30 replies to this topic

[Tempest2k]

hi,

i have a Question.

How many Lynx I & II are sold World Wide?
The English Wiki says fewer than 500.000 Units.
The German Wiki says nearly 2 Millions.

How many are really Sold? Do you have the answer?

[The_Laird]

I have heard so many different figures ranging from 500,000 to 5 million. I am really not sure who knows for sure.

The 500,000 figure on Wiki sounds like it might be for the UK or Europe and not worldwide, I know for a fact that the Lynx sold very well in the UK and was more popular than the Gamegear.

[Tempest2k]

Really? More Popular than the Game Gear?
Sounds good. but sure the Lynx sold more Units than the Jaguar^^

[The_Laird]

Tempest2k, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:24 PM, said:

Really? More Popular than the Game Gear?
Sounds good. but sure the Lynx sold more Units than the Jaguar^^

Only in the UK I believe possible Europe too, the GG outsold it worldwide.

The Lynx outsold the Jaguar by a large amount, the Jag only sold 250,000 units worldwide

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

The_Laird, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:18 PM, said:

I have heard so many different figures ranging from 500,000 to 5 million. I am really not sure who knows for sure.

The 500,000 figure on Wiki sounds like it might be for the UK or Europe and not worldwide, I know for a fact that the Lynx sold very well in the UK and was more popular than the Gamegear.

Have you got proof of that? I've never known anyone with a Lynx, I know loads of UK gamers who had Game Gear. Not conclusive I know, but I find it hard to believe it was more popular. Would love to be proven wrong though as I love the Lynx

[DracIsBack]

The_Laird, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:29 PM, said:

Tempest2k, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:24 PM, said:

Really? More Popular than the Game Gear?
Sounds good. but sure the Lynx sold more Units than the Jaguar^^

Only in the UK I believe possible Europe too, the GG outsold it worldwide.

The Lynx outsold the Jaguar by a large amount, the Jag only sold 250,000 units worldwide

At the time Atari discontinued the Jaguar, they had 135,000 sold through and 100,000 in inventory.

I've heard so many different figures too for the Lynx, ranging from 500,000 to 2,000,000. Does anyone have any old Atari financial reports from 1989 through 1992? That might give a picture.

I swear that some people on the net make up numbers ... and then others quote them. There's a site that claims the Jaguar sold 2 million units when it's likely Atari didn't even build 250,000 in total.

Edited by DracIsBack, Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:37 PM.

[carmel_andrews]

well, all I know is that it wasn't the worst performing atari gaming platform (by sales), that title goes to xegs/xegm

[DracIsBack]

carmel_andrews, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:39 PM, said:

well, all I know is that it wasn't the worst performing atari gaming platform (by sales), that title goes to xegs/xegm

What were the sales figures of the XE Game System? While I think it's certainly possible, I've certainly NOT seen any sales figures except for a Compute! magazine which suggested the machine sold 2 million units.

Not sure we can make a claim of the Lynx selling better or worse than the XEGS without knowing how many of each Atari sold.

Edited by DracIsBack, Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:22 PM.

[kool kitty89]

carmel_andrews, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:39 PM, said:

well, all I know is that it wasn't the worst performing atari gaming platform (by sales), that title goes to xegs/xegm

The Jaguar?

[The_Laird]

Darran@Retro Gamer, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:19 PM, said:

The_Laird, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:18 PM, said:

I have heard so many different figures ranging from 500,000 to 5 million. I am really not sure who knows for sure.

The 500,000 figure on Wiki sounds like it might be for the UK or Europe and not worldwide, I know for a fact that the Lynx sold very well in the UK and was more popular than the Gamegear.

Have you got proof of that? I've never known anyone with a Lynx, I know loads of UK gamers who had Game Gear. Not conclusive I know, but I find it hard to believe it was more popular. Would love to be proven wrong though as I love the Lynx

Not on paper proof (shame cos I kinda did but lost it over the years)

I worked for Game in the Lynx years and it was far out selling the Game Gear country wide and funny enough one of my best mates worked for Dixons and he said the same thing, we used to get country wide figures. I also remember that xmas 1990 the Lynx was the second most pre-ordered console after the Megadrive and this was actually reported in a weekly magazine we used to have called Games X (not sure if you remember it Darran) I used to have the exact issue but lost it

Also I remember when Batman Returns came out and Atari run that like 15 minute long ad for the Lynx before the film sales went crazy!!! It really did work and Atari should have learned from that.

