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PSP, PS2 Sales Skyrocket

Posted by Zonk on Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:19 AM
from the can't-imagine-why dept.
Spurred by the scarcity of the PlayStation 3, hungry consumers are buying all the PSP and PS2 units they can get their hands on. The PSP's sales have shot up by 280 percent over last year, while the PS2 was up a respectable 115 percent. From the Eurogamer article: "Additionally, sales of first-party software are also up, according to SCEA. PS2 game sales rose by 120.6 per cent, with PSP software sales increasing by almost 168 per cent. Sony has yet to publish figures for exactly how many PlayStation 3 units have been sold in North America since the console launched there on 17th November."
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  • by JoostSchuttelaar (863737) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:26AM (#17050368)
    Poor kids getting a PlayStation 2 for XMas.... :)
      • by soft_guy (534437) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:58AM (#17050974)
        Buying your consoles once they get to be one generation old saves a ton of money. I can't believe that a PS2 today can possibly be less fun than it would have been in 2001. There are more games, plus all the reviews are out and people really know what the best games for PS2 really are.

        If you aren't rich, it sounds like a good plan to me.
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          You forgot that there are tons of cheap used games that you can buy for a song.
      • Seems you misunderstood the system, what did you think welfare was for? That kids parents probably voted for the right party and was just reaping the rewards.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        Maybe his parents saved their pennies all year to get him that. Maybe they went all over town collecting aluminum cans to get that money. Maybe the kid got a paper route and paid for it himself.

        My point is, you have no way of knowing how he got the money for that, and to condemn an entire system because some kid got something you wanted is absurd.

        I grew up in a single parent home, and my mother worked 2 jobs and refused to apply for welfare, and yet I don't remember ever feeling any kind of contempt for a
                  • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                    And how do you suppose that works? A single mother who has to take care of a child and a household, probably has at least one job, and is also supposed to "develop some job skills," and is not allowed to give her kid something to play with so she doesn't constantly have to "parent" him. I happen to know single moms. Juggling a job, a child, a household, some last remnants of a social life, and doing it all alone is not pleasant. You should be glad you had a better childhood than this boy, and you most certa
  • by HappySqurriel (1010623) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:27AM (#17050386)
    Just as a question, is this really from interest in the PS3 or could it be something else? I don't know about the PSP but The PS2 has had Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero II released in November with Okami and Bully released not too long ago. Could the sales actually be more directly releated to the fact that these systems are providing more gaming content for far less money than any of the "Next Generation" competition? Seriously, with budget games you could buy a PS2 a second controller and 4 or 5 games for the price of a Wii; compared to the XBox 360/PS3 you could probably get close to 20 games ...
    • Two weekends ago, I bought a PS2, GH 1 and 2, Katamari, and several other games. Yeah, Guitar Hero had something to do with wanting it. I'm also hoping to get a Wii once they're readily available. I'd owned an Xbox for a while but got rid of it a year ago because I never used the thing.

      I have to say that this was at least in part spurred by my realization that I never, never wanted to get a PS3. Too damn expensive, too much focus on flashy graphics rather than gameplay. I'm a big believer in the idea tha
      • Gah... hit post too early.

        To continue the thought above: I hope that developers look at the PS3 and see it for the giant money sink that it is, then take their teams and put them back on developing great games for the PS2. Think about it: the machine's powerful enough to get some great graphics out of it; instead of an install base of 300k, you have 100 million (plus all of the 300k as well); known tech means lower cost means more money to spend on art, story, gameplay testing, etc. Look at Shadow of The
    • My early-gen PS2 has been broken for a while now. I figured rather than waste time or money repairing the old one, I'd just wait for the PS3 thing to happen and die down, since this would surely result in a price drop for the last batch of PS2s, and I could replace my cranky old console on the cheap. This certainly does seem to be the case at the moment, and I imagine after the holidays the price of a PS2 will go down even further.
    • It might also be a sign of things to come. All those people who are denied a PS3 (because of shortages) buy a PS2 and games for that because they know they can move up to a PS3 when they become more available. In the meantime Sony makes money and denies a potential convert to another platform.

