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NPD April 2011 Sales Results [Update 6: Nintendo DS Hardware, Pokemon LTD]

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
Zombie James said:
$250 didn't work for the PSP Go and it isn't exactly working for the 3DS, it's just too much money for a portable system. Doesn't bode well for the NGP.
I don't think the price is the reason the PSP Go failed.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Indyana said:
Cafe can't come soon enough.

I hope Nintendo learns the lesson from the 3DS sales and applies it to the Wii successor.
Though, the sooner the Cafe comes out, the less time they have to make games.

It's kind of a catch-22 at this point.
 

kuYuri

Member
Kagari said:
I wonder how much that extra $20 off is really going to help it.

Yeah, it would get a bit of a boost, but you're right, it wouldn't be much.

If the Red Wii bundle were to get a price cut, I'd probably buy one.

Yes, I'm one of the few who still has yet to buy/own a Wii.
 
viciouskillersquirrel said:
It'll be OK, but by normal expectations, the system should be about at where DS sales were last year, but lower thanks to price and a lack of evergreen software like Mario Kart or NSMB.

I still think Pokemon BW came out WAY too soon. They should never have been DS titles.

Agreed. In the long run, 3ds sales should and eventually will pick up. This launch has just been botched up big time.
 

antonz

Member
Nirolak said:
Though, the sooner the Cafe comes out, the less time they have to make games.

It's kind of a catch-22 at this point.
Very True. I think the estimated June launch would be pretty reasonable. They will mis out on the Holiday 2011 stuff which will hurt a bit but will be there building steam for Holiday 2012
 

Seda

Member
Strider2K99 said:
Yeah, it would get a bit of a boost, but you're right, it wouldn't be much.

If the Red Wii bundle were to get a price cut, I'd probably buy one.

Yes, I'm one of the few who still has yet to buy/own a Wii.

Might be hard to find one of those
 
Dance In My Blood said:
I don't think the price is the reason the PSP Go failed.

Yup. $250 isn't an issue, especially these days. Problem with psp go and 3ds is that hardly anyone wants them because they're either extremely limited in function or just flat out boring.

I think software prices will be an issue however. You can't release iphone level shit and charge $40 for it.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
nextgeneration said:
For reference, here are the first year numbers for DS.

November = 479,695
December = 745,899
January = 152,091
February = 138,000
March = 138,000
April = 70,000
May = 57,000
June = 112,000
July = 80,000
August =100,000
September = 168,000
October = 136,000

Looking at this data, it appears the 3DS has nothing to worry about. Just wait until Christmas and the new Mario release. If that passes and sales are still bad then Nintendo should panic.
 
Neuromancer said:
Something tells me Nintendo isnt sweating the 3DS's sales just yet.

Well, NOA did put an unprecedentedly soft marketing effort behind its launch. Doesn't mean it isn't selling below their possibly-modest expectations, though.
 

Instro

Member
Father_Brain said:
Just curious: Who here thinks that a $200 3DS with the current software lineup would be selling better than a $250 3DS that had Zelda, Star Fox, Mercenaries, Super Mario, etc.?

To be honest, without games I dont think the sales would be that much different this month if it was priced at $200 or $250.

I do think that the launch month would have been bigger though.
 

Seda

Member
Plinko said:
Looking at this data, it appears the 3DS has nothing to worry about. Just wait until Christmas and the new Mario release. If that passes and sales are still bad then Nintendo should panic.

What was the DS's MSRP at launch? I don't recall.
 

Tron 2.0

Member
Plinko said:
Looking at this data, it appears the 3DS has nothing to worry about...
Wasn't the DS incredibly supply constrained?

Either way, I really think those 3DS numbers are awful.

I'm basically Nintendo's target audience (I bought like five different DS models over the years) and I have zero interest in a 3DS at this point.
 
Plinko said:
Looking at this data, it appears the 3DS has nothing to worry about. Just wait until Christmas and the new Mario release. If that passes and sales are still bad then Nintendo should panic.

