Wow...I knew the DS was having a good year, but...!

dark penguin · Jan 11, 2006

http://ds.ign.com/articles/680/680763p1.html

Damn. That's pretty impressive. I knew they were racking up the sales across the pond, but this article surprised me.
I'm hoping Sony doesn't start to become more apathetic towards the PSP...

Mark of the Wolves · Jan 11, 2006

Yeah that is pretty damn good. They freaking ruled the charts after Mario Kart and Animal Crossing hit seemingly.

SouthtownKid · Jan 11, 2006

They should have put up the whole top 100 list. But holy crap, that top 10 list is depressing as hell to me. If Animal Crossing, Gran Turismo 4, Train Your Brain, and Nintendogs are the future of video games, things look dark for me.

dark penguin · Jan 11, 2006

SouthtownKid said:
They should have put up the whole top 100 list. But holy crap, that top 10 list is depressing as hell to me. If Animal Crossing, Gran Turismo 4, Train Your Brain, and Nintendogs are the future of video games, things look dark for me.

Yea, I had no interest at all in any of those titles. I'd like to see the top 100 as well.
Maybe someone has a link?

hanafuda · Jan 11, 2006

I'll probably pick up Famitsu tomorrow to get the whole list (unless it was published in last week's issue which I only flicked through in a shop).

kernow · Jan 11, 2006

superchimpio seems pretty quiet :emb:

about it

SouthtownKid · Jan 11, 2006

kernow said:
superchimpio seems pretty quiet about it

He's still recovering from a GBA D-pad thumb injury. Thing fucked him up pretty bad.

TravistyOJ · Jan 11, 2006

SouthtownKid said:
They should have put up the whole top 100 list. But holy crap, that top 10 list is depressing as hell to me. If Animal Crossing, Gran Turismo 4, Train Your Brain, and Nintendogs are the future of video games, things look dark for me.

Yeah, I mean this is apples and oranges. The US market is waaaaay different. I find all of these games fun, but they do not have the mass market appeal in the states as they do in japan. Don't get me wrong I love my DS, but don't worry, this is not the future of video games, at least not our future.

Mark of the Wolves · Jan 11, 2006

TravistyOJ said:
Yeah, I mean this is apples and oranges. The US market is waaaaay different. I find all of these games fun, but they do not have the mass market appeal in the states as they do in japan. Don't get me wrong I love my DS, but don't worry, this is not the future of video games, at least not our future.

To me the U.S. market isn't all that different. Just throw in some FPS or shooters in general and Madden. That is basically what the U.S. charts would look like minus the crazy Japanese games no one would bring out here.

hermegildo · Jan 11, 2006

Mark of the Wolves said:
To me the U.S. market isn't all that different. Just throw in some FPS or shooters in general and Madden. That is basically what the U.S. charts would look like minus the crazy Japanese games no one would bring out here.

It's a big difference.

The 360 wouldn't be performing so miserably in Japan if that weren't the case.

SouthtownKid · Jan 11, 2006

hermegildo said:
It's a big difference.

The 360 wouldn't be performing so miserably in Japan if that weren't the case.

It is a big difference, but the 360 would be performing badly in Japan no matter the case. It's more to do with Japan than the games.

hermegildo · Jan 11, 2006

SouthtownKid said:
It is a big difference, but the 360 would be performing badly in Japan no matter the case. It's more to do with Japan than the games.

The "we only buy things japanese" thing, huh?

Yeah, that has a lot to do with it as well.

Mark of the Wolves · Jan 11, 2006

hermegildo said:
It's a big difference.

The 360 wouldn't be performing so miserably in Japan if that weren't the case.

I don't think so. I mean the Japanese just don't want the Xbox 360 period. It would probably have to have exclusive established franchises that are extremely popular for them to buy one.

hermegildo · Jan 11, 2006

Mark of the Wolves said:
I don't think so. I mean the Japanese just don't want the Xbox 360 period. It would probably have to have exclusive established franchises that are extremely popular for them to buy one.

The unwillingness of japanese people to accept products other than their own plays a big part in the 360's failure but, when all is said and done, american and japanese gamers are completely different.

In the building I work in, there are about 8 people that I know for sure have video game consoles (mostly PS2s) ranging from late teens to I'd say early/mid 30's. Now this is, as far as I know, middle America through and through, what kind of games do you think they have? Do you think they buy Katamari Damacy? Final Fantasy? Even something as mature as MGS? Of course not. They buy Madden, they buy GTA, they buy True Crime.

Some people wonder how Madden can stay at the top of charts constantly and that's the reason right there, people that buy these games couldn't care less about video games. They don't care about the intricacies of a fighting game, they don't care about replaying a shooter a million times over just to improve your high score, they just don't care about playing the game.