      Anyway concerning the PS2, it is interesting to note that there are new games coming out for it and it is still selling by the shitload. Contrast with the XBox which Microsoft have virtually killed stone dead barely

      • If you discount people who were looking to buy a PS3 to sell it on eBay, I'm willing to bet that over 90% of people who were looking to buy a PS3 already owned a PS2. $500/$600 is a lot of money to most people, and you'd have to be a pretty dedicated gamer to be willing to spend that kind of money which implies that you have been a dedicated gamer for a while and have "faith" in the Playstation brand; in other words you're probably among the to 5% most "hard-core" Playstation 2 owners.

        No one wakes up one mo
  • by Erwos (553607) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:27AM (#17050390)
    A big factor in this, I would assume, is that Walmart was selling them for $160 each on Black Friday, with no apparent limit. One of my co-workers bought three - one for him, two for his kids. Combine that with some new, non-sucky games and the prospect of PS3 integration, and it could be the PSP will see a revival of sorts.
      • I'm looking forward to it not only because the PSP will get a larger library, but beccausee there's lots of PS1 titles that are obscure and otherwise impossible to find.

        I could be wrong, but I get the feeling you won't be seeing some of those obscure PS1 titles available for the PSP.
  • by medeii (472309) <medeii.hotmail@com> on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:28AM (#17050416)

    Spurred by the scarcity of the PlayStation 3...

    You mean, "Spurred by the impending holiday." It's highly unlikely that the upswing in PS2 sales has any meaningful correlation with PS3 scarcity; after all, I still don't know a single person who actually plans to get one. The PS2 and PSP, however, are still as viable (and cheap, comparatively!) as they were a month ago.

  • by lpangelrob (714473) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:28AM (#17050418)
    So... PSP software sales increased from 100 total units to 268? Or am I being generous?
  • Hungry consumers? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WidescreenFreak (830043) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:32AM (#17050496) Homepage Journal
    I don't buy the "hungry consumers" line at all. People saw the $600-700 price tag of the PS3 and choked in addition to the extreme shortage of PS3s, so they bought the next best thing. That's all.

    I was in EBGames to pick up a Wii yesterday and saw brand new PS2s for $129. The PS2 already has a huge established base of games and it's much cheaper than the PS3. Think about it! You can get a Wii, PS2, and base XBox 360 for the same price as a PS3! I'm still considering getting a PS2 if only to play the Guitar hero series.

    I don't think it has anything to do with "hungry consumers" as much as it does people who lost their appetite over the whole PS3 debacle. Instead of buying some $600-$700 gourmet dinner (to keep up the "hungry consumers" metaphor) at an elite restaurant that few people can get into, they came to their senses and decided that not only would a family meal at a quality restaurant be cheaper, it has a better variety of dinners, can hold more customers at a time, and is a much, much better value overall.

    If news about a surge in PS2 sales comes as a surprise to anyone, the human gene pool is in need of a bit more chlorine.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      You're using the base price of the 360 and the deluxe price of the PS3, so there's a $100 discrepency you're ignoring.

      The xbox 360 core (no hard drive) is far more gimped than the PS3 base model.

      The rebate [mentioned elsewhere in the thread] is only useful to a pretty limited number of people - Microcenter doesn't sell the 360 online and there are only 19 retail locations in the country, at least according to their website.

      The PS3 costs $500-$600, not $600-$700. Presumably you use these numbers to mak
    • Although prices have dipped a little, most 60GB PS3's are still selling for over a thousand on eBay - around $1200-$1400 if you are a seller with any kind of reputation.

      So if people are "choking on the price" why are they still selling for so much on eBay?

      I went into a Target yesterday and asked if they had any PS3. He said they had a shipment a few days ago, but they were gone within a few minutes. If the price is a problem, why does it take minutes to unload them at retail?

      There probably is a point at w
      • Well, no shit that you'd have to buy the games for each one! That's, you know, a given, so it makes to sense to throw those into the mix.

