Vita will do fine if the software is there, at least initially. I'm doubtful as to whether $249 for a dedicated handheld is sustainable for more than a year or so, though (which applies to Nintendo as well).

 

[subversus]

wait no Witcher 2?

I thought it sold 400k units?

The Witcher sells well in Europe and Russia.

 

[[Nintex]]

Didn't the original DS kinda suck in sales until Nintendogs hit? I really don't remember.

Yeah, Nintendogs and Brain Training were the first hits after New Super Mario Bros. and the DS Lite it flew to the heavens.

Break even, sure, but at a loss? Never.

Anyway, by cost break downs I have seen Nintendo are making a massive profit per unit, so they can probably afford to cut $90-100 before they get close to loss making territory.

They're probably counting on the Zelda fans and they will 'deliver' in NA at least. The question is how this'll work out for Japan which is less Zelda minded.

 

[dude]

But, at the same time, I don't think that they'd concede such a large market, unless they thought that the Vita would be an equally fantastical bomb.

It will be. But Sony will still have a hold of the new portable market with PS Suite...

 

[Mr_Brit]

Yes, Nintendo would do that. Or they'd take the bitter pill and watch it crawl along while they still make a profit on it.

My point wasn't that they'd rather sell at a loss than watch it crawl along but that they'd sell at a loss for at least a while before giving up on it altogether.

Break even, sure, but at a loss? Never.

Anyway, by cost break downs I have seen Nintendo are making a massive profit per unit, so they can probably afford to cut $90-100 before they get close to loss making territory.

They could drop down to somewhere like $120 and still remain in profit.

 

[Spiegel]

Did someone actually say this is psp-esque? lol

Yeah, psp was selling 250k units in its third month (May 2005)

 

[Sianos]

The best news that could come from the 3DS launch issues is Nintendo learning and making sure that the Wii U has a great launch lineup.

I'd place the odds of that happening at 50%.

If they launch with Pikmin 3, it'd be a great launch in my eyes.

 

[szaromir]

The Witcher sells well in Europe and Russia.

Is the Asian part of Russia such a big market that you made the distinction>

 

[UberTag]

Didn't the original DS kinda suck in sales until Nintendogs hit? I really don't remember.

After its initial holiday launch numbers subsided it did perform poorly. So poorly that Nintendo lumped all of their portable sales numbers together to hide the sub-100K months.

This, despite the fact that it launched at a $149 pricepoint in a non-smartphone era with a Mario game (albeit a port).

 

[Mr_Brit]

The Witcher sells well in Europe and Russia.

They've probably already made back their budget for Witcher 2 and it's pure profit from here on.

 

[Clevinger]

drop that shitty price already, Nintendo

 

[Relix]

I was about to buy a 3DS but if sales are really under 100K I'll wait for the inevitable price drop. meh buying a system can be annoying =P

 

[Plinko]

If they launch with Pikmin 3, it'd be a great launch in my eyes.

Pikmin 3 isn't going to move systems, though. That's a release on the same level as Pilotwings Resort.

They've got to have a Mario game at launch.

 

[Somnid]

I don't even know if there were 3DS games released last month. I can't say it's unexpected.

 

[Wolf Akela]

Does anyone have a graph of US sales for 3DS and DS sales in their respective lifetimes?

 

[TheRagnCajun]

I was about to buy a 3DS but if sales are really under 100K I'll wait for the inevitable price drop. meh buying a system can be annoying =P

I'm waiting for a revision. I'm tired of buying version 1.0 of handhelds.

 

[[Nintex]]

Pikmin 3 isn't going to move systems, though. That's a release on the same level as Pilotwings Resort.

They've got to have a Mario game at launch.

New Super Mario Bros. Mii , no doubt.

 

[Barrett2]

Don't worry guys, OOT will save 3DS.

Haha, wow... Nintendo is squandering their year lead ahead of Vita.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

My point wasn't that they'd rather sell at a loss than watch it crawl along but that they'd sell at a loss for at least a while before giving up on it altogether.

Pushing sales by selling for a loss is a zero sum game for Nintendo. MS and Sony have other divisions to make up for those losses and are usually using those losses to gain market share to push other ideas. Nintendo have nothing other than gaming to push. That is why they never sell at a loss. Moving into that territory is hard to move out of, it took Sony three years with PS3, and even now if they cut to $199 they would take a $20-30 loss per unit some months until TSMC got 28nm RSX out of the gate.

They could drop down to somewhere like $120 and still remain in profit.

Maybe not that low, but $150 sure. At least from the cost breakdowns we have seen at work.

 

[jett]

3ds bomba

 

[Averon]

Does the 3DS have its own chalk board yet?

 

[[Nintex]]

Don't worry guys, OOT will save 3DS.

Haha, wow... Nintendo is squandering their year lead ahead of Vita.

I don't know what the hell they're doing anymore. Between 3DS and Wii 7/8 Nintendo games announced for 'Holiday' after pretty much nothing in spring and summer(as usual).

Does the 3DS have its own chalk board yet?

Don't we need games to put on the chalkboard first?

 

[Alrus]

They're probably counting on the Zelda fans and they will 'deliver' in NA at least. The question is how this'll work out for Japan which is less Zelda minded.

It'll be the best selling 3ds there probably, but that doesn't mean much...

Also the 3ds has a shitty lineup and it's probably sales won't pick up for a few months. But Nintendo has quite a strong line up for fall/holidays, if sales aren't better after that, then I doubt the 3ds will ever be a success.

 

[markatisu]

Does the 3DS have its own chalk board yet?

Wait till Pokemon lol

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Does the 3DS have its own chalk board yet?

Not yet, maybe an enterprising GAFer with decent photoshop skills can help out...

 

[Mr_Brit]

Does the 3DS have its own chalk board yet?

?

Edit: Oh, the PS3 meme. Never mind.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

After its initial holiday launch numbers subsided it did perform poorly. So poorly that Nintendo lumped all of their portable sales numbers together to hide the sub-100K months.

This, despite the fact that it launched at a $149 pricepoint in a non-smartphone era with a Mario game (albeit a port).

I know the DS was soft for quite a few months, but I didn't know it did that bad post-launch. If it's comparable to 3DS sales now, then the jury really is still out, since the software selection is so similar (couple of launch titles selling based on the novelty of the system, huuge dry spell shortly after, big guns releasing within a year.)

 

[subversus]

Is the Asian part of Russia such a big market that you made the distinction>

It's substantial if we talk about a major franchise. And The Witcher is a major franchise in Russia. There was a launch event in Novosibirk, this doesn't happen if they don't think that they can sell stuff there.

 

[Plinko]

Does anyone have a graph of US sales for 3DS and DS sales in their respective lifetimes?

Kind of apples and oranges right now as DS released in November and had a holiday season to start out.

 

[GDGF]

Shitty numbers from Nintendo.

Means they have to get scrappy. I like a scrappy Nintendo

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

The best news that could come from the 3DS launch issues is Nintendo learning and making sure that the Wii U has a great launch lineup.

I'd place the odds of that happening at 50%.

Nobody ever really "learns" that you need a great launch line-up. Of course everyone wants one, but business realities usually dictate that you launch with whatever's ready.

 

[jjasper]

Company releases an overpriced system, with no games, expecting it to sell on brand recognition and 1 feature that the general public may or may not care about and it doesn't sell. I think I have seen this before.

 

[Suzzopher]

Mario Kart will save 3DS!

 

[JWong]

I wonder what's the DSi number looks like.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

The unfortunate thing is some are shocked by it.