SCEA senior marketing manager John Koller called the PlayStation Portable a "gateway drug" into the console world at the 6th annual Wedbush Morgan Securities Management Access Conference, recently held in New York City.
He says that the company views the PSP as the entryway for many consumers, with the portable being their first console, according to Gamesindustry. Some move onto the PS3. Sony likes that.
"It's become, from a gaming perspective, a lot different than I think we even envisioned it when we first launched it," said Koller. "For us, it has been a really interesting experience. The PSP really parlays well into our broader hardware business."
"In the past, it was a small screen experience. It was something that was very difficult to have from a social perspective," he said. "Those things have changed."
Even with its recent successes, some gamers are still down in the mouth when it comes to the PSP. Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, addresses this:
"If you go look at sell through...and I have North America numbers...If you look at sell-through for PSP, at a much higher price point, it is about six months behind the adoption curve of the Game Boy Advance which averaged about USD 80 cheaper.
"That's not the DS, but the original Game Boy Advance - the Game Boy Advance that had no competition. So, people 'dis' the PSP, but the business is a pretty solid business," Pachter said.
Do you view the PSP as a gateway to gaming? Would it have more impact on you if you weren't a gamer?
Contest:
11:19 AM on 05.27.2008
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Newcomers to gaming aren't going to buy one for its piracy capabilities.
Nah. Fuck home consoles in the ass.
- Monster Hunter fanatics
- Modders/pirates
- Sony fanboys
- "Thug-life" casual gamers (the kind of people you see on Madden Nation)
I'm not joking about the fourth one--in every game store I visit, if there's someone browsing the PSP aisle, they're wearing baggy clothes, sideway hats, are decked out in "bling", and use urban slang.
Personally, I bought a PS3 after a PSP, but it had everything to do with finances and nothing to do with my PSP.
Also, I'm picking up my 2nd psp June 3rd, Not because I like the games..but because I'm a whore for technology. So Novakaine forgot "whores for technology" in his lovely list.
I bought the PS3 after owning the PSP for almost two years. But not because of the PSP, but because of MGS4.
P.S:I'm a metal gear fanboy
I'll give you an example. The girlfriend and I both own a DS Lite (plus I have my backup phat), anyway like 6-8 months ago she started taking her DS to work. She's the manager for a team of Phone customer service reps, so she can play and work at the same time as all she really does is take calls they can't handle.
So there were no DS's at her work when she first started taking it. There were two PSP owned by thuggy dudes who are way too old to dress like that. So anyway, just last week we were talking about how her coworkers would ask to try it out and when they saw the variety of games from Mario, To Crosswords, to Clubhouse games to mariokart, and they saw that you could pictochat and link together for multiplayer games in the office - well, it caught on and caught on fast. Last time she mentioned it, there were something like 18 DS's. She thinks Nintendo owes her a check LOL.
Oh, and one of the PSP thugs got fired for hanging up on his calls. Thug for life yo.
Novakaine may not have covered everyone, but hes pretty close. Out of everyone i know with a psp, only 3 didnt specifically buy it for monster hunter, and 2 of them (one of them me) bought it at launch when mh wasnt available anyway. Another type of person id add is 'must own everything' gamer, which covers the 3rd guy :P.
My DS still gets much much more play time than my PSP.