N Gage Sales - Higher than Thought [Archive]

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Griking

10-22-2003, 06:49 PM

According to the linked story 400,000 N-Gage have been sold in two weeks.

http://news.excite.com/tech/article/id/300088|technology|10-22-2003::11:29|reuters.html

Raccoon Lad

10-22-2003, 06:51 PM

I think that's just the number sold to retailers.

jonjandran

10-22-2003, 07:01 PM

I think that's just the number sold to retailers.

OOHH Sorry you didn't phrase that in the form of a question.

Just kidding , but you are correct. That was the amount shipped to retailers . 5000 were sold in the first week to customers.

Ed Oscuro

10-22-2003, 07:24 PM

5000 down, 495,000 to go LOL

ManekiNeko

10-22-2003, 08:14 PM

What's that smell? I think someone at Nokia's been cooking the books.

JR

davidbrit2

10-22-2003, 08:54 PM

God DAMN. That breaks down to an average of 100 per state. Is the overall average then about 1 NGage per shop that carries it?

Sotenga

10-22-2003, 09:08 PM

All of the sudden, I'm hungry for an electric taco... FOR ME TO POOP ON!!! LOL

nesuser2

10-22-2003, 09:09 PM

in small states LOL ........i know atleast 5 stores in one local city and it's not even big. maybe in rhode island it's one system sold for each store but i would say maybe one in 15 stores actually made a sale. making there, 75,000 game stores carrying it.....which is 150 stores per state. more for some......less for others. but that's really sad LOL

i'm gonna pick up so many of these in the bargain bin......i don't care how long i have to wait...

Balloon Fight

10-22-2003, 09:34 PM

Its funny because all of my local Gamestops have basically given up on selling them. They dont even have advertisements, and you have to ask for them to get them in the back.

Darth Sensei

10-22-2003, 09:44 PM

What's that smell? I think someone at Nokia's been cooking the books.

JR

I was thinking it was the smell of Nokia executives crapping their pants. LOL

Dave

MarioAllStar2600

10-22-2003, 09:49 PM

Well I guess teh whole DIgital Press crew was right once again. FAILURE! I feel as though it's going to drop down to $150-$200 and then they will start sellling. Maybe 5 perstore? LOL

DogP

10-22-2003, 09:56 PM

nesuser2

10-22-2003, 11:00 PM

Dogp is very right, and my calculations are all wrong......just skip that part LOL but it may get more support if they dropped the unit to $150. the part that really kills it is that it's a cell phone. that really bothers me, what about those people that don't want a new cell phone? now i have to pay $300 for a gaming system. if they came down to $125 i may consider it. had it started at $125 i would take it into more serious consideration. they're burning their future with such a price tag......cell phone or not.

ianoid

10-22-2003, 11:08 PM

Ok, so has anyone actually played the thing here?

Looks like fun, although the design with the cart slot seems pretty poor.

ian

portnoyd

10-22-2003, 11:11 PM

My local Funcoland got in 8.
They sold 1.

Dear Nokia,

Can I borrow $10,000 out of the ungodly amount of money you spent on hyping this thing? I think I can put it to better use.

Sincerely,

dave

Zaxxon

10-22-2003, 11:11 PM

Anybody know what Nokia is worth? I wonder how much of a financial hit they can take before going bankrupt. I suspect there's gotta be an extra zero in that 400,000 number.

Zaxxon

10-22-2003, 11:14 PM

RoboticParanoia

10-22-2003, 11:16 PM

This teaches an important lesson.

1. When you're going to introduce something into a market you're unfamiliar with, START SMALL.

2. Do not let monkeys on acid to design your product.

3. At least make it so that it doesn't look like you're talking to a blue taco, if you are going to assign something to the market.

YoshiM

10-22-2003, 11:25 PM

My local Funcoland got in 8.
They sold 1.

Dear Nokia,

Can I borrow $10,000 out of the ungodly amount of money you spent on hyping this thing? I think I can put it to better use.

Sincerely,

dave

I haven't seen or heard one TV/print/radio ad. All I see are those banner ads on websites. I don't think they're spending that much hyping it.

Gawds, I hope you are just being sarcastic. Ads are everywhere on popular channels like Comedy Central, MTV and VH1. They have multipage ads in EGM. Oh they are advertising, it's just that the system reeks of suckdom.

Ed Oscuro

10-22-2003, 11:46 PM

Can I borrow $10,000 out of the ungodly amount of money you spent on hyping this thing? I think I can put it to better use.

Sincerely,

dave

Hear, hear!

And Nokia going bankrupt off this? Not darn likely; they're worth multiple billions I believe. This endeavor is maybe $50M wasted, that's all :p

Gamemaster_ca_2003

10-23-2003, 12:16 AM

I haven't seen or heard one TV/print/radio ad. All I see are those banner ads on websites. I don't think they're spending that much hyping it.

I have seen part of a comercial for the NGage but they are spending money for it.

hezeuschrist

10-23-2003, 12:31 AM

They are spending sick amounts on advertising. I get a whole load of magazines for free and every one I get now has an ad in it... hell my most recent GMR came in a massive plastic sleeve advertising the N-Gage. It wasn't holding an AOL disc with the mag or any added print, just an advertisement you are forced to look at before you can even open the magazine.

I've seen many many commercials for it, and the advertising isn't bad. I'd suspect it would actually be doing worse than it is if it weren't for the ad campaign.

Zaxxon

10-23-2003, 01:13 AM

I haven't seen or heard one TV/print/radio ad. All I see are those banner ads on websites. I don't think they're spending that much hyping it.

