Pocket Gamer has a story up about Sony's recent financial reports and the news looks grim for their tiny, black portable. Here's a quick quote to illustrate the mound of excrement piling up around the future of the PSP;
In the three months ending December 31st – the critical period that included the run up to Christmas – Sony shipped a mere 1.76 million PSPs worldwide, compared to 6.22 million in the same period in 2005. That's a staggering fall of 72 per cent.
Total PSP hardware shipments in the three quarters so far recorded for this financial year total 7.67 million units. The company is now forecasting total PSP hardware shipments of 9 million for this financial year – a huge plunge from the 14.06 million it shipped in financial year '05, and from its prediction last April of shipping 12 million units, too.
Of course, these are shipment numbers, as opposed to sales numbers, but since that includes systems still sitting on shelves, you can imagine that Sony's boardroom is filled with fire and brimstone as of late.
Hit the jump for even more bad news.
"PSP sales declined due to a decrease in unit sales compared with the same quarter in the previous financial year," is how the snappily titled Consolidated Financial Reports for the Third Quarter puts it.
The territory breakdown (an appropriate word here, sadly) makes particularly grim reading for PSP's US fans.
PSP shipments for Q3 in Japan were 0.9 million (compared to 1.4 million in the same period in 2005), Europe took 0.9 million (compared to 3.2 million in 2005), but the real stinker was America.
Previously swallowing up almost 1.7 million PSPs in Q3 2005, the run up to Christmas 2006 saw Sony ship a mere 100,000 PSPs to the territory.
For those of you allergic to indented text, basically, Sony shipped less than a million units in both Europe and Japan and in the US they shipped only 100,000. By comparison, I found 100,000 Nintendo DS systems sitting in my closet earlier this morning.
Does this spell the end for Sony's little guy? Not exactly, but when you consider the fact that the finest games for the system came out over the last couple months and it still only managed to sell as well as a leprosy covered T-shirt with dragons printed on it, things certainly don't look so hot for Sony.
Contest:
7:15 PM on 01.31.2007
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it been seen in house in early eps. too...
also seen in ER ( I think?)
and I have seen it in that movie Inside Man (but - points for the pointless horrible made up video game that showed gezz.)
god I'm so tempted to sell my psp to blockbuster for $90
You also have to wonder the last christmas shipped figures were over inflated like the Xbox360 sales were this Christmas. Sony was trying harder to best Nintendo at that point.
If they are still turning a profit how ever small then I doubt that they will care. If it's turning a loss, somthing I doubt at this point in the PSP lifecycle, I doubt that sony will keep 2 money losing Playstation brands.
If you actually watch the series rather than just having seen one random episode, he plays the GBA and DS much more often.
Dude, you could make the raddest igloo EVER!
I don't usually feel good for failures like this as I really could care less about names or brands,but after all the vitriolic spew that I had to endure by supporting the DS and having the nerve to say the PSP might not be a practical handheld solution,it feels a little good.
Werd.
That's why in the original EQ box it had a 989 studios label and then the expansions had a Verant Interactive label which on later expansions became a SOE label.
and @apc_35:
that's just stupid. It's not the last system they'll ever make. Even if it tanks beyond anyone's wildest dreams, a new one would still come out. They invested way to much to pull out.
1. Homebrew
2. Big Trouble In Little China
That being said, I'm almost a warrior against Sony. I've had to hide the damn thing to stop myself from being labeled a hypocrite, hehe. And I do own a DS Lite (Signed by Gabe and Tycho w00t!!!1!1)
Love um both so far!
Damn, that's a great deal. I'd pick that package up in a heartbeat.
This is the main reason to have a PSP now.
I dunno, I love my DS too, but the DS games seem to be the things I play for a short period of time (and enjoy throughly), but then never play again. (Except Advanced Wars, my personal reason to buy a DS)
Psp, while lacking the volume of titles, includes games that I continue to play to this day. Tony Hawk, Wipeout, Lumines... all launch games, all still awesome.
I knew the DS would be better...
argh!
always on internet would be rele cool 2