Has the Nintendo DS reached saturation?

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 23 December 2010 13:16

Your IT - Entertainment

Nintendo Australia has announced it has hit 3 million in sales for the DS hand-held gaming device.  In a country of just over 20 million people, and with mobile gaming devices becoming more prevalent , is that it for the venerable DS?  Or will the 3DS excite an all new generation?

More and more kids are nicking their parents iPhones, iPads or have their own iPod Touch or other device to game with on the go.  But still, the Nintendo DS, in its various forms continues to top sales figures for gaming consoles.

Nintendo Australia has announced that a new sales milestone has been reached for the DS: Nintendo announces that the biggest selling video game console of all time in Australia, Nintendo DS® (inclusive of Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite®, Nintendo DSiâ„¢ and Nintendo DSiâ„¢ XL), has sold through more than three million* units! For the last four years, Nintendo DS has been Australia's number one selling console, and it is on target to be the number one selling console again for 2010.

The original Nintendo DS launched in 2005 introducing touch screen controls for hand held gaming. This was followed by the launch of the Nintendo DS Lite in 2006, then Nintendo DSi in 2009, which upgraded the system with a camera, SD card slot, and online connectivity among other features. In 2010 Nintendo launched Nintendo DSi XL - with larger screens than ever before, plus pre-installed software and games.  Finally in 2010, Nintendo launched three bright new colours for the Nintendo DSi XL - red, yellow and blue.

Nintendo DS has something for everyone with a huge range of titles to choose from, no matter what your age or gaming experience. From favourites such as nintendogsâ„¢, Dragon Quest IX®: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Mario Kart® DS, New Super Mario Bros.â„¢, to educational titles such as Art Academyâ„¢ and Maths Trainingâ„¢, to brain teasers which include Nintendo Presents: Crossword Collection, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Trainingâ„¢: How Old is Your Brain? and the Professor Laytonâ„¢ series.

A recent Nielsen poll suggested kids are more likely to write an Apple product on their letter to Santa than a Nintendo one, and in general hardware sales for specialised gaming hardware has been on a slow decline.

Details of the next iteration in Nintendo's hand-held gaming progress, the 3DS will arrive next month, ahead of a proposed Japanese launch date of February 26th (March for the rest of the world it seems), but can the attraction of a 3D screen requiring no glasses for the 3D effect be enough to lure new, and existing DS owners into the fold?

Probably, the 3DS is a remarkable device, and it may take either a copycat device (clearly possible given the screen technology is not Nintendo propriety) or some other seismic shift (the iPad 2) to draw attention away.  

It is an ever changing tech landscape, and Nintendo don't have the luxury of any comfortable laurel seats nearby that can be perched upon for any time length.  Nintendo will need some killer apps that take advantage of the 3DS's capabilities to shift units from store, particularly given the US$300 propose asking price.