        Oh, and with MicroCenter's $100 rebate on the XBox360, that total comes down to $578. (Supposedly there's also a $200 rebate with the purchase of an Xbox 360 at MicroCenter if you switch to Vonage as well, but I have no interest in Vonage.) So, yes, the three can be purchased for the cost of a PS3 or less. And at least the Wii gives you Wii Sports, unlike the others
        • Who buys a core 360? And rebates are a cheap way out, nobody said that beforehand :-)
          • Oh, rebates do indeed suck. I'm not denying that. I hate them; but unless I absolutely need to save money in the here and now, they not always enough to sway me from using them. (Of course, a $100 rebate for a $400 system is nothing to sneeze at.) But when all of the rebate dust has settled, the final cost of the three is still less than a PS3. And no one said that a core 360 is the best option, but it's still a viable purchase choice.
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        Microcenter has a $100 rebate for xbox 360, so:

        Wii - 250.00
        PS2 - 129.00
        Xbox 360 - core system - 199.00
        = 578.00

        Less than the $599 PS3.
      • You forgot to mention that I can buy Wii games for $10 less than PS3 games ($50 vs $60), and PS2 games for $40 less than PS3 games ($20 for most of the PS2 "greats" vs. $60 for *any* PS3 game). So, that stunning $80 margin you're going on about goes away pretty quickly after a couple of video game purchases, nevermind that the Wii comes with a game included. And that virtual console games are anywhere from $5 to $10.

        $599 PS3
        $60 x 5 = $300 F.E.A.R, Resistance: FOM, Sonic, CoD3, Untold Legends
        ====
      • yawn

        See the replies above. You can get all three game systems for $578, possibly $378 if what I heard about Vonage is correct.

        Then again, if you're such a moron that you feel the need to reply under AC, your little rant has no credibility anyway.
      • I have 2 HDTVs. I don't care about Blu-Ray at $900. Its retarded to say its a no brainer. I don't know that Blu-Ray will win, I don't know that HD-DVD will win, I don't know if Digital Downloads will win (nor do I have a preference at the moment). I do know I don't need to spend $900 or $600 to be the first to watch Talladega Nights or Stealth in 1080p.

        Just because Blu-Ray players are $900 and the PS3 is a $600 Blu-Ray player doesn't mean that Blu-Ray is worth either price. Nor does it make it a no
  • How many of the PS2s are being purchased by Grandparents who don't realise that when Little Billy asked for the new Playstation for Christmas, he meant a PS3, not just any version...

    I was walking through the local Fry's last night and was wondering why they were stacking the PS2s in the main walkway. Seemed to me there might be a more popular item to stick in the high traffic areas, but maybe they were sold out of everything else.
    • How many of the PS2s are being purchased by Grandparents who don't realise that when Little Billy asked for the new Playstation for Christmas, he meant a PS3, not just any version...


      The sad thing about this is Little Billy(tm) will obstinately shun the PS2 in front of the Grandparents. Billy is such an ingrateful bastard.
    • by HappySqurriel (1010623) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:49AM (#17050798)
      How many of the PS2s are being purchased by Grandparents who don't realise that when Little Billy asked for the new Playstation for Christmas, he meant a PS3, not just any version...

      I was walking through the local Fry's last night and was wondering why they were stacking the PS2s in the main walkway. Seemed to me there might be a more popular item to stick in the high traffic areas, but maybe they were sold out of everything else.


      I think you overestimate the demand for new consoles (not just the PS3), this is the sales numbers for 2006 up to (and including) October

      1. Nintendo DS: 3,152,500
      2. PS2: 3,131,500
      3. XBox 360: 2,533,500
      4. GBA: 2,060,500
      5. PSP: 1,889,000
      6. Gamecube: 525,500
      7. XBox: 424,000
      8. Playstation: 9,500


      Now, the Nintendo DS was being outsold by the GBA until they released the DS lite ...

      The fact is that most people buy a system really late in its life, and that all those people who bought a Playstation since 2000 may now be starting to upgrade to the PS2. Most of the time we think of how average (or below average) our income is compared to everyone we know, when you actually compare your household income to the mean you'd probably find out that you were quite wealthy (the mean household income in Canada is $50,000 meaning that 50% of households make less than that; I expect that the US is very similar). Half of consumers aren't questioning whether they should 'upgrade' to a HDTV, they're thinking whether they should replace their 20 year old 20 inch TV with one of those fancy 32 inch CRT TVs.
  • by RichardMarks (1011125) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:37AM (#17050578)
    Just off the top of my head:

    Okami
    Final Fantasy XII
    Guitar Hero II
    Bully

    are new major releases. And God of War 2 is on the horizon. And then you have the massive number existing PS2 titles - the single greatest game library for a console ever all at cheap prices now. Huge numbers of major PS2 titles can be bought for 19.99 now.

