Nintendo DS: Getting Killed Off by Game Theft

I have written on here many times about game piracy and how damaging it is. And yet again, right now, another gaming platform is being destroyed by software thieves. Once the technique for stealing games becomes common knowledge for a machine most of the public are reluctant to pay for games that they can steal for free.

There are over 105 million Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) DS consoles in the world and the new DSi version is selling like crazy. Yet Ubisoft is reporting that their year on year game sales for the DS are down by 67%. And that they are maintaining market share, so the whole market is down by that amount.

The genie is out of the bottle and it is game over. Ubisoft (UBSFY.PK) and others will desert the DS and apply their resources elsewhere. New DS titles will dry up and there will be nothing to steal.

What is happening to the DS has happened to lots of other platforms in the past. When it hit Sony's (SNE) PS1, it caused massive redundancies across the industry. Yet when the good times are rolling many game industry bosses ignore piracy and treat it as an insignificant side issue. Which is pretty stupid as it could very easily and very rapidly destroy their businesses. If people are stealing your games you can’t pay the staff who make them.

Finally, losing the DS isn’t all bad. Compared with something like the Samsung i7500, it is looking pretty primitive.

Comments

[User 320143:]

Er.... no.

I was wondering why no-one else in the world seems to have spotted the collapse in the DS software market, so I checked the Ubisoft press release.

www.ubisoftgroup.com/g...

There's no mention of their maintaining market share on DS. Their overall market share has fallen in both the US and Europe, although not by that much. However, they do mention that they have increased their market share on Wii substantially. Both of these facts together mean that they must have lost market share on another platform. And looking at their sales movements, the prime candidate is the DS.

So a bit early to be calling game over for the DS - I think you're letting your dislike of Nintendo get in the way of the facts. Incidentally, you've mentioned many times on this blog that mobile phones including the Iphone etc will crush the DS. Do you have any explanation for the fact that the DS is still selling better than the Iphone/Ipod Touch, as it has done consistently since the Iphone's launch? I mean, if the Iphone is going to steal the DS market, aren't DS sales going to have to fall at some stage? And if you think so, when exactly?

Jul 29 02:09 PM

[Gaucho420:]

I copy games all the time and I have a boatload of copied DS games. HOwever, Nintendo and the publisher aren't missing a dime, as I wouldn't have bought them at any price.

I however, do not copy 360 or Wii games, although I easily could...but I like them, so I pay for them outright. The DS? Nope, I rarely play it and therefore, no money is lost on me getting it for free as I would've never spent a dime on most games.

So there's a point to be made about this...if anything, copying DS games has had me recommend certain games to my father and little brother, who do have a DSi and went out and bougth the games I recommended as they don't have time to mess with those downloads or getting the chip required to play tem. So without me getting them for free (and again, I would never had laid out a dime to buy them, so no loss of sales on my account), my dad would never have bought certain DS games.

And I loved GTA: Chinatown so much, I went out and bought the real thing.

Same with music...I have copied MP3s of a billion tunes that I never would've bought normally, at any price. But after having free MP3s of certain artists that I really liked, I went out and bought actual albums and that's happened quite a bit on the music side.

So its not truly lost sales on every account, as again, I wouldn't have bougth any of the DS games or those MP3s at any price...for free, I'll give them a shot and if I like them, I'll recommend them or buy them next time myself.

I'm not sure how often this happens, but for sure...free things lead to money made at least for some customers.

Just because we take something for free, doesn't mean we would've spent any money on it if we couldn't get it for free.

Jul 29 02:19 PM

[Frank Castle:]

The ability for this has been out for years and everyone seems to miss the basic fact:

Nintendo DS is likely 60%+ used by those under 13yr old. So unless mom and dad start to switch to buy cellphones for little jimmy and suzy this will always be a non factor as the people who pursue and purchase ROM carts, and the means to load said carts with obtained game ROM's are a SMALLER market then nintendo's main market - kids.

Every game system be it PC or console based has always had to deal with copied content - the worst likely the Sega Dreamcast.

Nintendo titles themselves make up a huge portion of DS sales so unless someone can get a exclusive at the level of Pokemon / Mario nothing is driving the above market to WANT anything but Nintendo DS. Perhaps Apple should make a mario style Steve Job's game as the apple fanboys alone could make it a top selling title?

Jul 30 06:44 AM

[Zenfar:]

"According to Nintendo's own data passed on after yesterday's NPD results, the DS and DSi combined in June to sell over 766,000 units, more than the sum total of all the other present-gen platforms. In particular, adoption of the newer DSi handheld variant appears to be accelerating, with 424,000 units purchased of the new model in June, versus 342,000 of the DS."

Retail Top 20 for June

www.gamasutra.com/news...

XBox 360 is also getting stronger vs. PS3

A big part of the DS market is different from the phone market as Frank Castle points out.

Jul 30 10:59 AM

[MikeCooper:]

This is an argument from the Napster days. Unfortunately statistics and experience have proven that consumers are not this rational. Most game and music sales are impulse buys based off of current fashion and social trends, i.e. what's hot/what's not. Advertisers and PR experts get paid very well to predict and influence these trends. Remember beanie babies? Remember how many BILLIONS in profits were made before consumers realized they were just stuffed animals? When a consumer can download a game for free you lose those sales.

The profits made off of genuine appreciation of a product, which you are highlighting, are real but they cannot compare with the more superficial and more lucrative sales built off of niche advertising, and mass-marketing.


On Jul 29 02:19 PM Gaucho420 wrote:

> I copy games all the time and I have a boatload of copied DS games.
> HOwever, Nintendo and the publisher aren't missing a dime, as I wouldn't
> have bought them at any price.
>
> I however, do not copy 360 or Wii games, although I easily could...but
> I like them, so I pay for them outright. The DS? Nope, I rarely play
> it and therefore, no money is lost on me getting it for free as I
> would've never spent a dime on most games.
>
> So there's a point to be made about this...if anything, copying DS
> games has had me recommend certain games to my father and little
> brother, who do have a DSi and went out and bougth the games I recommended
> as they don't have time to mess with those downloads or getting the
> chip required to play tem. So without me getting them for free (and
> again, I would never had laid out a dime to buy them, so no loss
> of sales on my account), my dad would never have bought certain DS
> games.
>
> And I loved GTA: Chinatown so much, I went out and bought the real
> thing.
>
> Same with music...I have copied MP3s of a billion tunes that I never
> would've bought normally, at any price. But after having free MP3s
> of certain artists that I really liked, I went out and bought actual
> albums and that's happened quite a bit on the music side.
>
> So its not truly lost sales on every account, as again, I wouldn't
> have bougth any of the DS games or those MP3s at any price...for
> free, I'll give them a shot and if I like them, I'll recommend them
> or buy them next time myself.
>
> I'm not sure how often this happens, but for sure...free things lead
> to money made at least for some customers.
>
> Just because we take something for free, doesn't mean we would've
> spent any money on it if we couldn't get it for free.

Jul 30 01:24 PM