At my school which wasn't that big I knew 5 other people with Lynxes in my year, 5 with Gameboys and 2 with Gamegears. I also had 3 friends out of school with Lynxes, I used to regularly experience the joys of Comlynx

I will add that I lived in a very affluent area which probably helped a little.

[goatdan]

The problem with *all* console sales from, well, practically whenever is that it all depends on how they report their numbers. Are they reporting the sell through to customers, or the moved units to stores? Or, do they count what was produced but not shipped?

I would be absolutely floored if there were only 500,000 Lynx consoles in circulation. Same if there was only 250,000 or less Jaguar consoles around. With the Lynx, I would assume the sales numbers would be more reliable. I doubt 5 million also, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number settled right in the middle of those two.

The Jaguar I think did worse, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot closer to a million of those made too. The initial "test launch" of it in only certain markets I think sold out 50,000 consoles before it went on sale (just LA and New York as I recall), so that would mean that the rest of the country managed to only sell 200,000 more consoles after it was actually released and promoted. That just doesn't seem right at all. Also, Atari liquidated a TON of supply as a tax thing near the end when they did the funky reverse merger stuff, and those did end up getting sold at places like KayBee toys really cheaply. Again, I can't imagine that they wouldn't have sold at least 200,000 more when there was a time it seemed every KayBee had at least 25 of these in a big pile in them -- WELL after the life of the console too.

So, ultimately, just like with practically all console sales, we may never know exactly what was manufactured and found it's way into circulation. I can say that the Lynx 2 is one of the more common retro video game systems right now, although even that means little -- there were a TON of SNES consoles made, and they are pretty hard to find now.

[DracIsBack]

goatdan, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:31 PM, said:

ThThe Jaguar I think did worse, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot closer to a million of those made too. The initial "test launch" of it in only certain markets I think sold out 50,000 consoles before it went on sale (just LA and New York as I recall), so that would mean that the rest of the country managed to only sell 200,000 more consoles after it was actually released and promoted. That just doesn't seem right at all. Also, Atari liquidated a TON of supply as a tax thing near the end when they did the funky reverse merger stuff, and those did end up getting sold at places like KayBee toys really cheaply. Again, I can't imagine that they wouldn't have sold at least 200,000 more when there was a time it seemed every KayBee had at least 25 of these in a big pile in them -- WELL after the life of the console too.

Hey Goatdan - I thought that as well. I had a Jaguar when they were alive and cheered for it. Unfortunately, Atari's actual filings with the SEC showed that the situation was really dire. Check out Atari's own 10K filing with the SEC when they exited the business.

"Cost of revenues for 1995 was $44.2 million compared to $35.2 million for 1994. Included in cost of revenues for 1995 were accelerated amortization and write-offs of capitalized game software development costs of $16.6 million and inventory write-downs of $12.6 million primarily relating to Jaguar products. As a result of these charges and lower selling prices for Jaguar products and provisions for returns and allowances and price protection, gross margin for the year was a loss of $29.6 million. For 1994, gross margin was $3.5 million, or 9.2% of revenues. Included in cost of revenues for 1994 were write-downs of inventory of $3.6 million and amortization and the write-off of capitalized game software development costs of $1.5 million. From the introduction of Jaguar in late 1993 through the end of 1995, Atari sold approximately 125,000 units of Jaguar. As of December 31, 1995, Atari had approximately 100,000 units of Jaguar in inventory and the value of Jaguar inventory and related software was approximately $9.9 million. Due to disappointing sales of Jaguar and increased competition from products introduced by Sega and Sony, Atari reduced the suggested retail price of Jaguar to $99.99 and recorded an inventory write-down of $12.6 million in 1995. There can be no assurance that Atari's substantial unsold inventory of Jaguar and related software can be sold at current or reduced prices, if at all. In addition, any further decrease in the value of such inventory could result in substantial additional inventory write-downs by Atari. "

There's more here:
http://google.brand....PwW3W68chGZucz7

Also - check out this page from their 1993 annual report with reference to the Jaguar's initial launch. Only 17,000 shipped! I wish the Jaguar did better than it did, but it really failed.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by DracIsBack, Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:59 AM.

[mattyg]

The Lynx sold well here in Australia for what its worth. The Oz only packaging with chequered flag pack in is proof of that. I also remember seeing kiosk/display units at the time. Whenever I pull my Lynx out in public I am surprised by the number of people who approach me and say that they either had one or that they knew someone who did. This was in spite of the fact that Sega was King here through eighties and early nineties. I still have some suppliers that have original accessories for sale! Unfortunately Atari lost most of its distributors here by '95 due to cost cutting and supply issues so the Jag was doomed to fail. I only ever saw it for sale in a couple of independant retailers whereas only 18 months before the Lynx was everywhere including mainstream dept stores.

