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I am able to spend a lot of time working with middle school students all summer and there is one thing I have noticed:  They all own a Nintendo DS.  Granted, these aren’t low-income families, but they aren’t necessarily the cream of the crop either.  Looking at the graph on the right, sales continue to escalate and there doesn’t seem to be signs of slowing.  With some 65 million units sold, one must wonder why this such a huge hit.  The entire Gameboy line was around for 17 years and sold around 200 million units. 

So, what is it  that makes the DS so enticing to the 11-year-old.

1. they can afford it
Price point is quite important - the Wii is a prime example of this.  At $130, as compared to the $200 a PSP costs, the price is within the reach of a middle schooler or within what parents are willing to pay for the middle schooler’s toy.  Starting the price point low gets a snowball rolling that Sony can’t catch up to. 

2. everybodys doing it, and they can share
One of my favorite stories happened while riding a bus with a bunch of middle schoolers.  They could sit wherever they wanted, but rather than sit and talk to each other, they connected their DS’ and chated over WiFi.  These units really create a social atmosphere unlike any other gaming system.  Nintendo had a great idea connecting the original gameboy’s together for multi-playing, but the addition of WiFi makes this genius.  The ability to share game cartridges over the waves is the cherry on top. 

3. it’s straight forward
This is the reason that the media buff doesn’t buy a DS.  It’s not made to watch movies or to play music.  It is designed to be a fun engaging gaming machine.  This is point where people start talking about how the DS is primed for hacking and it can do all the blah blah blah….  Hackers don’t buy 65 million units.  What is amazing is that the dumb blond and the super smart geek can both be engaged by the DS

It’s a fun machine, and it’s only a matter of time before the sale surpass the gameboy line altogether.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.