    All that for 130 dollars.

    And PSP sales are most likely going to continue to go up now that the PS3 has arrived and has so many PS3/PSP connectivity features - remote viewing of your PS3 over wireless and soon remote play of PS3 games on your PSP.

  • by Lumpy (12016) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:37AM (#17050584) Homepage
    The DS is still outselling the PSP. Many stores around here either have discounted old stock DS and are out of the DSLite which is the current model. Yet they still have plenty of PSP's.

    Glad to see them sell a bit faster, considering now they are reasonably priced at $199.00 new..

    The PSP is a cool device, it feels nicer than the PSP, It simply does not have the games or the game prices to entice parents to buy them.

      • Maybe it's just that the price of a PSP is a smaller piece of your income if you can afford to live in NYC. On the rare occasion that I see anyone in public with a handheld, it's a DS or DS lite.
          • Umm, I don't think anyone with a job finds $70 to be that important unless they are dirt poor.

            Dude, that's hours of work (post-tax) for most people. It's also a sizable phone bill or a medium electrical bill.

            $70 is a big deal. Try setting fire to $70 and tell me how you feel about it.

              • You are clearly a college student.

                Actually, I work for a living. I have been a college student, though; and I remember those days. It's a good thing I do, too, because if our economy continues in its present direction, we're all going to be eating a lot more ramen before it's all over.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        I almost NEVER see anyone play a DS on the subway. Not a day goes by I don't see someone with a PSP. That's the only statistic I need.
        "I don't know how Richard Nixon could have won. I don't know anybody who voted for him." - Pauline Kael
  • they are selling 2-3x the amount of hardware and software then they did at the same time last year for the PS2 and PSP (all of this is for USA/Canada). I honestly don't see any reason WHY.

    IT has nothing to do with people wnatign a PS3 and setteling for a PSP/PS2, as that is just faulty logic. It might be people buying PS2/P when little timmy wants a PS3 (but that does not really seem like sound reasoning to me either).

    Mabey it has something to do with the 360 already being out for a year now. I am willin
    • I think it's simple. The PS2 is still the best console out there, hands down. It's near the top in terms of performance, it has great backwards compatiblity with the PS1, it's *tiny*, it plays DVD's, it plays music, it has probably the largest number of available games right now, etc., etc. Hell, the PS2 is still the center of all of my AV stuff. It's my games box, my DVD player, and my CD player. And, I'm still buying new games for it, because the new games are really very slick right now. The develo
      • Sorta true. The PS2 has THE BEST line up of games, I am 100% behind you on that, and I am really tihnking of buying a PS2 for alot of those games (GH 1/2 come to mind in a split second, the FF games, Okami, and hundreds of other come to mind in a few secodns after that).

        2 points of contention:
        1) The hardware is the WORST of all systems in the game atm. This does not stop it from having the best games obviously (much as to why I argue the Wii will do so well, hardware is not the be all, end all, but it hel
      • Get a used XBox, put XBox Media Center [xboxmediacenter.de] on it, and then get back to me if your PS2 is still "the center of all your AV stuff". I haven't turned on my PS2 for months, but I don't really play video games anymore. Both the XBox and PS2 have decent games.

        Of course, the average consumer probably won't use XBMC, and the PS2 is a great system. I remember years ago when an acquaintance of mine bought a Dreamcast for his kids instead of a new XBox or PS2. His reasoning was that it was inexpensive and there were

  • Could be many of these sales are people who waited to buy a console gambling they would get a PS3. Now they are realizing that the PS3 is not worth the money and are buying a PS2 and a PSP with the money they had saved up.

