14 DAY TRIAL // The handheld gaming market is a pretty huge one, as more and more dedicated consoles or devices that support games appear. We've recently seen the iPhone gaining a lot of popularity, with the PlayStation Portable hot on its heels, but nothing can beat the massive sales of the Nintendo DS and its recent iteration, the DSi.
The DS has gained a lot of fans across the world, and with the Wii console sales phenomenon, it has made Nintendo one of the most successful companies in Japan and across the world. Now, as the newest DSi version has been launched only in the Land of the Rising Sun, some people have started to talk about the fact that the DS is starting to lose its popularity and that the market is saturated.
But Nintendo president Satoru Iwata begs to differ, as he recently stated that the DS would enjoy the same amount of popularity, and would continue to sell extremely well not only in countries like Japan or North America, but especially in emerging ones in terms of gaming, like Russia or India.
“Some say the market for the DS is saturated, but I disagree. In Japan, a country with a population of 127 million, we've sold 23 million DS units. The United States is inhabited by over 300 million people, and there are more than 490 million people in the European Union. Sales of the product could grow further in foreign countries considering their populations.”
It sure seems that the Japanese company is quite confident in its handheld console and that it will continue to back it up through various first- and second-party games developed especially for it. Let's not forget that countries other than Japan can only buy the DS Lite version, so Nintendo will certainly achieve a considerable profit when it will launch the new and improved DSi version in those territories.