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Sony PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games)

PS2, DS Real Console War Winners 81

Posted by Zonk from the everybody-has-them dept.
Paradox writes in with a link to an MSNBC article that shouldn't be too surprising for anyone: the real winners of the console war are the DS and the PS2. Boasting numbers unmatchable by the johnny-come-lately next-gen consoles, the PS2 and Nintendo DS each sold about 1.5 Million units last December. Article author Kristin Kalning points out the reality: given the high quality of gaming in general nowadays, the low prices and rich libraries of these 'venerable' systems will see them in circulation for some time to come. Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems? Are you holding out for price drops, or considering buying one of the older systems now that they're considerably less expensive?
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PS2, DS Real Console War Winners More

PS2, DS Real Console War Winners

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  • That's just painful!

  • DS Not Last-Gen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SighKoPath ( 956085 ) on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:14PM (#17864054)

    Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems?
    The DS is not 'last-gen.' It's a current generation handheld. Last-gen would be the GBA.

    • Re:DS Not Last-Gen (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bym051d ( 980242 ) on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:31PM (#17864394)
      And IIRC, the GBA also had a pretty good Christmas. It sold 850,000 in December. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=155061 [computeran...ogames.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by revlayle ( 964221 )
      I would argue NONE of the consoles are next-gen. It's kinda like the "tomorrow's a day away" saying.... once the next-gen console becomes a reality and on the market, it is NOW current-gen, it's predecessor is last-gen.

      of course, i MAY be splitting hairs a wee bit
      • Certainly as far as I am concerned the PS3 and probably the 360 are "next gen" as they leverage technologies that aren't in the average home yet (eg HDTV). I think this is why the Wii will do well, at least in the short term. There is little point in paying so much for a PS3 or 360 when you don't have a TV to support them, While such TVs are still in "early adopter" style price ranges and still undergoing rapid improvement I think that considering them "next gen" is reasonable.
        • What do you mean by HDTV? I'm buying a 23" Samsung this year (most likely), and it's certainly not in the "early adopter" price range (700 euros / 900 dollars). HDTVs are not expensive.
          • Someone working 40 hour weeks at $8 an hour makes $1280 in a month. $900 is very expensive to that person, and $8 is higher than minimum wage in a very large number of states.

            It is important to remember that expensive is a relative term, applied either to other items in the same category or to the availible funds of a potential consumer. I believe the latter is more important to the adoption rate of HDTV than the former.
            • You can save money, which is what I'm doing. I only get 650 euros a month ($840), and it'll take me about four or five months to save up. The TV I'm buying is in the lower end of the price spectrum, most people seem to go for at least 32".

              Also, a $900 HDTV is no more expensive than a new display adapter or high-end CPU or some other expensive piece of computer equipment.
          • Why are you "most likely" buying it "this year" rather than buying it tomorrow? That sure sounds like a lot of money for a relatively small TV to me.
            • "Most likely" because by the time I've saved up enough money, there could be a better HDTV available for the same price, and "this year" because I don't know exactly when I'll have enough money. My income is very small.
  • my current console is a game cube. my console before that was a sega genesis (which i still play on occasion). i'm guessing my next console will be whatever is after the wii - or possibly whatever comes after that. by then my kids will be old enough that i'll probably be more motivated to 'keep up'.

  • XBox used games glut = happy gamers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jtheletter ( 686279 ) on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:15PM (#17864076)
    I'll admit that Halo 2 sucked me in for way too long, to the exclusion of other titles. But now there's so many original XBox games turning up in the used market I've more than doubled my game library on the cheap! Keep up those trade-ins next-geners, those of us who don't ride the bleeding edge are still getting plenty of use out of these games. :)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by matt328 ( 916281 )
      Amen. My girlfriend and I just found the first Lego Star Wars for PS2 for $15 used the other day and can't put it down. I have a Gamecube as well, and Zelda aside, I've never paid more then $15 each for any of the games I have for it.

