yeah I think that list of reasons can stop at games LOL Seriously, outside of Lumines (which I play like a crack addict on my brother-in-law's PSP), all the other games just aren't very interesting.
IIRC, according to the NPD, the DS and PSP have both sold about 3.5 million systems in the US LTD. The DS has done that with an extra ~5 months (including 1 extra holiday season), as well as with a price drop (again, half the PSP's price), new colors, and of course, an AMAZING library to finish off the year. IIRC, in the UK, both were around 1M, although the PSP didn't even go on sale until September (another ~5 month advantage for the DS IIRC). The rest of Europe is tough to get info from, but I'd probably guess the DS has at least a slight advantage there. Not sure if the DS has gone in sale in Korea (don't think so), but the PSP is also pretty big there, with at least 500K sold IIRC (very conservative number I think). So again, in a lot places (mostly outside of Japan), the PSP is putting up quite a fight with the DS, despite the much higher price tag and a software library that can't quite match it. Although as I mentioned in the OP, the two have similar software sales in US (think the PSP is actually ahead by about 100-200K), and I think the same could be said in the UK (GTA:LCS is huge there, as are some other PSP games). I'm not trying to discredit anything the DS has done because it has had quite a year; I'm just trying to say that there is quite a war going on between the two, outside of Japan. Personally, I think a price drop under $200 should help sales a lot, and the PSP library seems pretty nice for 2006 IMO. As for the games comment, that was directed at your "when you compare the specs, it should be a no brainer" comment. By that, I assumed that you felt as though the PSP should have higher sales despite the high price tag and less quality games. Basically, the higher specs make it a "no brainer," not things like the price tag and the quality of the games, which, as you mentioned, favors the DS (at the moment anyways). Perhaps I misunderstood what you meant by that? As I said in a thread a while back, the holiday sales for both the PSP and PS2 certainly make it possible for a lower-than-expected PS3 pricetag. I felt as though Sony needed to make some cuts on both in order to have a nice December, but Sony owned me (and everyone else who thought that). Keeping both prices turned out to be a great move. Now they can use a price cut on both to help sales in the slow part of the year. Hehe...imagine this Fall when you see: $299 PS3 $199 PSP $99 PS2 (I WISH!) There are a lot of good games (sales figures show that...except in Japan), but only maybe GTA:LCS and few other titles can even come close to the sales numbers that MK: DS, AC, SM64, Nintendogs, and other games put up for the DS. I think the library will be much better this year...even this quarter actually.
IIRC the DS has a larger than "slight" lead over PSP in Europe. The reason I have a serisous problem with the PSP is that Sony has marketed it like it's an IPOD in that it emphasizes towards technogeeks who will buy something cuz of the hype and then not touch it for a while. Meanwhile Nintendo is marketing its DS towards people who are gamers. It's been almost a year and PSP has yet to have any sort of killer game for it. I can't help but look at their strategy and think that they banked all their money on marketing and that ultra cool screen (I cannot deny it, it's a pretty damn good looking thing). The DS however, will continue to sell and add more quality titles. Until I see otherwise from Sony, I will continue to assume otherwise. The problem with most PSP titles is that they are rehashes of PS2 games under a different skin. Metal Gear Acid, I mean cmon. There is nothing original on it. There's maybe 1 or 2 titles slated for the next quarter release that I'm interested in getting my sister to buy for her husband so I can play it It was a sarcastic comment aimed at all the prehype of the PSP and how every gaming pundit was declaring the death of the DS due to its inferior hardware. If the PS3 debuts at $299, I will buy 20 of them. I am not joking. I have 20k limit on my AmEx, I will preorder with 50 different shops if I have to. Are you talking about exclusives? or ports.
