DS Dominates Japanese PSP Sales 3:1

Just on the heels of the good news for PSP Slim sales numbers comes an analysis by a Japanese business firm essentially saying that the PSP's competitor, the DS, is single-handedly driving the Japanese gaming market. "The DS, which Enterbrain says sold 3.478 million units (including both DS and DS Lite) in the fiscal first half, outsold Sony's PSP, at 1.07 million units, about three to one. Enterbrain added that console sales, encompassing Wii and PlayStation 3, also bolstered the market, which expanded by 33.5 percent to ¥138.3 billion ($1.2 billion), while software sales were also up 12.8 percent to ¥154.5 billion ($1.34 billion). Reuters cited the same Enterbrain report when it noted that in April through September, Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 by more than four to one in Japan, with 1.6 Wii units sold versus 385,492 PS3s."

Re:I use my PSP every day, my DS is collecting dus

[xtieburn]

Thats an unfair comparison.

You are comparing a hacked PSP to a DS instead of a hacked PSP to a hacked DS. DS homebrew is great my DS can play movies, have books in it, have all PDA functionality, play music, play SCUMM, have a whole host of homebrew games and a hell of a lot of other stuff.

When it comes down to it the DS beats the PSP in its own right and when you hack them both you have all the same stuff _and_ the DS beats the PSP in its own right.

I would advise you get on ebay buy a cheap DS and an M3 card and enjoy all the endless homebrew apps _or_ play its, largely considered to be far superior, set of games.

Re:PSP is beating Wii right now...

[cowscows]

I think it's more just the continued reaction to all the hype that the PSP launched with. Lots of people couldn't stop telling everyone how this was finally going to be the true Gameboy killer. Sony was about to repeat the success they had with the Playstation, and Nintendo was going to be the lose the handheld market dominance just like they lost the console market.

The Wii was generally(with exceptions of course) mocked by much of the gaming media, calling the controller just a gimmick, people were basically writing Nintendo off as as good as dead, etc...

Basically it all boils down to expectations. The PSP was talking like a champ before the game, but has turned out just to be a decent player. It hasn't failed in the sense that it completely tanked, but if its main goal was to completely dominate the competition, then it failed on that account.

Re:And even the NES beats the PSP with kids!

[DDLKermit007]

Hate to break this to you, but...The 360 exists on less people's radars in Japan than the Sega Saturn. Theres no need for it to be on the survey. It miaswell not exist in Japan as it stands right now outside of the crazy Ameri-Town Otaku crowd. On to your 60% girls are in the survey. Guess what, ALLOT more women play games in Japan. Not to mention honestly, a 10% margin in the direction favoring women is not enough to honestly throw such a survey off.

I'll tell you the real reason the DS outsells the PSP hand over fist honestly. The DS has by far a much higher number of pick up & go games than the PSP. If the game takes more than 15-30 seconds to get into theres just no way on the train. The Japanese have this impulse to do something while riding a train for 20-30min, and while reading books is nice, it does seem to be something house-wives, and old Obaa-sans do usually. Not to mention the Japanese tend to go the way those around them swing (almost roboticly), and if you get on almost ANY train in Japan you'll see people mucking about on a DS, or busy texting on a cellphone. I think over the course of my month I spent in Japan in July running around everywhere between Hiroshima, and Sapporo (thats a brutal direct 16 hour train ride btw) I saw a grand total of maybe 2 or 3 PSPs.