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+--- Thread: 13.5 Million DS's Sold (/showthread.php?tid=3438)
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Paco - 5th January 2006
Quote:The DS sales numbers keep coming in, and they're still good for Nintendo's new portable. However, there is one problem--they may be too good for Japanese gamers trying to buy one.http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141960.html
Only a few days after Nintendo announced sales figures for the DS in America (nearly 4 million units), Nintendo of Europe today chimed in with its own regional tally. The DS has sold roughly 3.5 million units in Europe since its debut in March, bringing the global total to almost 13 million.
Like other regions, European gamers were gaga for Nintendogs, taking 1.6 million copies of the game for a walk. The recently released Mario Kart DS is also off to a fast start, selling 800,000 copies since its late November launch.
Nintendo's DS continues to sell well in its home country with more than 5 million sold--but that may slow down as available units are becoming scarce. On its Japanese language Web page, Nintendo has issued an apology to gamers trying to get in on the DS action. A rough translation explains that stock of the item is low, and that more DSes are expected to be in stores in late January.
:D
Oh, and there is another report in the latest Famitsu that says to expect a hardware revision sometime in 2006, but wouldn't specify what it was. I think it's safe to say it's either the DS or PSP...and I'm leaning toward the DS.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - lazyfatbum - 5th January 2006
Nintendo not having enough DS's to sell? *faints*
I'm willing to bet its the DS to, we talked about it here: http://tcforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3542
I've seen some designs based on a verticle type of handheld with a top screen, then face buttons, the touch screen, then the d-pad. I drew it out on paper and imagined playing some DS games and it worked out great. The L and R obviously would be behind the D-Pad and face buttons. It's an odd design, and it doesn't work well for all genres. But then again, it works best for games that require a stylus with the d-pad as an option. Making the face button readily available while using the stylus would be a major plus.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Great Rumbler - 5th January 2006
I think this is the first time that a Nintendo console has been sold out in a long time.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - A Black Falcon - 5th January 2006
Well, they might have sold out of GCs at that point when they stopped making them for a while to make up for the fact that they were selling so poorly that they had a big backlog... um, yeah, they haven't sold out of something in a while. :D ... the N64 launch? Definitely then, but anytime since?
13.5 Million DS's Sold - The Former DMiller - 5th January 2006
The N64 launch was definitely the last time a Nintendo console was sold out, but that was a planned shortage whereas the DS shortage is due to high demand.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Sacred Jellybean - 6th January 2006
Excellent! I'll be picking up a DS myself one day. I also want a PS2, though, and they're about the same price. Hmm.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - EdenMaster - 6th January 2006
Go for the DS! You'll be better off! The PS2 has some good games but the goodness ENDS once you leave your HOUSE! With the DS, it never has to end!
13.5 Million DS's Sold - N_A - 6th January 2006
Imagine those numbers if Nintendo will just freaking release a Smash Bros for the DS with online play not restricted to friend codes. Its one of those things that could can pound the PSP.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - EdenMaster - 6th January 2006
Mario Kart seems to be pouding the PSP right now, animal Crossing certainly isn't hurting either.
I'm a big Smash Bros. fan, but I'm skeptical how it would be without an analog stick. Besides, it might be tough online, lag wise. In MK, lag doesn't matter because even if your opponents are bouncing all over the screen, the game knows where they really are in the race, and seeing where they are is good, but not necessary. With Smash Bros., you would NEED to see your opponent. If Link is jumping around all over the screen, disappearing and reappearing, all the while you're taking damage without being able to hit him, that's going to have a lot of angry fans.
Also, I don't really have a problem with the Friend Code system. I mean, if you want to connect solely to your buddies to play, use the friend codes. Otherwise, you can race random people all over the world in MK wihtout need of a Friend Code. Sure, you need a code for AC, but I frankly like that feature. I don't want to visit a village of someone I don't know, and I don't want someone I don't know trashing MY village. It's cumbersome, granted, but the Friend Code system works fine for what it needs to do. The only thing I would change, is the ability to add a stranger to your Friend List so you can play them again if you wish,
13.5 Million DS's Sold - A Black Falcon - 7th January 2006
The Friend Code system is ridiculous and a very bad idea, as I've said before... an online gaming system where YOU CANNOT MEET PEOPLE INGAME AND ADD THEM TO YOUR FRIENDS LIST? Where either you cannot chat with other people or you cannot meet other people ingame other than people you know? Where, even with people ON your friends list, you can't actually choose who you want to play a game with? With no unified service to tell you if other people are online in other games (or, ideally, just using their DS in a wifi area, like the X360 or PC IM programs)? Absurd, and poorly designed!
