Sony has their day, or should I say week, in Japan. The sales numbers for the PlayStation Portable and the DS have been running pretty close to even lately, and last week Sony's portable finally pushed ahead to take the number one spot.
Again, with no specific titles to attribute its sales increases to, the PSP takes the top spot with 73,706 units sold. This beats out the Wii, who in contrast, had six titles in the software top twenty. Nintendo DS sales were up, rising to 51,922, putting it in third place for the week ending March 2nd.
Media Create's numbers don't look as nice for Sony other two consoles. The PlayStation 3 sales numbers continue to fall, with 13,520 moved this week. The Dynasty Warriors: Gundam release for PS2 helped a bit, bringing them up to 10,986.
The poor Xbox 360 is still hanging out at the bottom (2,282 units), despite the release of a new Idolm@ster title. As Gamasutra says, the sales of Xbox 360 titles are going to current console owners.
As some of you pointed out last week, it may be that everyone and their dog in Japan already owns a DS, and now they're open to something new. Maybe the PSP fits their on-the-go lifestyle. Maybe recent releases have finally won them over.
Do you think that the US will follow Japan's lead? Do you see American gamers favoring the PSP in the future?
Contest:
10:24 AM on 03.08.2008
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I don't necessarily think that the PSP will outsell the DS over here, but honestly--how many more DSes can you sell in Japan? Time for a new revision!
If the thing was cheaper and Sony was more open about people doing homebrew on it, I might actually pick one up. I love mods but Im always worried about bricking something, theres always a chance no matter how savy you are of making it into a $175 paper weight.
If theres something like the R4 for it thats just plug and go, Id love to hear about it.
Not to sound like a fanboy...
I work at Toyota Europe HQ in Brussels and we've got loads of 'imported business type japanese people' most well past their thirthies and lots of these people cary a DS to work (since the R4 there's even a miniature-warez-scene within their ranks to exchange the newest games that they bring from Japan, since they only get to go back once every 2/3 years depending on their rank)
I agree.
Some people though love their little DS they turn a snooty nose up at the competition, when really they both do separate things (in a way). Being able to toss on a video or mp3 list is pretty darn handy for those longs trips, or lonely nights.
Plus, as HarassmentPanda added, the psp does have some great games you just have to search through the bad ones, like the Wii.
MGS: PO, Castlevania DXC, God of War CoO, Jeann D' Arc, and the Megaman X remake are great games though.
I think this rivalry between the DS and PSP is a good thing. It somehow reminds me of the SNES/Genesis era. =P [/b]
- Most people already have a Wii and a DS. Hell, if people dropped some cash for new Lites when they first came out, they may have more than one DS.
- The PSP has had some real good ports coming out recently. Sadly, there have been all of three games that weren't ports that I've really enjoyed on a PSP.
- People in the US have iPods with which to listen to music and watch videos, and the battery life doesn't suck.
I love my PSP, but it is in no way comparable to the DS as a gaming system right now.
Fenris owns two 1ch tuner capable devices (His PSP and cellphone) over there and uses both frequently.
Also, Skype is right around the corner.
Or am I being a little crazy here?
At this point, it's that there aren't as many people who can buy a DS, or rather, want a second one.
If you're going to talk about demand, I can cite the titles that the DS has that are targeted at people who aren't gamers yet, which Sony hasn't really tried to do.
I like the PSP, but we should agknowledge when a 'success' isn't a success, no?
The DS thing I can understand, most people already own one lol. ;)
But eh, its insane winter here so I don't find it a problem to lug around at all in my inside jacket pocket lol. Since my coats so big anyway. Such a good commute system.
Load up several episodes of Top Gear and you'll never get bored =P.
The downgrading/upgrading to CFW's are pretty easy and if you do happen to mess up they have unbricking stuff out now, just have to use old school DOS I think. Plus the only way to mess up is by NOT following the step by step instructions.
I had to go our and rent GTA as it had a loop in it for downgrading and all I had to do was drop the custom firmware into my mem stick and update through GTA. I then had 3.03 OE-A' for the longest time and last week I had to upgrade the firmware 4 times to get to 3.90 M33-2, it's really easy.
Yea... but now I got patapon for $20 (needed to change the RV racing UMD game) but yea, thats it! Im getting my PSP back until I finish GoWpsp and patapon.
But yea, honestly both the DS and PSP are the best port handhelds in the planet.
If there are a few games on a phone doesn't meen it's a new competitor with Sony and Nintendo ( I almost said Microsoft ). Want an example ? Check out the N-Gage.
And I dare you to fuck with me and say N-Gage was a good "console".
PSP rlz! And God of War Chains of Olympus is really an awesome game for a portable.
Quote from the sega guy : "this is not a mobile phone game this is a full console game, we were surprised at how powerful this was".
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4a6-cUOPoLY
The neckbeard nerd is a bit of a dick but the game looks awesome for 2wks.
And go PSP, I haven;t touched my DS in months. My poor Nintendogs are probably skeletons by now.
right?...riiight?
I don't think you know what outsold means.
That said, I don't harbor dislike for the system--it's just not for me. I don't mod, so emulating games (ironically, the most popular emus were Nintendo games...) and custom firmware aren't a draw for me. Likewise, I don't want a media player; I want a game player. Also, the PSP's game philosphy is light-years different from the DS's, in that PSP is basically console games on the go (sans one analog stick) and the DS is traditional handheld/SNES games as well as games that breach the fourth wall with the DS's additional inputs.
Sales of all product will always have dips and peaks, regardless of what selling.
Its always best to have both a PSP and DS as both have good games.
I use my PSP to watch old DVDs I havent seen in ages on the way to work, and playing games I actually want to play. Hell, I haven't even homebrewed it, and probably wont.
different strokes for different folks, I guess.