A hearty congratulations to the Nintendo 3DS for passing 50 million! It may not reach the 154.01 million of the lifetime DS, or the 118.69 of GB/C. It's highly unlikely to reach the 81.51 million of GBA, given it's on pace for between 60 and 70 million lifetime, depending on how well New 3DS sells.
It was tracking roughly what GBA did, but recently has been falling farther and farther behind as GBA reached 50 million in 3 1/2 years, roughly 6 months sooner, as the sales have been falling off sharply, something that GBA didn't do until the DS was released. It's a bit disconcerting, especially as the 3DS is the majority of games/consoles sold, as GBA was during the GC era.
Wii U needs something more to spark its sales. It's been on the market 3 holiday seasons now, and still hasn't reached 10 million lifetime? The sales are increasing, but it's still tracking behind GC, putting its expected lifetime sales right now around the 18 million mark. For this generation a 60 million handheld, and an 18 million console doesn't look horrible in itself, but compared to the 154.01 and 101.44 million looks atrocious.
What this does show is that the innovation of the DS and Wii has been lost on the 3DS and Wii U. Both have great features, but neither is truly groundbreaking as their predecessors were. The naming also hasn't been productive, especially in tablet attachment with a Wii's case. Take out the Wii and DS sales, it's pretty clear Nintendo's core market is there, they are the ones who will support them no matter what, but it's rather small compared to MS and Sony.
Nintendo knows games, and Nintendo knows innovation. This generation may have reverted to what it was pre-Wii/DS, but they're in the black on their financial report, they have creative ideas, they'll live by them and die by them. It's one of the reasons I continue to stay with them over 30 years later (for those who don't know in America they were 3rd party for Atari/Coleco/Intellevision).
To wrap it up, congrats Nintendo, you're still ruling the handheld market, the GBA wasn't considered a failure, and the 3DS is just behind it, likely to finish just 5 to 10 million behind if it doesn't catch it, making it a success too. Most of this is likely because the market shrunk, but still having 70% of the market is far from a failure!
It was tracking roughly what GBA did, but recently has been falling farther and farther behind as GBA reached 50 million in 3 1/2 years, roughly 6 months sooner, as the sales have been falling off sharply, something that GBA didn't do until the DS was released. It's a bit disconcerting, especially as the 3DS is the majority of games/consoles sold, as GBA was during the GC era.
Wii U needs something more to spark its sales. It's been on the market 3 holiday seasons now, and still hasn't reached 10 million lifetime? The sales are increasing, but it's still tracking behind GC, putting its expected lifetime sales right now around the 18 million mark. For this generation a 60 million handheld, and an 18 million console doesn't look horrible in itself, but compared to the 154.01 and 101.44 million looks atrocious.
What this does show is that the innovation of the DS and Wii has been lost on the 3DS and Wii U. Both have great features, but neither is truly groundbreaking as their predecessors were. The naming also hasn't been productive, especially in tablet attachment with a Wii's case. Take out the Wii and DS sales, it's pretty clear Nintendo's core market is there, they are the ones who will support them no matter what, but it's rather small compared to MS and Sony.
Nintendo knows games, and Nintendo knows innovation. This generation may have reverted to what it was pre-Wii/DS, but they're in the black on their financial report, they have creative ideas, they'll live by them and die by them. It's one of the reasons I continue to stay with them over 30 years later (for those who don't know in America they were 3rd party for Atari/Coleco/Intellevision).
To wrap it up, congrats Nintendo, you're still ruling the handheld market, the GBA wasn't considered a failure, and the 3DS is just behind it, likely to finish just 5 to 10 million behind if it doesn't catch it, making it a success too. Most of this is likely because the market shrunk, but still having 70% of the market is far from a failure!