    It could also be people replacing the old PS2 systems they sold to get money to get a PS3.
  • Gamecube (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pubjames (468013) on Thursday November 30 2006, @11:57AM (#17050962)
    I don't see this as odd. I've just been thinking that now would be a good time to purchase classic Gamecube games, so I can play them when I have a wii.
    • Gamecube games this generation should be like PS1 games last generation. PS1 games have only started to disappear within the last year. Gamecube games should still be readily available throughout most of the Wii's lifespan, one big advantage of backward compatibility. New GC games can still be made too for the same reason.
  • I generally wait a good 3 years or so into a console's life before buying it (except for the SNES...got that for my 11th birthday a couple days after release) The advantages are numerous:

    -Large title selection
    -CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP prices (example: just got quantum redshift for my xbox for 3 dollars from gamestop. THREE DOLLARS!!!)
    -consoles have had their hardware revisions and work better
    -gives me more time to finish the games that have been released

    I have a 360 (again, a gift) and I am VERY seriously consid
  • by kinglink (195330) on Thursday November 30 2006, @12:40PM (#17051628)
    Ok I can understand the PS2, but I own a PSP and I have to say there's not much reason to give it to a kid. It's great for a inexpensive music player that plays games, but I bought mine for 200 dollars, and 6 games came with it and I still think I overpaid.

    280 percent? That's definatly a case of mistaken identity.
  • by Red Flayer (890720) on Thursday November 30 2006, @12:59PM (#17051954) Journal
    That is not an increas eover the past year. FTA:
    In a statement, communications boss David Karraker said the top five retailers in North America were reporting a week-by-week rise in PS2 hardware sales of more than 115 per cent over the Thanksgiving period. Sales of PSP units, meanwhile, were up by 280 per cent.
    That is not over the past year; that is a week-to-week increase.

    Two reasons:
    (1) Almost every entertainment good sees a rise in sales post-Thanksgiving;
    (2) As others have pointed out, those who could not get PS3 may have opted to get PSP instead (hence the huge rise in sales, rather than the small bump for the PS2).

    Newsflash: Company says its products are selling better in the US during the holiday shopping season.

    Nothing to see here, please move along.
  • by Psychotext (262644) on Thursday November 30 2006, @03:08PM (#17054580)
    The article doesn't say an increase since last year, it says week on week.

    "In a statement, communications boss David Karraker said the top five retailers in North America were reporting a week-by-week rise in PS2 hardware sales of more than 115 per cent over the Thanksgiving period. Sales of PSP units, meanwhile, were up by 280 per cent."

    According to NPD (US numbers sold, not shipped):
    October 2005 PSP = 131,000
    November 2005 PSP = 353,000
    which gives us an 269% increase for November 2005.

    Did everybody just fall for an announcement of a sales increase that can pretty much be attributed to seasonal variations?
    • Re:Irony (Score:5, Interesting)

      by HappySqurriel (1010623) on Thursday November 30 2006, @12:29PM (#17051444)
      PS3's strongest contender is the PS2.
      How sweet is that ?


      Not to reduce your obvious excitement, but it is highly likely that through the holiday season the system sales will likely go:

      1. Nintendo DS
      2. Playstation 2
      3. XBox 360
      4. Nintendo Wii
      5. PSP
      6. GBA
      7. Gamecube
      8. Playstation 3
      9. XBox


      (I admit that the order could be shuffled, but the "general placement" is probably nearly correct)

      Until the Playstation 3's supply increases it will likely be outsold by nearly every other console on the market, and it would be selling in the range of the Gamecube; even if the undersupply reports are false it is likely that the PS3 will be selling in the range of the GBA. It remains to be seen what the PS3 will sell like when the supply issues are worked out, but being that most system sales happen after the system costs less that $200 I expect the $500/$600 PS3 will not be in the league of the $130 PS2.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          My estimation method was not particularly scientific ...

          I basically eyeballed the October 2005 chart and watched how sales of systems changed over the months of November/December (with particular note of how the XBox 360 vs. XBox sales went) and then applied that to the October 2006 chart ...

          As a rough guestimate I would say that the Gamecube will be selling between 500,000 and 750,000 over the holiday period with the GBA in the 750,000-1,500,000 range; depending on how well supplied the PS3 is the Gamecube