  • DS support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by the dark hero ( 971268 ) <adriatic_hero.hotmail@com> on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:31PM (#17864400) Homepage
    The DS is still going strong. There's enough titles from square-enix alone to make a fanboy salivate. This isn't surprising news as many people are content with the previous generation of systems and titles available for it. I know plenty of games from the last generation that i haven't even gotten around to playing yet.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Osty ( 16825 )

      The DS is still going strong. There's enough titles from square-enix alone to make a fanboy salivate. This isn't surprising news as many people are content with the previous generation of systems and titles available for it. I know plenty of games from the last generation that i haven't even gotten around to playing yet.

      There is no "next generation" for handhelds yet. The DS and PSP are both "current generation", and it's disingenuous to talk about the DS "still going strong" because there's no "DS 2"

      • The thing is that with AV equipment, the source material (CDs and DVDs) stays the same, but the quality of the delivery changes according to how high-end your hardware is. With games, on the other hand, (console games, at any rate) the titles themselves are hugely different between (e.g.) a PS2 and a PS3. The development costs of making a game that utilizes the full potential of the system are going to be vastly different for the PS3 vs. the PS2, and if the PS3 can't gain market share that will inexorably
  • Given the success of last-gen consoles, what are your plans regarding gaming systems?

    We already got a Wii (which is a very cool system) and I'll likely get a 360 this coming Christmas when they cut the price and bundle it with Halo 3. I didn't like the PS2 and have even less interest in the PS3.

  • I'm not buying either of the two big expensive consoles this time around. If we eventually get Linux on the Xbox 360, then I'll buy one used a ways down the line. I'll probably be looking to buy a used PS3 by the time no one cares about them any more, which will be a generation or two away yet. I don't want to be depriving the market of a used PS3 and leading someone to buy a new one, because that supports Sony.

    Basically choosing between Microsoft and Sony is like choosing between Democrats and Republic

    • I'm waiting for Linux (or a price drop) on the Wii

      I doubt you'll be seeing either Linux or a price drop anytime soon. How about News and Weather instead? :P

      Personally, I'm outright shocked that it's February and it's still incredibly difficult to get a Wii. With Nintendo's sizable shipments of the console, I would have thought that they would have been available from day one. Instead, demand seems to be increasing before Nintendo has a chance to catch up with the current demand. It's scary to think what wi

      • I doubt you'll be seeing either Linux or a price drop anytime soon. How about News and Weather instead? :P

        I can't use news and weather, I don't have broadband internet nor am I using ICS to let my Wii talk to the world.

        In fact I tried to finally get broadband from hughes satellite, but their credit check system is very stupid and it said there was "not enough information" to grant my lady credit, even though her score is excellent. I may cry. Dialup is just, well, it's NOT OK. NOT OK AT ALL.

        Anyway I don

    • The Wii isn't worth the money if you game seriously at all. $5 per virtual console game? I can download and emulate them for free...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by miro f ( 944325 )
        I thought the same thing, but there's one thing that makes VC much better than emulation: multiplayer games.

        you can't (easily) get four people around a PC playing mario kart or whatever. And if you do, it's just not as good as having them sitting around the couch yelling and having some room. For most single player games it's probably no better than emulation, but for multiplayer the VC can't be beat.

  • Graphics don't matter! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PresidentEnder ( 849024 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (rednenrevyw)> on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:47PM (#17864620) Journal
    I've been saying for years that graphics don't matter to me, being mocked by my roommates for playing the Ur-Quan Masters (an open source version of Star Control) while they played battlefield 2.

    Past a certain point, though, graphics really don't matter. Sure, the N64 was grainy and the Gamecube is easier to see (and thus play). Now that we have the current level of graphics, scaling more and more textures and pixels until you can see the warts on the orc's nose is foolhardy and wasteful. I'd like to see more attention paid to AI and gameplay elements in the future.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by the dark hero ( 971268 )

      I'd like to see more attention paid to AI and gameplay elements in the future.

      I agree, but the problem is convincing the devs to use the "all-mighty power" of the PS3 to give us some amazing AI over graphics. It wont happen. The game won't sell because it isn't "HD" enough.