What numbers have you seen from Europe? I actually should have said that the DS has a slight advantage in most of the other countries, but I believe the UK makes up much of total European market. I want to say France and some other country (Germany?) have also responded well to the PSP. I haven't seen firm numbers in a while, but I would imagine they're at least somehwat close (bigger than the US difference, smaller than the difference in Japan). I've always found it tough to get numbers from anywhere outside of the UK in Europe. Since Sony usually uses shipped numbers (basically, how many retailers bought) and Nintendo uses sold numbers (what retailers sold to customers), we basically have to rely on tracking systems in Europe, which sometimes can be inaccurate (although they're all we have, like the NPD). I mean, Sony said the shipped more than 10 million PSPs worldwide like in October or November of last year IIRC, while Nintendo I think has recently said they've sold like 13+ million recently (early January I think?). That's not really a good comparison there obviously, but only those two know how many PSPs/DSs have been shipped/sold. As for killer games, going by sales and reviews, GTA:LCS definitely seems to be a killer game, at least by my definition of one. That's probably the only game at that level, although some of the other games are in that good-to-great category right under "killer" IMO. Uh...are you trying to say MGA wasn't original, at least compared to other PSP games (Madden, GTA, Burnout, Ridge Racer, etc.)? I don't know of any strategy/card battle MG games available elsewhere, let alone on the PS2. Hardly a "rehash." Now, whether or not the game was great to play is up to personal opinion (I liked it myself, although could have been better). Although, again, as the sales seem to show, people don't mind "rehashes" as long as they're portable. Maybe you won't buy Madden for the PSP, but ~500K people in the US decided to buy it. Hehe...I didn’t think people would buy UMD movies, which are basically DVD rehashes in a way...well, people seem to love them. The portable factor for some people makes "rehashes" OK I guess. I suck at keeping up with some of the titles, but luckily, there's a thread about this at GAF: http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=79037&highlight=PSP+2006 Basically a list of some of the PSP titles for 2006 (some remakes, some ports, some original, but all look very nice IMO). If you liked Lumines, you should check out Every Extend Extra...which actually is kind of a port of a PC game.
Here's some of the top charts in the UK Top 40 through all formats and all prices: Top 40, all formats, Full price: X360 Top 20: And to go along with the DS/PSP discussion: DS Top 20 PSP Top 20 Since the charts count both handheld versions and console versions of games as the same game (PS2+XBX+GC+DS+PSP+GBA...probably even +PC for something like FIFA), it makes it kind of hard to see how well a particular game for a particular system is selling, especially if it is on more than one system. Obviously, we can tell that GTA:LCS is doing very well, but a lot of the PSP Top 20 aren't exclusives (2-8 are all multiplatform I think....maybe not Championship Manager). However, since the #9 game is exclusive (Pursuit Force), and it is #39 on the Full Price chart, then you can figure out that the PSP versions of games 2-8 must be in between #6 (GTA:LCS) and #39 on that particular chart. So basically 7-9 (depending on if GTA and Championship Manager count) PSP "rehashes" are in the top 40 Full Price chart in the UK. Again, one person may see those as unoriginal ports that aren't worth $20-$30, let alone the $50 they're priced at. However, it seems as though a lot of other people appreciate the opportunity of playing these games on the go.
The UK rarely steps out of Sony's ring, so to see a Nintendo product even doing marginally well there says alot by itself. There's also price. And different competition. By trying to set itself as some sort of media device, the PSP has ended up positioning itself not only against other game systems, but devices like the Ipod. You should try Meteos, BTW, from the creator of Lumines. Another excellent game.
True, although I was mostly trying to show how several $40-$50 "rehashes" have sold very well in the UK, basically proving that not all people mind having a PSP version of Madden, NFS, Winning Eleven, etc. I agree that the DS's performance there has been pretty good considering where the UK's loyalties seem to lie. I've been trying to do more of a pro-PSP than a anti-DS discussion in the last few posts. BTW, although I think the predictions and even the numbers are possibly off (maybe by a lot, although again, I wish we could get more accurate numbers from Europe), here's an interesting article about the PSP/DS: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2118&Itemid=2 Sony's supposed to announce some new PSP numbers tomorrow night/early Thursday, so we'll probably get new numbers directly from them (again, shipped).
Eh...might as well post the latest numbers from Japan for the past week (1/16-1/22): (I just like that picture)
Off-topic: I've seen a couple of Core Systems sitting in my local Wal-Mart for a week. Nobody want's core, lol!
Which is why the Revolution won't be dead on arrival. Every other gaming company should pay Nintendo a tax for the ideas they lift off them.
Hahaha..this is funny. Here are the latest PSP numbers from Sony (again, shipped): PSP Japan: 4.20m USA: 5.81m Europe: 5.20m Total: 15.03m I couldn't find a region breakdown for the DS, but it has more than 14.4m (sold). Sony had a great quarter actually thanks to the PSP (and other things like the Bravia LCDs). I believe they were expecting a 10 Billion yen loss, but got a 70 Billion yen profit. Think that's like a ~$85-$100M loss to a ~$600M profit in dollars if I did my currency conversions right. Could they be turning it around just in time for a "cheap" PS3? (I WISH!) Of course, Nintendo had a great quarter as well, but that was probably pretty obvious with the sales of the DS and the DS games. I think MS is supposed to give some numbers as well, which might contain the latest 360 numbers.