[goatdan]

DracIsBack, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:53 AM, said:

Hey Goatdan - I thought that as well. I had a Jaguar when they were alive and cheered for it. Unfortunately, Atari's actual filings with the SEC showed that the situation was really dire. Check out Atari's own 10K filing with the SEC when they exited the business.

"Cost of revenues for 1995 was $44.2 million compared to $35.2 million for 1994. Included in cost of revenues for 1995 were accelerated amortization and write-offs of capitalized game software development costs of $16.6 million and inventory write-downs of $12.6 million primarily relating to Jaguar products. As a result of these charges and lower selling prices for Jaguar products and provisions for returns and allowances and price protection, gross margin for the year was a loss of $29.6 million. For 1994, gross margin was $3.5 million, or 9.2% of revenues. Included in cost of revenues for 1994 were write-downs of inventory of $3.6 million and amortization and the write-off of capitalized game software development costs of $1.5 million. From the introduction of Jaguar in late 1993 through the end of 1995, Atari sold approximately 125,000 units of Jaguar. As of December 31, 1995, Atari had approximately 100,000 units of Jaguar in inventory and the value of Jaguar inventory and related software was approximately $9.9 million. ... "

Here's the thing, Atari said that they had sold approximately 125,000 units of the system. They also said they had about 100,000 in inventory -- however, the inventory write off was for $12.6 million, and they state at the end of the thing here that the software and inventory was worth approximately $9.9 million dollars. To me, that means that they wrote off more than 100,000 Jaguar consoles that year, as if ALL of the systems AND software was worth $9.9 million, then that $12.6 million had to be at least 100,000 Jaguar consoles if not more. If we say that Atari wrote off 25% more systems in that inventory reduction, that means they wrote off probably about 125,000 systems. So, based on that (and the KayBee ones would have been the liquidated ones), you then have a total production run of around 350,000 systems instead of 200,000 or 225,000ish.

If Atari liquidated more systems than software, which I think would be a pretty likely scenario - and knowing what I saw at KayBees, there were very few games at each of the ones that I had seen, to me it is probable that the entire run could have been 400,000 or 500,000 consoles.

Remember, there are tricky tax things that Atari was *definitely* well aware of, as the Tramiels had been known for doing that stuff since before they were in charge of Atari. Writing off inventory is a common thing, and you get to decide what the inventory is worth when you write it off for the bonus... Although I don't think it is likely, Atari could have liquidated a million consoles at $5.00 apiece...

[DracIsBack]

goatdan, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:59 AM, said:

Here's the thing, Atari said that they had sold approximately 125,000 units of the system. They also said they had about 100,000 in inventory -- however, the inventory write off was for $12.6 million, and they state at the end of the thing here that the software and inventory was worth approximately $9.9 million dollars. To me, that means that they wrote off more than 100,000 Jaguar consoles that year, as if ALL of the systems AND software was worth $9.9 million, then that $12.6 million had to be at least 100,000 Jaguar consoles if not more.

Possibly. I took it to deal with the fact that they discounted the Jaguar heavily and consistently throughout the unit's very short life. Remember - it was $$250, $199, $149, $99 at various points. The catch phrase here is "write downs". Apply the same logic to games, where they were constantly dropping average selling prices. This includes not only what they sold new to customers but what was already in the channel by way of price protections, discounts, sales, rebates etc. etc etc.

Quote

If we say that Atari wrote off 25% more systems in that inventory reduction, that means they wrote off probably about 125,000 systems.

They didn't say they wrote off, they say "wrote down".

"As a result of these charges and lower selling prices for Jaguar products and provisions for returns and allowances and price protection, gross margin for the year was a loss of $29.6 million"

Quote

If Atari liquidated more systems than software, which I think would be a pretty likely scenario - and knowing what I saw at KayBees, there were very few games at each of the ones that

Point taken, though you should know by now how much I hate the logic of "I saw a few stores like this, therefore it must apply everywhere!". I saw tons of games and not a lot of systems in stores I visited. Definitely can vary for sure.

Quote

Remember, there are tricky tax things that Atari was *definitely* well aware of, as the Tramiels had been known for doing that stuff since before they were in charge of Atari. Writing

Agree that they would. That said, there would also be specific regulations regarding inventory which they are obliged to report.