Now, in comparison, what games do japanese gamers flock to?

Dragon Quest and just RPGs in general.

It's a HUGE difference IMO.

SouthtownKid · Jan 12, 2006

hermegildo said:
It's a HUGE difference IMO.

Okay, but you're ignoring one of the biggest in your face clues. Why weren't Japanese developers developing those games or types of games for MS in the first place? There you go. 3rd party support for Xbox came very late in the game, and never was as whole-hearted as they gave PS2, GBA or whatever. Xbox's best japanese 3rd party support was everyone else's late leftovers, like MGS2. When Xbox came out, they basically had support from Tecmo (so what) and that was about it. Sega tried to foster an exclusive relationship that eventually fell through, because they wanted Japanese people to actually play their games.

hanafuda · Jan 12, 2006

hermegildo said:
The "we only buy things japanese" thing, huh?

Yeah, that has a lot to do with it as well.

Quite a few people bring this up, but it works both ways. Apple and the iPod products are huge in Japan, and the competition from the likes of SONY can't even get a look in.

The reason the 360 has bombed is because no one wants to play the games, and because the 360 simply can't compete with the existing competition at the moment. Also, Japanese consumers don't buy hardware on the promise of the software to come. Especially when it is Microsoft's promise

hermegildo · Jan 12, 2006

hanafudaX said:
Quite a few people bring this up, but it works both ways. Apple and the iPod products are huge in Japan, and the competition from the likes of SONY can't even get a look in.

The reason the 360 has bombed is because no one wants to play the games, and because the 360 simply can't compete with the existing competition at the moment. Also, Japanese consumers don't buy hardware on the promise of the software to come. Especially when it is Microsoft's promise

I didn't know about the iPod being so hot over there, but it's not really surprising considering how hot it is over here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that the sole reason why the 360 is performing so poorly is because japanese don't buy american stuff, it's a number of factors really. I guess you can narrow it down to "no japanese support = no games japanese people want to buy," but the point I was trying to make originally is that people that buy video games in America are completely different than people that buy video games in Japan.

Bakaneiro · Jan 12, 2006

2 a 8 january 2006

1. NDS Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Nintendo) - 290,000 (705,000)
2. NDS Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo) - 133,000 (1,515,000)
3. NDS Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 115,000 (951,000)
4. NDS Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training (Nintendo) - 114,000 (1,272,000)
5. NDS Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (Nintendo) - 98,000 (231,000)
6. PS2 Kingdom Hearts II (Square Enix) - 83,000 (968,000)
7. NDS Gentle Brain Training (Nintendo) - 63,000 (998,000)
8. NDS Tamagotchi Petit Peti Omisecchi (Bandai) - 62,000 (846,000)
9. NDS Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Ao no Kyuujotai (Nintendo) - 57,000 (630,000)
10. GBA Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon: Aka no Kyuujoutai (Nintendo) - 49,000 (607,000)

:buttrock:

Bakaneiro · Jan 12, 2006

TonK · Jan 12, 2006

Well, the DS is truly about handheld gaming...

And everyone (including me at one point) thought the PSP, with its good looks and stunning graphics would take the crown...

But I should have stayed true...

Granted, I do like the DS better than the PSP - my GBA is still my favorite...

And Final Fantasy IV or II is freaking great all over again...

Good job Nintendo, I hope you shut Sony's portable movie player down...

That move might even top the one Roger Moore pulled on Christopher Lee on that sunny island...

Magnaflux · Jan 12, 2006

For starters, I couldn't give a flying fuck what the Japanese think or buy.

Secondly, the DS kicks ass in quality software, something the technically superior PSP cannot do.

PS. Fuck Japan.

Phoenix Down · Jan 12, 2006

Next Generation has an article up as well, found at http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2021&Itemid=2.

As for the sales charts, just WOW. I knew the DS was doing well in Japan but that's amazing. I can completely understand why Animal Crossing was in the top spot, considering that I've spent at least a half hour a day every day with it since it came out (and I haven't even played online with it yet!).

In other news, the PSP is basically fucked, unless they fix the problem where there's no original games not named Lumines available for it.

Mark of the Wolves · Jan 12, 2006

hermegildo said:
I guess you can narrow it down to "no japanese support = no games japanese people want to buy," but the point I was trying to make originally is that people that buy video games in America are completely different than people that buy video games in Japan.

I just don't think it is that way. Many of the games that are hits there, are hits here. We simply don't like all those simulation games and quirky RPG's they crave and they don't like the FPS's and other shooters we do.

Loopz · Jan 12, 2006

Dear God do they ever need to port Lumines to the DS.
I miss that game something awful.

kernow · Jan 12, 2006

Magnaflux said:
PS. Fuck Japan.

Wow...I knew the DS was having a good year, but...!

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