Game Boy Advance is definitely dead now
It lived longer than we thought but 2008 will be the first sub-million Game Boy sales year since 1989
We know it's wrong to laugh at the non-living but considering one of the first traffic peaks on Pocket Gamer concerned the end of Game Boy, we've been haunted since by the ability of the console to hang onto commercial life.
But looking through Nintendo's recent financial figures, we can see the final nails are now being battered into the coffin.
Between April 1st 2007 to March 31st 2008, 1.6 million Game Boy Advances were sold, of which 1.3 million were Game Boy Advance SPs. Interestingly the largest market for these was Europe, where 820,000 GBAs were sold. It may seem like a lot but, during the previous 12 months, 4.3 million Game Boys were sold (one million in Europe), so 2008 looks set to mark the first year when less than one million Game Boys are sold since the family's launch in 1989.
Which is remarkable, when you think about it.
When it comes to software, the decline is much easier to see. Ten million GBA games were sold last year, compared to 38.5 million in the prior 12 months. And this was the first year – again since 1989 – that no new GBA games were released in Japan. In fact, only 46 new GBA games were released, compared to 251 in the previous 12 months. Presumably, at least one new GBA game will be released in 2008 but – bar the shouting – it's fair to say it's all now over.
Still, considering a total of 81 million GBAs (GBAs, GBA SPs and GBA Micros) have been sold, as well as 377 million games (a tie-ratio of 4.7, fact fans), we'd reckon that, overall, Nintendo is pretty pleased.
We just hope it will bounce back with a new high-tech GB version to keep us aging Nintendo fans happy with something neat and shiny to stick into our pockets. Because, you know, DS is so yesterday.