[goatdan]

DracIsBack, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:46 AM, said:

goatdan, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:59 AM, said:

Here's the thing, Atari said that they had sold approximately 125,000 units of the system. They also said they had about 100,000 in inventory -- however, the inventory write off was for $12.6 million, and they state at the end of the thing here that the software and inventory was worth approximately $9.9 million dollars. To me, that means that they wrote off more than 100,000 Jaguar consoles that year, as if ALL of the systems AND software was worth $9.9 million, then that $12.6 million had to be at least 100,000 Jaguar consoles if not more.

Possibly. I took it to deal with the fact that they discounted the Jaguar heavily and consistently throughout the unit's very short life. Remember - it was $$250, $199, $149, $99 at various points. The catch phrase here is "write downs". Apply the same logic to games, where they were constantly dropping average selling prices. This includes not only what they sold new to customers but what was already in the channel by way of price protections, discounts, sales, rebates etc. etc etc.

No -- Inventory is worth what you purchased or manufactured it for, not what the sale price is. This is because of exactly what you're saying here -- if you spend $100 to make a Jaguar system let's say, and you can't sell them for $100, you take a loss on each system sold, and this is more or less a tax break then. You can -- and stores often do -- discount inventory to very low prices and then destroy the inventory to take it as a loss. For instance, if you make 1000 Jaguar consoles at $100 apiece ($100,000), and you decide that you won't be able to sell them for $200 like you had wanted, and it isn't worth the time to try to sell them at $100, you could write them off for basically nothing, get rid of them and take a loss on your inventory -- a "write off" -- of the excess inventory.

A write down is a readjustment of what they think they can sell, so my bet is that they "wrote down" (and off) the excess inventory at a loss, and kept the rest on hand really cheaply. Also, that particular filing was put in place shortly before (or during?) Atari's weird reverse merger with JTS, which had a stink all over it -- why would Atari reverse merge for such a small, small amount of money when a property or two of theirs -- like Tempest or Breakout -- could have sold for the same amount if not more?

That WHOLE deal was fishy, and I wouldn't put it past Atari to have been screwing around with the numbers to manipulate them the best way to make it look like the Jaguar was an even bigger failure than it was, and that it HAD to merge with JTS or face certain extinction.

I mean, that document recently came out stating how much they were willing to pay for licenses near the end. If less than 150,000 consoles had sold, and I can't find the original document now, but Atari was paying certain developers well over one million dollars for their release on the console. If it was a $1.5 million dollar release, that means that Atari was footing the bill for $10 per console to make the game. If the game sold to 33% of the consoles released (a HUGE attach rate), it would mean that Atari was basically setting themselves up for failure. And this same document had some things stated for the Jaguar CD, that if those numbers are to be trusted, Atari was willing to pay something like an average of $150 / console to get Mortal Kombat 3 on the Jaguar CD. Something there just doesn't add up.

All I'm saying is I would trust that particular document about as far as I can throw it. And since it isn't in my possession...

Edit -- Aha! Found it! With those totals, if it was true that they had sold 125,000 consoles, it meant that Atari that same year was committing about $200 / console for game development. And, while I do understand that better games mean more consoles sold which means more games selling in the future for lower prices, commitments -- before the cuts -- of approximately $200 per console that they couldn't sell at $200 makes absolutely no business sense. And paying nearly $1 million for licenses like NBA Jam TE for a console that according to the other document their total potential base would have been 225,000 (or more than $4 per *console*)...

Yeah, it just doesn't add up to me...

Edited by goatdan, Wed Apr 21, 2010 4:00 PM.

[busterm]

goatdan, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:31 PM, said:

The problem with *all* console sales from, well, practically whenever is that it all depends on how they report their numbers. Are they reporting the sell through to customers, or the moved units to stores? Or, do they count what was produced but not shipped?

I would be absolutely floored if there were only 500,000 Lynx consoles in circulation. Same if there was only 250,000 or less Jaguar consoles around. With the Lynx, I would assume the sales numbers would be more reliable. I doubt 5 million also, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number settled right in the middle of those two.

The Jaguar I think did worse, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot closer to a million of those made too. The initial "test launch" of it in only certain markets I think sold out 50,000 consoles before it went on sale (just LA and New York as I recall), so that would mean that the rest of the country managed to only sell 200,000 more consoles after it was actually released and promoted. That just doesn't seem right at all. Also, Atari liquidated a TON of supply as a tax thing near the end when they did the funky reverse merger stuff, and those did end up getting sold at places like KayBee toys really cheaply. Again, I can't imagine that they wouldn't have sold at least 200,000 more when there was a time it seemed every KayBee had at least 25 of these in a big pile in them -- WELL after the life of the console too.

