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Portables (Games) Businesses

DS Dominates Japanese PSP Sales 3:1 73

Posted by Zonk from the really-like-that-brain-training dept.
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."
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DS Dominates Japanese PSP Sales 3:1 More

DS Dominates Japanese PSP Sales 3:1

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  • Here's a recent survey from Japan [whatjapanthinks.com] showing that elementary school kids prefer almost everything else bar the Xbox!
    • Three things are notable about that survey question - 1) the xbox 360 doesn't even show up, 2)the survey sample was 60% girls, and 3)there's no margin of error, so we don't know how accurate these numbers actually are. Plus it was an online survey. So I would put a great deal of doubt in these numbers, except for the xbox numbers which are pretty accurate.

      I know I'm going to get stoned in the street for saying this, but the large sample of girls leans towards more casual gamers which would make the PSP, x

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DDLKermit007 ( 911046 )
        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 h

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )
        I don't understand why they grouped playstation 1, 2 and 3 but not the nintendo consoles either.
  • Okay, show of hands, who here is actually surprised that the DS is outselling the PSP? Its like asking who here is surprised that the PC is outselling the Mac. This does not mean that either the Mac or the PSP are not doing well, I mean, those sales figures are nothing to sneeze at. It just means that others are outselling them.

    • This does not mean that either the Mac or the PSP are not doing well, I mean, those sales figures are nothing to sneeze at. It just means that others are outselling them.

      Yeah, I really don't understand the mentality in the game world of not being in first place means you're a failure. If a company like Sony or Apple were having poor sales & hemorrhaging money, that would be one thing. Gee, Sony ONLY sold just over a million PSP's last quarter. How can anybody justify developing games for a platform that only has several million users?

      • Gee, Sony ONLY sold just over a million PSP's last quarter. How can anybody justify developing games for a platform that only has several million users?

        When the leading platform is several dozen million users over one platform's several million users, and development costs are comparable (most development costs today aren't in the actual programming of a platform but instead in the creation of assets to be used within the game), justifying NOT developing for a non-leading platform is just a bean-counter's cost benefit analysis away.

        It's a shame, but, thankfully, there are some pretty cool bean-counters out there whose organizations they represent are comm

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by edwdig ( 47888 )
          It's even simpler than that. DS games are a lot cheaper to make. Games range from 8 MB - 128 MB and have 2D or very low quality 3D art. PSP games are 1.5 GB with drastically higher demands of the art.

          So the DS has several times the userbase of the PSP and development costs are much lower. Return on investment looks a lot better on the DS.
          • This is completely off-topic, but I'll be terribly sad to see the DS go. It's the last bastion of high-quality 2D gaming. After the DS, 2D will be dead. Even cell phone games are in 3D nowadays. So enjoy the days of top-notch 2D gaming while they last.

      • Yeah, I really don't understand the mentality in the game world of not being in first place means you're a failure.

        I think it's because the video game industry is very new and the rapid fall of one time industry titan Atari is still on many minds. Then you add the rapid decline of Nintendo after the success of Sega and Sony and people are ready to jump to conclusions.

        I do it too. I'm just as guilty of thinking Nintendo was dead in the water after the rise of the PlayStation. I'm VERY impressed by the w

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
          Get her to a Wii demonstration and let her play Wii Sports Tennis, that seems to work well for convincing people.
          • Thank you for the suggestion. This would probably work with most people but my wife really HATES video games. I've tried to involve her in many games over the years but she has no interest in any style computer game. She and I grew up with family board games like "Monopoly" and that's what she likes. I still like "Monopoly" too, but I also like my electronic games.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Tridus ( 79566 )
              Thats why it'll work.

              My parents hate video games too. Always have.

              They were visiting for my graduation. We have a Wii. I decided to show it to them.

              It took about 30 seconds to explain Tennis, 45 more to explain Bowling.

              They bought their own Wii a week later. Most of its success is because its not what people traditionally think of as "video games."