Gawds, I hope you are just being sarcastic. Ads are everywhere on popular channels like Comedy Central, MTV and VH1. They have multipage ads in EGM. Oh they are advertising, it's just that the system reeks of suckdom.[/quote]

I don't have Comedy Central, MTV or VH1 and I don't read EGM. Maybe that's why.

kainemaxwell

10-23-2003, 06:46 AM

Someone'll likely get fired for this little fiasco...

Jive3D

10-23-2003, 10:54 AM

12345

Oobgarm

10-23-2003, 11:04 AM

I know what I have said is nothing new, but if so many people have this similar opinion of the system, how in the name of shigeru miyamato did this thing get off the drawing table!?

Their "focus groups" didn't have any real GAMERS in them. Prolly just full of people like this guy:
http://www.dustincarter.com/images/head.gif

Looks hardcore, but is a sissy in reality.

http://www.dustincarter.com/images/ntaco.gif

brandver3

10-23-2003, 11:09 AM

it seems as though every EB store manager has one. A EB manager I know said that all managers got one for free with activation for a year.

Of course tey have to tell customers that it is the best thng since sliced bread.

I'll admit, for a portable, it is impressive. But still, its just PS1 games. Pandimonium for christs sake. Not to mention the horrable button layout and the fact that it just feels cheap.

I'll just stick to my Gameboy.

chadtower

10-23-2003, 11:11 AM

I went to EB (for the first time in ages) to try a demo unit. The morons didn't even have any games to demo. It was just a phone demo.

Oobgarm

10-23-2003, 11:15 AM

it seems as though every EB store manager has one. A EB manager I know said that all managers got one for free with activation for a year.

All the Gamestop managers got one at the manager's conference last month.

That's like 1500 Ngages given to GS managers. I wonder how many EB managers there are?

vincewy

10-23-2003, 11:58 AM

Well... I just hope that they drop the price before they drop the whole system... that's the problem with a lot of this stuff that they start selling for way too much money... they just totally drop the whole system, then they drop the price to get rid of inventory... what they need to do is drop the price, but keep supporting the system, then they'll make more on software sales, and get their product out to people... It reminds me of the Virtual Boy... I think if they would have started the price lower, it might have sold better... and a lot of people bought the system when it came way down in price, so if they would have just come out with some new games, they probably would have sold, since so many people had the system already.

DogP

There're more reason for the fall of VB, considering Nintendo doesn't give up a system so easily and quickly. Besides slow sales and looming of N64 (most people were waiting for N64 at the time). Nintendo pulled the plug on VB due to liability issues, many gamers have experienced headaches/blurred vision (at least temporary) after playing this for less than 1/2 hour, what does this lead to? lawsuits, one reason Sega didn't give go ahead with their VR unit as they had one planned too.

As for N-Gage, I hope Sony takes a good look at it and be careful with PSP, but one advantage they'll have is the ability to play PSP games on PS3, that'd be cool, I guess I'll skip PS2 and wait for PS3.

bargora

10-23-2003, 12:17 PM

Attention Retro-d00dZ:

You realize that ten years from now, it's gonna be uber-cool to whip out your N-Gage to take a call.

Just a thought.

kai123

10-23-2003, 01:16 PM

In 10 years....I better get one now!!!

BTW 200 posts!!! :D

Ed Oscuro

10-23-2003, 02:22 PM

Attention Retro-d00dZ:

You realize that ten years from now, it's gonna be uber-cool to whip out your N-Gage to take a call.

Just a thought.

Hmm, that's true.

Do they sell cases for the damn things?

(I bet somebody could steal half the N-Gage's in the U.S. and nobody would notice)

I watched the preview movie for Pandemonium...looks dumb, really, but it could well be fun. Personally I like manic action games with lots of detail...like Forgotten Worlds. Pandemonium just doesn't look too cool and that's not a good thing.

The buttons IMO aren't that bad. My fingers aren't really wide, but they're not too tiny either. A kid could handle the thing just fine, and I thought they were rather comfortable and didn't cause much problem.

I'd rather the screen were much larger, though.

Damnit, if only the thing had some good games..!

Sylentwulf

10-23-2003, 03:20 PM

I've seen PLENTY of advertising for this thing, TV, websites, mail, mall kiosks, everything. I still have to head up to EB and see if they took down the advertising for it yet, my EB in the mall was COVERED with N-gage adverts, I mean front to back top to bottom, never seen them advertise ANYTHING so much or blatantly.

davidbrit2

10-23-2003, 03:34 PM

Attention Retro-d00dZ:

You realize that ten years from now, it's gonna be uber-cool to whip out your N-Gage to take a call.

Just a thought.

I hope your right. My 1980s brick phone hasn't experienced the same fate. ;-)

Neil Koch

10-23-2003, 04:53 PM

I'm just wondering who the hell exactly they thought would be the target group for this.

People looking for a portable gaming system could get a GBA and a ton of games for $300.

People looking for a cell phone don't like to look as if their talking into a taco, and the $300 doesn't even get any air time.

People looking for some all-in-one doohickey can find something cheaper (like those things TMobile sells now)

You're not going to get hardcore gamers with lame older titles and a bad interface.

jonjandran

10-23-2003, 05:06 PM

People looking for some all-in-one doohickey can find something cheaper (like those things TMobile sells now)
.

It's called the SideKick an it's Da Bomb.
I have one and use it all the time.
I keep it on the E-Bay completed search page and when I'm at Pawns or Fleas, I do a quick search to see what things are worth before I buy them. ;)