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Nintendo DS units shipped: 149 million Nintendo Wii units shipped: 89 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles http://en.wikip

by ohashi 15y ago

Nintendo DS units shipped: 149 million Nintendo Wii units shipped: 89 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_conso...) As of March this year, Apple sold 100 million iPhones. So let's put things in perspective, Nintendo is an absolutely amazing company in the gaming space and has outsold all their competitors (with the exception of Sony PS2) and has sold far more than Apple across their product lines. I am not saying mobile gaming isn't huge (And perhaps handhelds like GameBoy/DS/PSP should be given their credit here), but to give Apple and Steve Jobs credit for shaping the gaming industry more than the real titans of gaming who have actively shaped it for 20 years? Bullshit.

Samuel_Michon 15y ago
As of October this year, Apple sold 250 million iOS devices (That’s iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.) http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sold/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sol...
- ohashi 15y ago
  Which isn't that far off from only those 2 nintendo products. So to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers.
  - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
    "to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers." I didn't. My message is to please use recent figures for the entire platform, not old sales numbers for just iPhones. Also, nowadays Apple sells more iOS devices than Nintendo sells handhelds and consoles. Nintendo and Sony had a head start, they've been passed by Apple in just four years.
    - ohashi 15y ago
      Fair enough on the numbers, thanks for posting the updated figure. DS was 2004 and Wii was 2006. Iphone was 2007, it wasn't that big a head start.
    - nirvdrum 15y ago
      I never really understood comparing those numbers anyway. As impressive as iPhone sales are, they're not all used for games. Every DS/PSP/3DS were sold with the intention of playing games on. Gaming on my iPhone is terrible, IMHO. Angry Birds can be entertaining, but any comparable game to what I play on the DS is just too frustrating to play on a touch screen-only device. From my observations, facebook has had a much larger impact on gaming than iPhone has. I have plenty of older relatives that'll tend to a virtual farm on facebook but won't play games on their phones.
- jarek 15y ago
  Look in the link provided and add up the totals for all Game Boy and DS revisions.
- mun2mun 15y ago
  How many of them bought iOS devices for gaming purpose only?
  - pbreit 15y ago
    Probably close to zero. But the number who play games on the device is probably close to 250 million. I'm not sure what the point is.
    - talmand 15y ago
      You can't properly compare sales numbers between two products whose major purpose is quite different. Nintendo's products are for gaming only, they serve very little purpose otherwise. Every one of those was sold as a gaming unit. Most people bought their iPhones for purposes other than gaming. Sure, a large number, if not all, of iPhones users play games on their device but that's not a fair comparison since that wasn't always the reason for the sale. The fact that Nintendo has sold so many devices with one purpose as compared to the iPhone which has far more uses is the impressive part to me. It's close to the same logic that a pirated game equates to a lost sale, which it does not.
      - pbreit 15y ago
        I don't think the product's purpose is as relevant as how the product is actually used. If we want to take it to another extreme, I have an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch as well as a Wii, Playstation and Xbox. Guess which three are used to play games every day and which have not been used for anything in over a year. I don't really understand the piracy analogy.
        talmand 15y ago
        What I meant by the piracy analogy is that you are assuming. I'm not exactly comparing their purposes but the reasons people buy them. To do a proper comparison you would have to ask every single iOS device owner if they bought the thing for games, as the main reason for the purchase, to compare them with a device that is only good for gaming. You cannot assume to compare purchase numbers between two devices if people buy them for different reasons even if some features of the two products overlap. It's the same comparison that people keep doing with PCs and consoles. Everybody buys a console for gaming (which is slowly changing, granted) while not everyone who buys a PC does so for gaming.

by ohashi 15y ago

Samuel_Michon 15y ago

As of October this year, Apple sold 250 million iOS devices (That’s iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.) http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sold/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/04/250-million-ios-devices-sol...

ohashi 15y ago
Which isn't that far off from only those 2 nintendo products. So to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers.
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  "to claim Apple was wildly more influential seems flawed by the numbers." I didn't. My message is to please use recent figures for the entire platform, not old sales numbers for just iPhones. Also, nowadays Apple sells more iOS devices than Nintendo sells handhelds and consoles. Nintendo and Sony had a head start, they've been passed by Apple in just four years.
  - ohashi 15y ago
    Fair enough on the numbers, thanks for posting the updated figure. DS was 2004 and Wii was 2006. Iphone was 2007, it wasn't that big a head start.
  - nirvdrum 15y ago
    I never really understood comparing those numbers anyway. As impressive as iPhone sales are, they're not all used for games. Every DS/PSP/3DS were sold with the intention of playing games on. Gaming on my iPhone is terrible, IMHO. Angry Birds can be entertaining, but any comparable game to what I play on the DS is just too frustrating to play on a touch screen-only device. From my observations, facebook has had a much larger impact on gaming than iPhone has. I have plenty of older relatives that'll tend to a virtual farm on facebook but won't play games on their phones.
jarek 15y ago
Look in the link provided and add up the totals for all Game Boy and DS revisions.
mun2mun 15y ago
How many of them bought iOS devices for gaming purpose only?
- pbreit 15y ago
  Probably close to zero. But the number who play games on the device is probably close to 250 million. I'm not sure what the point is.
  - talmand 15y ago
    You can't properly compare sales numbers between two products whose major purpose is quite different. Nintendo's products are for gaming only, they serve very little purpose otherwise. Every one of those was sold as a gaming unit. Most people bought their iPhones for purposes other than gaming. Sure, a large number, if not all, of iPhones users play games on their device but that's not a fair comparison since that wasn't always the reason for the sale. The fact that Nintendo has sold so many devices with one purpose as compared to the iPhone which has far more uses is the impressive part to me. It's close to the same logic that a pirated game equates to a lost sale, which it does not.
    - pbreit 15y ago
      I don't think the product's purpose is as relevant as how the product is actually used. If we want to take it to another extreme, I have an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch as well as a Wii, Playstation and Xbox. Guess which three are used to play games every day and which have not been used for anything in over a year. I don't really understand the piracy analogy.
      - talmand 15y ago
        What I meant by the piracy analogy is that you are assuming. I'm not exactly comparing their purposes but the reasons people buy them. To do a proper comparison you would have to ask every single iOS device owner if they bought the thing for games, as the main reason for the purchase, to compare them with a device that is only good for gaming. You cannot assume to compare purchase numbers between two devices if people buy them for different reasons even if some features of the two products overlap. It's the same comparison that people keep doing with PCs and consoles. Everybody buys a console for gaming (which is slowly changing, granted) while not everyone who buys a PC does so for gaming.