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Portables (Games) Businesses Wii

Wii, DS, Not Cannibals 98

Nintendo President Iwata, GameSpot reports, has stated that the Wii and the DS are not 'eating' each other. That is to say, the Wii's brisk sales reports have not harmed the high demand for Nintendo's portable system. From the article: "'Some analysts say the largest rival of the Wii is the DS,' he told the Reuters news service. 'But if you take a look at DS sales in the United States in the Thanksgiving week or DS sales in Japan in the week of the Wii launch, there has been little impact.' By the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2007, Nintendo now believes it will have sold 6 million Wiis and 20 million combined units of the DS and DS Lite. It currently predicts its annual profit will total 145 billion yen (around $1.26 billion), an increase of more than 60 percent, with annual sales rising 45 percent to 740 billion yen (approximately $6.44 billion). "
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Wii, DS, Not Cannibals

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  • by kinglink ( 195330 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @01:23PM (#17132310)
    Yamaha, or some other motorcycle company. It's not. If you're going to get a motorcycle you're going to get a yamaha, if you want a truck/car you get a ford. If you need both, you'll get a ford and a yamaha.

    The only person that the DS and the Wii competes over is the guy who is only going to buy 1 system or handheld. And in the past the DS was competing with the PSP for that anyways (and winning for the most part).
    • Not nessesarily. I clearly remember as a kid my parents telling me "You can get a Genesis, OR a GameGear, but not both".
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MindStalker ( 22827 )
        Ahh the days of old when we didn't HAVE to buy every consumer product out there. HAHA how silly and out of debt we were...
    • No, if I was going to buy anything from Yamaha, it would be a clarinet. If I wanted a motorcycle, I'd go Harley-Davidson. If I wanted a crotch rocket, then I might consider Yamaha briefly before I came to my senses and bought a motorcycle instead.
    • by Der PC ( 1026194 )
      Nope, I won't get a Yamaha.

      It's either Piaggio or BMW.

      And BMWs most fierce competition could easily be BMW ( they do produce both quality cars and quality motorcycles ;) )
  • I got a black DS, and my fugly polar white mysteriously dissapeared afterwards...

    Course, that could be because the polar white was bought from me, but I prefer to think of the the cannibalism aspect. One DS munching on another is kinda funny...
    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by Lane.exe ( 672783 ) *
      It's a shame that your home is housing black-on-white crime. Can't you teach your electronics about tolerance?
      • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

        Oh man, I never thought about that problem... Crud...

        Oh well, I think we should start by teaching some mods the difference between "troll" and "bad humor". Overrated? Sure! Troll? WTF!?
        • Troll? Really? I thought it was funny. Oh well.

          I think we'd be better off inventing a <sarcasm> tag.

      • You know what they say -- you can't teach an old console new tricks, without a mod chip.
  • Duh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ereshiere ( 945922 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @01:26PM (#17132374)
    One attaches to your TV, the other you can take anywhere. The Gameboy didn't do this to the NES when it came out 20 years ago, so why should anyone think this now?
    • by ack154 ( 591432 )
      so why should anyone think this now?

      Because "some analysts" are apparently retarded.
    • One attaches to your TV, the other you can take anywhere. The Gameboy didn't do this to the NES when it came out 20 years ago, so why should anyone think this now?

      Not to mention that they have the potential of working together. They both support Wi-Fi and I believe Nintendo was planning to have some games which got both working together.
    • Nintendo isn't so much informing us as framing the debate. They're basically saying "the DS is so successfull that only the Wii could possibly be a threat."

  • So basically they're saying Nintendo's biggest problem is mom and dad not being able to get a Wii for the family, and instead buying x number of DSes for each of the kids?

    I wish I had these kinda problems!
  • by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @01:44PM (#17132770)
    Wii, DS, Not Cannibals

    Wii And DS Are Not Cannibals

    (But they should be eating Microsoft and Sony's lunch!)
    • by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 ) * on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @01:51PM (#17132888) Journal
      And it's not using "cannibal" correctly. A cannibal is something that eats is own type. (Btw, ever fed pork to pigs or chicken to pigeons?) The question is not whether the Wii "eats Wiis", but whether the Wii "eats DS's" and vice versa. A better metaphor would be to ask if the Wii and DS are "type A and B Deftera".
      • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

        In this instance, consider "cannibal" a term of art: it has a specific meaning within marketing, and this is it. A product "cannibalizes" another product if both products are sold by the same company, and product A removes sales from product B. It would be entirely correct, for example, to say that Country Time Lemonade cannibalizes Sprite if, in fact, an increase in sales of Country Time leads to a decrease in sales of Sprite (I believe both are owned by Pepsico, if not, pretend they are for the purposes o
        • I don't know which is sadder... whether I actually agree with your reasoning or that I would like to see Country Time lemonade take over Sprite sales because I own stock in Pepsico and not Coca Cola.
        • by hal2814 ( 725639 )
          The soft drink industry is probably one of the worst places you could attempt such an example due to the convoluted nature of product ownership.