So, ultimately, just like with practically all console sales, we may never know exactly what was manufactured and found it's way into circulation. I can say that the Lynx 2 is one of the more common retro video game systems right now, although even that means little -- there were a TON of SNES consoles made, and they are pretty hard to find now.

There was a max of 250K jaguars manufactured before Atari stopped placing orders. 125K sold before the end of 1995 and 100k in inventory at the time of the JTS Merger. I have the Annual Reports to back up these clams from 1994-1997 for Atari & JTS.

[busterm]

goatdan, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:55 PM, said:

DracIsBack, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:46 AM, said:

goatdan, on Wed Apr 21, 2010 7:59 AM, said:

Here's the thing, Atari said that they had sold approximately 125,000 units of the system. They also said they had about 100,000 in inventory -- however, the inventory write off was for $12.6 million, and they state at the end of the thing here that the software and inventory was worth approximately $9.9 million dollars. To me, that means that they wrote off more than 100,000 Jaguar consoles that year, as if ALL of the systems AND software was worth $9.9 million, then that $12.6 million had to be at least 100,000 Jaguar consoles if not more.

Possibly. I took it to deal with the fact that they discounted the Jaguar heavily and consistently throughout the unit's very short life. Remember - it was $$250, $199, $149, $99 at various points. The catch phrase here is "write downs". Apply the same logic to games, where they were constantly dropping average selling prices. This includes not only what they sold new to customers but what was already in the channel by way of price protections, discounts, sales, rebates etc. etc etc.

No -- Inventory is worth what you purchased or manufactured it for, not what the sale price is. This is because of exactly what you're saying here -- if you spend $100 to make a Jaguar system let's say, and you can't sell them for $100, you take a loss on each system sold, and this is more or less a tax break then. You can -- and stores often do -- discount inventory to very low prices and then destroy the inventory to take it as a loss. For instance, if you make 1000 Jaguar consoles at $100 apiece ($100,000), and you decide that you won't be able to sell them for $200 like you had wanted, and it isn't worth the time to try to sell them at $100, you could write them off for basically nothing, get rid of them and take a loss on your inventory -- a "write off" -- of the excess inventory.

A write down is a readjustment of what they think they can sell, so my bet is that they "wrote down" (and off) the excess inventory at a loss, and kept the rest on hand really cheaply. Also, that particular filing was put in place shortly before (or during?) Atari's weird reverse merger with JTS, which had a stink all over it -- why would Atari reverse merge for such a small, small amount of money when a property or two of theirs -- like Tempest or Breakout -- could have sold for the same amount if not more?

That WHOLE deal was fishy, and I wouldn't put it past Atari to have been screwing around with the numbers to manipulate them the best way to make it look like the Jaguar was an even bigger failure than it was, and that it HAD to merge with JTS or face certain extinction.

I mean, that document recently came out stating how much they were willing to pay for licenses near the end. If less than 150,000 consoles had sold, and I can't find the original document now, but Atari was paying certain developers well over one million dollars for their release on the console. If it was a $1.5 million dollar release, that means that Atari was footing the bill for $10 per console to make the game. If the game sold to 33% of the consoles released (a HUGE attach rate), it would mean that Atari was basically setting themselves up for failure. And this same document had some things stated for the Jaguar CD, that if those numbers are to be trusted, Atari was willing to pay something like an average of $150 / console to get Mortal Kombat 3 on the Jaguar CD. Something there just doesn't add up.

All I'm saying is I would trust that particular document about as far as I can throw it. And since it isn't in my possession...

Edit -- Aha! Found it! With those totals, if it was true that they had sold 125,000 consoles, it meant that Atari that same year was committing about $200 / console for game development. And, while I do understand that better games mean more consoles sold which means more games selling in the future for lower prices, commitments -- before the cuts -- of approximately $200 per console that they couldn't sell at $200 makes absolutely no business sense. And paying nearly $1 million for licenses like NBA Jam TE for a console that according to the other document their total potential base would have been 225,000 (or more than $4 per *console*)...

Yeah, it just doesn't add up to me...

