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Japan: PSP Can’t Keep Pace With DSi
Nintendo’s DSi retained the top spot on the Japanese hardware sales chart during the week ended October 11, moving 50,144 units.
Sony’s PSP trailed its rival by over 10,000 units, having closed the gap to just 2,000 sales the previous week following a 15 per cent price cut.
PS3 was again the lead home platform with over 30,000 sales, narrowly outselling Wii.
DS Lite sales almost halved to 5,454 units, while Xbox 360 and PS2 saw smaller declines in weekly sales.
Hardware sales were down across the board week-on-week, with combined platform sales falling from 194,522 to 162,794 units.
DSi - 50,144
PSP - 40,100
PS3 - 30,896
Wii - 30,741
DS Lite - 5,454
360 - 3,326
PS2 - 2,133
On the software front, DS games took six of the top ten places on the all formats chart, with Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver returning to the top of the rankings.
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O.k. the PSP didn't and won't beat the DS, but... come on: Sony took a third of the handheld market from Nintendo. I don't think that's bad, and it's even putting Sony in a good position for the next PSP.
The PSP is Sony's money printing machine!
Exactly, Sony have made a mint from the PSP and with each revision they shave a bit of the manufacturing costs whilst at the same time maintaining a very healthy profit margin. I have a very nice 3000 series PSP, and yet when I saw a PSP go in Game today I was still tempted. Not really sure why though! In my opinion the games that have been out for the PSP recently (FF dissidia, GT PSP for example) have been more exciting than recent games for the DS. Mind you DQ9 isn't out over here yet...
Problem is the software doesn't shift, so whilst they probs do now make money on the PSP even at its reduced price they aren't really making a lot on the software. Bare in mind there is will over 50 million units sold but the best selling game is Monster Hunter with 3 million units sold. Meanwhile the DS has over 100 million units sold and its best selling individual title is New Super Mario Bros with 18-19 million units sold.
I think the PSP's problems is that many of its better games don't really suit portable gaming. Why the hell would I want to play a good PS2 game in the middle of nowhere. I want to play GTA or Gods of War on my TV not in a small screen. Where as Professor Layton or Mario really suit those 15 minutes you need to kill where you're at uni and waiting for your next lecture, or travelling for period of time on a Bus or train, or waiting in a queue and so on.
Maybe not a disaster in hardware sales, but its not doing great for software
Add the DS Lite numbers and it's even worse.
Er...the DS lite sales are included, did you mean something else, like the original DS or something?
I think he meant add the 5,000 DS Lites to the 40,000 DSi's, and the PSP was 15,000 behind.
Regardless, I don't think too much should be read into how far behind the PSP is. The fact that it's even competing at all is nothing short of incredible. No one has ever been a serious challenger to Nintendo. The most successful non Nintendo handheld prior to the PSP was the Game Gear, which managed 11 million. The PSP, seen as failure by a great deal, has managed 55 million.
So no, it's not toppled Nintendo. But that was really never going to be a likely outcome, Sony would never come out and say they were looking for second place. And I'm sure they would love to be in first place. But I'm also sure that they don't view the PSP as being an unmitigated disaster, as some would have it.
What would those figures be in terms of market penetration Alex? I'm pretty sure the potential audience has increased since the days of the Game Gear (which was coincidentally my first thought when i saw the PSP, I think the Go! looks much nicer).
Well, the Game Boy/Game Boy Color sold 118.69 million units, the Game Gear 11 million, and the Atari Lynx 500,000.
The DS/DS Lite/DSi has sold 107.5 million units, the PSP 55 million units, and the Zodiac 200,000.
So whilst the market is bigger, the market share is also bigger. There are others that could be included, like the Gizmondo, but frankly the unit sales were so poor that it's not worth bothering with. There is the issue of the N-Gage and iPhone as well, can you really include them, since their primary purpose isn't as a games machine? The N-Gage at the very least was designed from the outset to be a games machine as well as a phone, and had physical media but with the iPhone, it's less clear cut.
Yeah Sony and Nintendo will look at this as two machines catering to vastly different audiences. The PSP's problem could very well be not Nintendo but Apple. I am slightly becoming concerned about how Apple are encroaching into the gaming space. I think the DSi will survive because it is differentiated well enough; but the PSP could see its market eaten into (I am talking about the West here; not the East (i.e. Japan and Asia). Sony have to decide how they will 'differentiate' their product; it cannot be seen as an all en-compassing device any longer because Apple have beaten them on that...and it is better to accept that and move on. So ironically Sony should go back to the games priority and ensure quality games that the Apple cannot match (because of the lack of buttons) appear on the PSP and get advertised. Further they should ensure they have more quality in their minis section...I think these two things could stand them well. Still it will be up-hill battle from the monster that is coming into the portable gaming arena...
For me as a gamer; the games I am looking forward to on the PSP are MGS: PW, Valkyrie Chronicles 2 and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. However all will be coming out next year.