          Country Time is owned by Dr Pepper/7UP who is in turn owned by Cadbury Schweppes. It's always hard to tell if a product is Cadbury Schweppes since they don't bottles their own beverages. Sometimes a Coca-Cola bottler will bottle them, sometimes a Pepsi bottler, and sometimes someone else entirely will bottle them based on the area. The nearest Pepsi equivalent wo
      • by Aladrin ( 926209 )
        They are the same 'type'. They are both products of Nintendo. If Nintendo's product A kills sales from Nintendo's Product B, it's 'cannibalizing it.'

        In fact, they're not just both product, but video game systems. The only difference is that one is hand-held, and the other is not.
      • by Lectrik ( 180902 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @05:34PM (#17137014)
        And it's not using "cannibal" correctly. A cannibal is something that eats is own type. (Btw, ever fed pork to pigs or chicken to pigeons?) The question is not whether the Wii "eats Wiis", but whether the Wii "eats DS's" and vice versa. A better metaphor would be to ask if the Wii and DS are "type A and B Deftera".


        I think the metaphor works rather well. You just have to consider them seperate genders. The Wii being male because it's larger... and called Wii. And the DS being female because it's smaller, you can take it places, and it's fun to poke, not to mention it has a pair of things to stare at.
    • by Skidge ( 316075 )
      Don't you know that typesetting is very expensive? Slashdot pays by the letter.
    • by The-Bus ( 138060 )

      (But they should be eating Microsoft and Sony's lunch!)
      They did. And then they threw up.
  • by killmenow ( 184444 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @02:03PM (#17133162)
    So I'll say it again here: I reserved a Wii and got one on launch day. For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa are buying two DS lites (one each for my daughter and eldest son). Add in the games (4-5 Wii games + 4 [2 each] DS games) and accessories (2nd and 3rd Wiimotes and nunchuks, Wii points cards, personalized Wiimote gloves, etc.) and Nintendo is making a mint off my family alone. But, no, the Wii is not negatively affecting DS Lite sales. Frankly, I want a DS Lite more now that I have the Wii. Every indication is Nintendo will offer integrations that make it very compelling to have both.
  • But I read that as "Wii, DS, Not Cannabis"
    • by brkello ( 642429 )
      Don't feel bad. I read it the same. I actually was trying to draw some strange analogy to how pot makes your hungry and this was somehow causing the Wii and the DS to eat each other. Unfortunately, reading the title correctly doesn't make much sense either (as others have pointed out).
    • I read it like that too. It looks like Wiid (weed) if you're reading it quickly. Several times I've heard people say Wii and I thought I heard weed, so they were kind of linked in my mind.
    • by Dorceon ( 928997 )
      You really read it that way? What were you smoking.
      ...oh, right.
  • My Sister went for the DS for the games. She's been playing since the SuperNES (and had a GameGear), but had migrated to PC games up until the DS. The reason? The DS's games require less involved play, and the genres she likes don't show up on home consoles, at least not without a crappy port.

    My brother, on the other hand, is an avoid sports fan and is likely to stick with Sony regardless of anything else, as long as he can actually GET one, because he's addicted to his football. He wants a PS3, but because
  • So... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aztektum ( 170569 ) on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @02:46PM (#17134078)
    Nintendo is expecting a 60% increase in profits for the year...

    Meanwhile MS and Sony are trying to keep from digging themselves too big a hole with their video game divisions.

    Who is the real "winner."
    • by brkello ( 642429 )
      The real winner is consumers since they have lots of choices...but I am sure that isn't what you are going for.

      I don't think Sony is doing that bad. The PS2 and games for it are selling really well. MS, well, the 360 is poised to get some JRPGs which might allow it to hit the 10 million mark which is a good number to encourage third party development. So right now, everyone is winning, just to different degrees.
      • by Dorceon ( 928997 )
        Sony and Microsoft's games divisions have dug such debt holes that it will take a long string of profitable quarters to make it all back. Nintendo has never had an unprofitable quarter in its 100+ year history. I think that's what he was really getting at.
    • by mgblst ( 80109 )
      The short term, clearly nintendo, according to your in-depth analysis.

      The longer term is more questionable, and harder to make simple statements about.

      I see that you are a short term sort of person, living for the moment, no savings account or pension for you. Good luck with that.

      Sony clearly has a long term strategy, the PS3 is probably so powerful that it could have been released in a couple of years and still be out in front graphically. And it would be a lot cheaper. It seems that this is when Sony are
  • You need SOMETHING to do while waiting 12+ hours in line to buy a Wii!
    • by nhaines ( 622289 )

      Hey!

      I didn't make you come with me. ;)

      ... I didn't make you leave home Mario Kart, Tetris DS, and Animal Crossing, either. What were you thinking? :P

  • Am I the only one who read this title as "Weed, DS, Not Cannabis"

  • At least 4 DS units were sold that day to the 28 people where I was waiting in line for opening-day sales of the Wii. So, sales of one can lead to sales of the other.
  • I could have sworn when i first saw the title that it said "Wii, DS, not Cannabis"
  • Anyone else read the headline as "Wii, DS, Not Cannabis"? I really think I need a siesta after lunch; my brain just stops working.

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

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