The 1mil dolloar games were the lic games near the end NBA Jam, MK3, Batman most of the big dollar games were canceled in the fall of 95 and alot of them were not fully paid on. There goal was to help drive sales of more systems plus they were flush with cash from the Atari/Sega suit. Most games were 250-450k and some even less than that.

Atari had money up to the very end they had over 50mil stated in the Merger documents of both parties.

[Tickled_Pink]

Darran@Retro Gamer, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:19 PM, said:

The_Laird, on Tue Apr 20, 2010 2:18 PM, said:

I have heard so many different figures ranging from 500,000 to 5 million. I am really not sure who knows for sure.

The 500,000 figure on Wiki sounds like it might be for the UK or Europe and not worldwide, I know for a fact that the Lynx sold very well in the UK and was more popular than the Gamegear.

Have you got proof of that? I've never known anyone with a Lynx, I know loads of UK gamers who had Game Gear. Not conclusive I know, but I find it hard to believe it was more popular. Would love to be proven wrong though as I love the Lynx

That's odd. I've known a few people with the Lynx but nobody with a Game Gear.

Don't think I ever saw a Game Gear outside one of the stores. I suppose it depends on your gaming circle.

[goatdan]

busterm, on Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:39 AM, said:

There was a max of 250K jaguars manufactured before Atari stopped placing orders. 125K sold before the end of 1995 and 100k in inventory at the time of the JTS Merger. I have the Annual Reports to back up these clams from 1994-1997 for Atari & JTS.

It's like I said before -- I wouldn't trust the annual reports to be wholly accurate. Companies -- especially at that time, as has been shown by the bank issues now -- use those annual reports and tweak them to tell the story they want them to tell. If Atari had manufactured extra and they weren't selling, they wouldn't claim to have done so there. You make the annual report look really good no matter what, unless you want to merge or go bankrupt or whatever in which case you make the annual report look really bad. I've both worked in companies where I have seen this happen and have seen it with various other companies too. I'm certain Atari was no different, and if anything was worse.

[DracIsBack]

goatdan, on Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:59 AM, said:

It's like I said before -- I wouldn't trust the annual reports to be wholly accurate. Companies -- especially at that time, as has been shown by the bank issues now -- use those annual reports and tweak them to tell the story they want them to tell. If Atari had manufactured extra and they weren't selling, they wouldn't claim to have done so there. You make the annual report look really good no matter what, unless you want to merge or go bankrupt or whatever in which case you make the annual report look really bad. I've both worked in companies where I have seen this happen and have seen it with various other companies too. I'm certain Atari was no different, and if anything was worse.

Point taken, though probably more accurate than the made up stuff out there. In the absence of other data from Atari (Like what Curt posted for the 7800), it's probably the best we have.

I once remember reading in a magazine that Atari sold 2 million Lynxes. But later, I read a release that said Atari had just "shipped their 1 millionth Lynx game".

[Atari Smeghead]

This has been a really fascinating, and illuminating, exchange! I know this conversation drifted away from Lynx and more into the Jaguar, but both are quite intriguing. I'd heard the magical 250,000 number for Jags sold, but never heard anything related to the Lynx's numbers. I certainly assumed the Lynx sold a lot more than the Jag, but that was as far as it went.

We could go another way with this. Let's start a count. I have a Lynx. That's one!

Cheers,
Smeg

[The_Laird]

I think about 2 million Lynx's sounds about right and pretty realistic.

After all you also have 2 different versions of the Lynx and within each 2 revisions, the joypad change on the Lynx 1 and a board revision on the Lynx 2.

We were still selling new Lynx's at Game when the Jaguar came out.

[goatdan]

The_Laird, on Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:37 AM, said:

I think about 2 million Lynx's sounds about right and pretty realistic.

After all you also have 2 different versions of the Lynx and within each 2 revisions, the joypad change on the Lynx 1 and a board revision on the Lynx 2.

To be fair, the Jaguar had two different board variations also. K and M series, as I recall. They revise things all the time if they can eek another couple pennies out of them.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if about 2 million is correct, however I think 1 million is more realistic. Remember -- the Lynx library still reflects a pretty poorly performing system. If 2 million was correct, I would be very surprised that there wasn't 100 games made for it.

[The_Laird]

I think the lack of releases for the Lynx were the one thing that stopped it selling more, The 7800 sold more with a small library but could also play 2600 games.

I can remember when I worked for Game we always had people asking when certain games were due and I don't ever remember Atari ever matching the proposed release date for a single one. Most came out months after their due dates some were a year and many never even saw the light of date despite being featured in catalogues and on our release and order lists