      • Also because it's a hell of a lot harder to make better gameplay than it is to simply package higher-res textures. The former requires a great deal more research and creativity than the later. Whilst people are happy to buy the same game but shinier this isn't likely to change.
      • Graphics may not matter to you, but would the average consumer say the same thing?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by MemoryDragon ( 544441 )
          The average consumer seems to be happy being fed year after year with the same EA game ...
          • You guys demean the average customer too much. Most if not all of the best selling (ok let's exclude sports) games have great (or possibly unique) gameplay. People buy the latest sports games because they love the sport enough to stay up to date with rosters and whatnot. If the games improve over time, that's merely a bonus.
            • I did not say the games were bad, but buying the same sports game, and face it, madden, fifa, need for speed etc... 2000-2001-2002-2003-2004-2005 is pretty much the same year after year, full price is simply idiotic, but those games are the cash cows of EA and sell to millions to the we want the same again although we have it idiots.
              I mean lets be serious, go to a games or electronic store and look at the shelves, they are a disgrace. Pokemon 300, Madden 500, Castle Wolfenstein 3d Clone 700, Fifa Soccer (
    • Same shit, different day.

      How many years have people been saying "I want better AI/gameplay, not fancy graphics?" We have good gameplay. We've had it for decades. We even have good AI; Unreal Tournament and Half-Life are good examples, and I hear that Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas have solid AI as well, in addition to the killer graphics that are supposedly stealing our gameplay and AI. Graphics and gameplay are not mutually exclusive, and graphical development is part of the evolution of games, and alw
      • Personally, I don't find the AI in the Unreal Tournament games very intelligent. While upping the difficulty makes them more sharper and more accurate, they still function along the same lines and remain predictable.

        I can't vouch for the other games, as I haven't played them.

  • Shocker!! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:49PM (#17864658)
    This is a shocker, inexpensive systems with lots of reasonable quality games released for them outsell expensive systems with no games ...

    In general, the number of people who are willing to spend more than $200 on a gaming system is small and the number of people who are willing to spend that much money without (at least) a handful of games they want being readily available is tiny. The PS2 is still attractive to people because you can (essentially) spend $100 on the system, and $20 per game, and have access to more entertainment then you could on your $400 XBox 360 or $500/$600 PS3.

  • In Other News.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by twistedsymphony ( 956982 ) on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:52PM (#17864692) Homepage
    The DS isn't a home console and the PS1 outsold the PS2 when it first came out.

    I'm not sure the point the article is trying to make... new console adoption is always slow going despite launch day sales numbers... the NES outsold the SNES for a while, the SNES outsold the N64 and PS1 for a while, the PS1 outsold the PS2 for a while, and **SHOCK*** the PS2 is outselling it's replacements... say it aint so!

    The DS IS a next gen hand held... it's outselling it's last gen counterpart the GBA... but it's also not a recently released console... when it was it was being outsold by it's cheaper last gen cousin. Even still the DS while a game machine is a completely different market then home consoles. That's like being surprised that the iPod is outselling BluRay players... no really?
    • As I sometimes say, second verse same as the first.

      I remember the PS2 launch and how the PS1 outsold the PS2 for quite a while (till late 2001 IIRC) There were still good PS1 games released after the PS2 launch, FFIX for example was released on Nov 13 2001.

      It's pretty much happening again the same way, FFXII gets released just two weeks before PS3 launch and Rogue Galaxy was released a few days ago. I don't expect PS3 sales to even begin take off untill tax refund season. By fall we'll know.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by miro f ( 944325 )
      interestingly, in Japan, this doesn't happen as much. The PS2 is being outsold by the PS3 (which isn't selling that much anyway) and the GBA is essentially dead (it's sold even less than the xbox360) linky: http://www.vgcharts.org/japyearlysum.php [vgcharts.org]

      it's interesting to see the difference in culture, it would seem to me that price is less of an issue to the japanese as the americans (for gamers anyway) since they seem to completely ignore the older systems for their (backwards compatible) successors almost as s
  • I bought a DS:Lite in September for my wife and a Wii at launch for the two of us. I was never really interested in the PS2 since I had a Cube and PC to keep me occupied. I may look at the PS2 now that it is priced to sell and there are an abundance of cheap titles. I'll probably hold off though since the DS is really coming into its prime with games like Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thule ( 9041 )
      Sounds familier!

