The Rise of the Nintendo DS, the "Gimmick" That Outsold Them All

Single longer video (~1,535 words, ~10 min at your voice pace), well under the 9,800-word VidRush cap. Narration only, no banned characters, sign-in and sign-off in place. Cross-links: Game Boy, Wii, PSP, PlayStation Vita, Virtual Boy. Description (paste into YouTube) In 2004, two handhelds were about to go to war, and almost everyone had already picked the winner. Sony's PSP was gorgeous and powerful, with console-quality games on a brilliant widescreen, the future. Nintendo's DS was a clunky clamshell with two screens, the bottom one you poked with a plastic stylus. The experts were nearly unanimous: Sony's powerhouse would crush Nintendo's gimmicky toy. Instead, that two-screen "toy" sold around 154 million units, one of the best-selling game machines in history, nearly double the PSP. This is the full story: how a nervous Nintendo hedged its bets (calling the DS an experimental "third pillar," and making it play every Game Boy Advance game in case the gamble flopped); how the touchscreen and dual screens, three years before the iPhone, opened up brand-new ways to play; how Brain Age and Nintendogs pulled in grandparents and non-gamers in the first great test-run of the "blue ocean" strategy the Wii would later ride; how it delivered for the core too (Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, Pokémon, Professor Layton); how the beautiful DS Lite turned it into a fashion object; and how it beat Sony's PSP nearly two to one. The experts bet on power. Nintendo bet on two screens and a stylus. Nintendo was right. (See our Game Boy, Wii, and PlayStation Vita videos.) This is Kilobyte Chronicles, where we tell the rise and fall of the machines that shaped how we lived. Chapters: 00:00 Everyone picked Sony 01:30 A nervous giant hedges its bets 03:10 A new way to play, before the iPhone 04:00 Brain Age, puppies, and a new audience 04:50 Delivering for the core too 06:30 The DS Lite phenomenon 8:00 Why the "gimmick" won SOURCES (researched from primary/authoritative sources): Wikipedia, "Nintendo DS" (the Nov 2004 launch at $149, Dual Screen/touchscreen, GBA backward compatibility, ~154M units vs PSP's ~80M, the "third pillar" framing, DS Lite/DSi). Retrospectives on Brain Age/Nintendogs and the casual-audience strategy; Nintendo WiFi Connection and Download Play; the DS as a best-selling platform. If you spot a genuine error, comment and I'll pin the correction.