Yes, I know the excuse: "It's for the children." As in, Nintendo is trying to protect children from hearing bad things online... but really, they go way overboard. No other online network does this kind of stupidity, and it's for a reason... it makes the people who play on it most of the time quite unhappy with the system! If Battle.net pulled these kinds of stunts Diablo would never have taken off...
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Sacred Jellybean - 7th January 2006
...so you go online to a Nintendo messageboard to find friends. I'm sure typing the name of a game into google with get the sharp kids in motion.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Great Rumbler - 7th January 2006
It's not nearly as big a deal once you start using it. I have everyone's Friend code from here and I race against them when I can. If they're not available I got to Region and race against random people. Not really that difficult.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - lazyfatbum - 7th January 2006
There needs to be a chat option, voice chat would be a major plus, and you should be able to add the random people to your friend list. Chat rooms by catagory is something that simply needs to be there.
Ultimately, by next year, I expect all of these features and possibly a 'DS Camera' device used in chat as well either by wireless connection within the 30 foot range or over the wifi network.
As it is, it's fantastic but lacking in several practical areas. I know Nintendo is taking notes.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - A Black Falcon - 7th January 2006
SJ and GR: ... you don't play online games much do you... the only possible explanation for why you wouldn't think that major necessary features are missing from the current Nintendo Wifi system is if you don't know that they should be there... you know, like how before you get something you don't really know that you need it, but once you have it you find it hard to live without? Aiming for the lowest-common-denominator and pleasing people who don't know what to expect should not be Nintendo's goal... if they are serious about caring about both the new gamer AND the hardcore, a real online network system, as close to X360 Live as possible (ingame voice chat WHENEVER you're using the console -- single player, multiplayer, whatever... just look at your friends list and message anyone using their 360, just like IM on a PC, for instance... it also says what the other person is playing, I think, if you want.) is absolutely necessary. I'm excusing Nintendo a little bit because Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing are their first two online games, but they better put in a real usable online network soon... I'm hoping Prime Hunters will have a much improved one. If not there, Revolution MUST have a decent online system. They do not have one right now. It's a start, but there's a long way to go...
13.5 Million DS's Sold - N_A - 8th January 2006
Yeah well, online PC games can handle some 40+ people in a close space shooting at each other in ways that require the server to have pinpoint accuracy to determine hits. I doubt that having 4 people in a fighting game is much of an issue in terms of difficulty of implementation. Smash Bros isn't even as chain combo heavy as other fighting games which have been put online so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
I also agree that Nintendo's WiFi network is way too restrictive in terms of allowing people to do things. Unfortunately, in light of the Xbox Live molestation case, Nintendo might decide that their policy has been the right thing. For the most part however, chatting on the DS like in Animal Crossing is nothing like typing on a keyboard, its a bit tedious and slow. At the very least Nintendo should allow in game chat for people on your friend's list.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Great Rumbler - 8th January 2006
Quote:I doubt that having 4 people in a fighting game is much of an issue in terms of difficulty of implementation.
Have you played 4-person Mario Kart over Wifi? There's no lag per se, but you'll often see people zip from one side of the track to other because the flow of information isn't quick enough to track every single movement.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - lazyfatbum - 8th January 2006
But that's not the fault of the hardware, that's the programing or the connection. Things that can be updated and reformed to work flawlessly. It's Nintendo's first online multiplayer game, it only gets better from here on out. And it's not like what is there is krap, it's a solid AAA game with solid albeit lacking online features for multiplayer.