I personally don't think Nintendo needs to wait that long to decide whether a price cut is necessary. Zelda alone should be a good enough measure of 3DS' software elasticity of demand at $250.
 

UberTag

Member
I think Nintendo is in fine shape with the 3DS despite the sluggish start.
Given the nature of what drove the Wii phenomenon, they face a lot of pressure on the console end of things.
 
Father_Brain said:
I personally don't think Nintendo needs to wait that long to decide whether a price cut is necessary. Zelda alone should be a good enough measure of 3DS' software elasticity of demand at $250.
that is a big wild card right now. i mean, next month they'll find out where and when and how much the PSP2 is going to be launching at.

i'm not predicting a 3DS price drop actually, but i've always said launching at $250 is smart cause it left them with room to move. they have a card to play. we know that the 3DS was originally going to be sold for less. if they even get five months at a higher price that's potentially more money in the bank.

i'm sure some people are waiting for Zelda... but i think the real test will be the first big exclusive, rather than a port or an updated classic, or something that recycles a lot of assets. hopefully it won't be too long before we see something like that.
 

eastmen

Banned
delirium said:
I thought NPD doesn't included Steam (where a majority of people bought Portal 2 from).


I dunno bestbuy had it for $40 + $10 gift card and gamestop had it for $30 also.

I bought mine at gamestop but in may
 
allan-bh said:
You have PSP numbers?

PSP actually had a very good 1st year, better than DS.

March = 620,000
April = 351,000
May = 250,000
June = 294,000
July = 202,000
August = 167,000
September = 146,000
October = 132,000
November = 353,000
December = 1,120,000
January = 179,000
February = 170,000
 

allan-bh

Member
nextgeneration said:
PSP actually had a very good 1st year, better than DS.

March = 620,000
April = 351,000
May = 250,000
June = 294,000
July = 202,000
August = 167,000
September = 146,000
October = 132,000
November = 353,000
December = 1,120,000
January = 179,000
February = 170,000

Yeah, very better.
 
NBA 2k11 has just insane legs....2k12 better be amazing.

I wouldn't be that concerned with the 3DS but I thought that system would really take off...

I don't think that this says anything good about the Cafe's chances...there's a real chance the thing could fall flat on its ass leaving Sony and MS with time to come out strong in 2013/2014 with almost no competition from Nintendo..
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Finally it happened, Nintendo is in trouble again.

Though I've always said that, when they finally lost leadership in the handheld space they would get a monopoly in the console side. See, they always either lose one and have a monopoly in the other, or they lead both and have no monopoly. The last 5 years were basically the SNES/Gameboy years all over again, where they had mild competition on both markets.
 

fernoca

Member
I think that more than the actual price, is the lack of "perceived value" for the price. Many had no problem paying even over the retail $250 for a Wii..for months; just because they wanted to play Wii Sports.

Nintendo should've taken advantage of Pilotwings Resort being like a sequel/port of Wii Sports Resort (to some) and bundle the 3DS with that game and a movie (something from Pixar at least), to sell the whole "glassless 3D".
 

Game Guru

Member
I'm amazed that Mortal Kombat sold so well. It seem like the type of franchise that wore out its welcome with Armageddon and MK vs. DC. Apparently, all it really needed WAS to go back to the era of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3! Good work, Netherrealm!
 
It's pretty mindblowing to see Just Dance 2 pop up again there.

Game Guru said:
I'm amazed that Mortal Kombat sold so well. It seem like the type of franchise that wore out its welcome with Armageddon and MK vs. DC. Apparently, all it really needed WAS to go back to the era of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3!
It's always sold well though. Even MK vs DC broke 2 million
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
fernoca said:
I think that more than the actual price, is the lack of "perceived value" for the price. Many had no problem paying even over the retail $250 for a Wii..for months; just because they wanted to play Wii Sports.

Nintendo should've taken advantage of Pilotwings Resort being like a sequel/port of Wii Sports Resort (to some) and bundle the 3DS with that game and a movie (something from Pixar at least), to sell the whole "glassless 3D".
Eh, dunno how compelling Pilotwings would have been. 3DS has yet to see its killer app.
 