      I haven't really played games in years. Just too many other things to do. Then I got a Wii and it's been a ton of fun. After getting the Wii I decided to pick up a DS and found that Super Mario Brothers is a ton of fun! Brain Age is unique. Hotel Dusk is great, reminds me of the adventure games I used to play on the PC years ago.

      The PS2 is now looking interesting to me since there are some really unique games on the system. I don't see a lot of unique games for the XBox. I know there
  • The original plan was to pick up a Wii for Christmas and get a 360 whenever the price dropped. Since we still can't find a Wii, we ended up getting a 360 on sale. The 360 has a decent library of games and has the added bonus of acting as a Media Center Extender so that we can stream video from our computers. We're probably going to skip HD-DVD/Blu-Ray entirely. The upscaling DVD player is quite as good, but it should be good enough to last until digital delivery becomes a compelling alternative.

  • ...were purchased by exasperated grandparents who gave up trying to find a PS3?
  • I always wait for a price break on the video game equipment. Hell, any electronics for that matter. Early adoption is both expensive and often a bit of a gamble. Might as well wait a year or two and get more for your money.

  • can I toot my own horn (I don't do it often). I predicted this.

    http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=213180&c id=17340420 [slashdot.org]

    PS2 is cheap, the games are cheaper. The games still lookspretty good. Did I mention its cheap and fun.

    The new systems are pretty much a rehash of the old, with better graphics. (excepting the wii)
  • Part of the data is problematic as the Wii is still selling very strongly. Months after launch and while PS3s are starting to pile up and reach the level where you can just go into a store and buy one, the Wii is still a mixture of luck and/or staking out the store.

    Given this information many people are waiting for a price drop on the PS3 and some good games to come out (I know I have an interest in it, but it's definitely a secondary console to me and the price will have to come waaay down), but most peopl
    • In other words, demand is constant and the supplier can sell every single unit shipped at maximum efficiency. In fact, even with more factories every day, demand is still high.

      Hmmm. Sure sounds like winning to me - especially if you track the game units sold - most Wii console buyers are buying a lot of games for their consoles, and continuing to do so, whereas the demand for PS3 games is ... um ... not good.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Belgand ( 14099 )
        Yes, but also the problem in asking "Why haven't you bought a next-gen system?" isn't a valid question yet. Sure people want to say that last-gen systems are the real winners here, but until everyone who wants a Wii can get one, the lack of supply is a valid impediment to learning anything from the question. One which really wants to hear: "The PS3 is unreasonably expensive/has no good games." or "Microsoft sucks and it'll be a cold day in hell before I give them any cash for that damn 360 (even if it final
  • That game is the biggest crossover game since the original super mario bros.

    And the DS - well, it's just awesome.

  • What are the profits? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by LoverOfJoy ( 820058 ) on Saturday February 03, 2007 @12:56AM (#17870084) Homepage
    Both the DS and PS2 sold great but how much profit does Nintendo and Sony make from each sold?

    The PS2 is probably old enough technology that it's very cheap to make nowadays. DS came out later but Nintendo is known for making a profit right out of the gate on units. It'd be interesting to hear the actual numbers.
  • I got a GameCube last Christmas (I'd been coasting on my SNES for a decade). This year I got a DS (used red one, not a Lite). I'm currently thinking PS2 next year, Wii in 2008. Although I don't know if I can wait that long for a Wii... But it would be so unlike me to pay more than $100 for a console. I'm torn.
  • I've played the Wii a bit, and while I did find it to be very entertaining I can't say the games are any more enjoyable than anything else I've played. I've had at least as much fun gaming with friends on the Gamecube. So ultimately, while I could appreciate the unique control scheme I don't think it was compelling enough for me to decide to spend the money on a Wii. I'd say a DS, which offers similar gameplay albeit with a different, but still unique control scheme provides more value for the dollar.

    We've

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