N_A/ you cant stop evil intentions, if this person didn't have the live network to find his victim he would have used the internet, and if not that, by simply driving around until he found someone to take and if he didnt have a car, just hanging around outside his house waiting for people to cross. These companies including Nintendo dont care about the ideal of the moral implications of their decisions in resstricting the online modes of play, they just dont want to get sued from angry unrealistic people who want to punish something and make some money out of it. :D Remember Rare removing the face-mapping feature? Talk about innovation, but it was removed and the game isn't even online! It was just the fear of being taken to court over it because little Johnny shot his virual parents in a video game after they grounded him for weak grades at school.
But look at people now with the internet, you have some parents that are idiots and wont let their children online, frightened by the idea of their child learning responsibility and then you have parents who put trust in their children and let them go as they please knowing they will make the right choices or learn from the wrong ones because they were raised correctly (or atleast effort was applied). It just takes time but eventually people will reach an understanding of things instead of being paranoid anthropophobia-driven activests who cage their children.
The same will come to pass with online video game networks and those who play will have a wide-open experience with all the good and bad it has to offer. Like with anything new in our entertainment boundries, it has to be gently massaged in to the system or else people start yelling 'Burn the witch'. Nintendo will make the right choices, but it will be a slow process until it's where we want it.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - N_A - 8th January 2006
The warping depends on individual's lag with the server and with the other players. I mean if you're playing world wide, expect there to be more lag than with regional. If you're familiar with PC games, you can expect regional servers, unless the individual player is lagging himself because of a crappy network, connection, or he's downloading while playing, to be pretty flawless. Take Counter Strike, with 40 people fragging away, I rarely see lag when I play on low lag, regional servers. However, if I play on a New York server while in the West Coast, the same kind of warping happens even when this is low velocity walking/running movement. The same is true of Battlefield 2, with 64 players at once. With low lag servers, 64 players can be fragging each other at close range without any lag, even driving fast vehicles without any warping.
That worldwide lag time just has to do with the fact that despite you sending signals at light speed, it still has to get processed, and then retransmitted acrossing the globe through various pipelines, and then from the other clients back to your machine. Obviously, the closer you are, the less that time is.
Same is true of Mario Kart. I've seen a couple people warp in regional games, but I suspect that its their own lag. When playing worldwide, its more common, but thats to be expected, and actually, I'm pretty impressed with the low level of overall lag experience with worldwide Mario Kart gaming compared to other online PC games.
This is not some puny 56k connection, we're talking broadband on the NDS WiFi. 4 players on Smash Bros online, should be smooth as silk in regional play.
Nintendo's always taken a conservative approach when it comes to policy. They're big on cencorship as you know, and this WiFi thing is just one form of it. You have to remember that these days, the majority of parents let their kids online, and with economic pressures and dwindling family values, they never gave much effort to raising their kids anyways. So its a double whammy of lack of child rearing and then a potentially dangerous environment. Of course, its Nintendo's prerogative to assist incompetant parents, but despite the relative lack of child rearing effort these days, most people are not idiots who fall prey to online predators, and most online gamers are not predators either.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - Great Rumbler - 8th January 2006
I think there's a reason why you don't see very many online fighting games. And we're talking about a fighting game with 4 people here, not two like almost all the others have.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - N_A - 8th January 2006
Fighting games online ? Well if you're into emulation, you would know that there are plenty of online adaptations of vintage 2D fighting games, and they run without any problem. Marvel vs Capcom, KoF, they all work with minimal lag. DOA4 is online as well as just a modern example.
The reason you don't see many of them online is because they exist mostly on arcade and console, and for the most part, online is limited to PC and XBox with PS barely breaking into it, and Nintendo just getting seriously started. Its not because it can't be done. The amount of information sent on a fighting game is even less than that of an FPS.
13.5 Million DS's Sold - A Black Falcon - 8th January 2006
Yeah, fighting games are online, either through emulation or on Xbox Live (DOA Ultimate, various SNK games, Capcom vs SNK 2, etc -- a good number of titles, especially on Live, really...)... every genre is online. Online SSB could work fine... yes, they'd have to take steps to minimize the lag, but they've been taken before, and it'd be managable if done well...
As for Nintendo policy, well, I just want some kind of solution that allows adults to use the system as it should be able to... make some seperate section for kids, have strong parental controls, whatever... but do NOT do as you are doing now and limit things for everyone! It's a terrible solution that will just bring down the ire of gamers forced to use a crippled system to play Nintendo's games online...