Frankfurt

Banned
If there's one game that truly is worth every penny, it's MK. incredibly polished, fleshed, fun, packed with content. It's a love letter, going beyond what any fighting game has ever offered.
 
Azelover said:
Finally it happened, Nintendo is in trouble again.

Though I've always said that, when they finally lost leadership in the handheld space they would get a monopoly in the console side. See, they always either lose one and have a monopoly in the other, or they lead both and have no monopoly. The last 5 years were basically the SNES/Gameboy years all over again, where they had mild competition on both markets.

Yeah, it's starting to look that way. Wii is on its way out and 3ds sales are far lower than anyone expected. If Wii 2 doesn't take off and 3ds sales continue to be low, time to dump the stock, I think.
 

Wallach

Member
Game Guru said:
I'm amazed that Mortal Kombat sold so well. It seem like the type of franchise that wore out its welcome with Armageddon and MK vs. DC. Apparently, all it really needed WAS to go back to the era of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3! Good work, Netherrealm!

Both those games actually sold pretty well (MK vs DC is like ~2 million units lifetime).
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Jtyettis said:
It's been $169 since Black Friday just about anywhere.
This is in reference to the Wii? The average price has been significantly higher than $170 in recent months.
 
fernoca said:
I think that more than the actual price, is the lack of "perceived value" for the price. Many had no problem paying even over the retail $250 for a Wii..for months; just because they wanted to play Wii Sports.

Nintendo should've taken advantage of Pilotwings Resort being like a sequel/port of Wii Sports Resort (to some) and bundle the 3DS with that game and a movie (something from Pixar at least), to sell the whole "glassless 3D".

Well, it seems pretty clear that they were banking on AR Games and Face Raiders having similar system-selling power to Wii Sports (Iwata said as much in an investor briefing back in January, I think). That obviously hasn't turned out as they'd hoped.
 

Xellos

Member
Wii is pretty much done without new software to drive sales. Zelda is coming along but that's about all. It's the typical end-of-cycle drought as Nintendo builds up to their next console launch.

3DS needs a combo of better games and a sub-$200 price point. The content available is not worth the price Nintendo/third parties are asking.
 

witness

Member
Holy shit thats some bad Wii sales. I wonder if this gets Nintendo more encouragement to not put Skyword Sword out on Wii and move it to Cafe only, I think at the very least that it will be on both systems.

Great second month numbers for Crysis 2.
 
Frankfurt said:
If there's one game that truly is worth every penny, it's MK. incredibly polished, fleshed, fun, packed with content. It's a love letter, going beyond what any fighting game has ever offered.

training mode is worse than games made in the 90s.
netplay is bad.
deadly alliance had a better krypt.
 
Skyward Sword is not going to be switched to Cafe. There was a new trailer for the Wii version just over two months ago, and the sheer volume of work necessary to bring the visuals up to HD quality would likely take it out of the Cafe launch window anyway (assuming Nintendo is aiming for Q2 of next year, as I currently suspect).

All indications are that Nintendo will try to get one more big holiday season out of the Wii as a budget console, with a $150 Wii, Skyward Sword, a (probably) expanded Wii Selects lineup, and possibly a couple other titles that haven't been announced yet.
 

Indyana

Member
Nirolak said:
Though, the sooner the Cafe comes out, the less time they have to make games.

It's kind of a catch-22 at this point.
Sure, but if they were aiming for an April-May 2012 launch to spread the expenses between fiscal years, they might reconsider it.
plagiarize said:
...

i'm sure some people are waiting for Zelda... but i think the real test will be the first big exclusive, rather than a port or an updated classic, or something that recycles a lot of assets. hopefully it won't be too long before we see something like that.
They could make a 25th anniversary pack with OoT and a free VC Zelda. The first big exclusive is too far away.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Indyana said:
Sure, but if they were aiming for an April-May 2012 launch to spread the expenses between fiscal years, they might reconsider it.

I think a lot will depend on how well the new price point goes. It's only the Wii's 2nd Price Drop.
 
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