            • Thank you for the suggestion. This would probably work with most people but my wife really HATES video games. I've tried to involve her in many games over the years but she has no interest in any style computer game. She and I grew up with family board games like "Monopoly" and that's what she likes. I still like "Monopoly" too, but I also like my electronic games.

              Seriously, WiiSports is THE system seller. If you can get your wife some place where it is being played it should help a lot. If she plays an

            • This would probably work with most people but my wife really HATES video games

              Wii Sports isn't a video game. It's a simplistic sports simulator. People who hate video games generally (in my experience) love Wii Sports. Also, if she likes Monopoly, buy her Mario Party 8. You can even buy hotels in that game :-)

      • Mostly the bias in the article is in the eye of the beholder.

        Instead of "DS outsells PSP 3:1", try "Sony produces first commercially successful non-Nintendo handheld. Captures 25% of the market."

        Of course, that wouldn't be as sensational and anti-sony as most of the Slashdot articles we've come to know and love. :)
      • Sony's gaming division is hemoraging money - $237M last quarter alone.

      • Yeah, I really don't understand the mentality in the game world of not being in first place means you're a failure.

        Well, there's also the question of expectations. After the success of the PS2 and the stagnancy of the GBA, everyone expected Sony to beat Nintendo in the handheld market. When the DS was announced, people thought Nintendo was insane and doomed. It was laughable to expect something quirky like the DS to even sell half as well as something like the PSP. In fact, Nintendo itself said that the

    • I agree...not beating the DS does not mean you're a failure. In fact, PSP could conceivably sell the second most hardware among the five next-gen platforms, and seems near-guaranteed to be at least third. It currently has a roughly 12 million lead on the Wii, and is selling reasonably well in all regions. Yeah, it's been outsold by the Wii for the past few months, but not by such a large amount that it couldn't potentially match the Wii's pace if some killer-app made the PSP cool again (as shown by the p

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by cowscows ( 103644 )
        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 basica
        • Actualy I remeber the inverse happening: people endlessly based the PSP as an expensive port machine, while praiseing the wii and DS as the savior of videogames. To even speak ill of nintendo was just unheard of prelaunch. Even now, you can say nothing ill of it. Both are decent systems, but no where near the hype.

          Even now, the PSP, like the ps3, is known as a "console with no good games" despite the PSP having a rather good library so far. No one seems to want to give it the time of day though. Peo

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by LKM ( 227954 )

            Actualy I remeber the inverse happening: people endlessly based the PSP as an expensive port machine, while praiseing the wii and DS as the savior of videogames

            That was after the launch, after the first year of the DS, when the good games started coming out.

            To even speak ill of nintendo was just unheard of prelaunch.

            You've got to be shitting me. That is the most bold faced lie I've heard all month. Before the DS launch, Nintendo was declared dead and ridiculed by gamers all over the world. How can yo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ookaze ( 227977 )

        I agree...not beating the DS does not mean you're a failure. In fact, PSP could conceivably sell the second most hardware among the five next-gen platforms, and seems near-guaranteed to be at least third

        There lies your problem. You're putting handheld in competition with home consoles, which is nonsense.
        In most cases, you have one console for a home, not several. While you can have one handheld by PERSON in the house, which is also the common case.
        Don't compare handheld marketshare with home consoles, that's ridiculous.
        It's even more ridiculous, when you know that Nintendo or Sony wouldn't release two different consoles of their own that would compete against each other on the same market. That would be b

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LKM ( 227954 )
      I'm surprised, considering the PSP slim and a FF game came out.

  • The DS is EVERYWHERE in Tokyo (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vonPoonBurGer ( 680105 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2007 @10:15AM (#20822637)
    I just got back from a week-long trip to Tokyo, and I can say first-hand that the DS is everywhere there. In the time I spent riding subways and trains in the city, I must have seen 50 DS's in use by Tokyo residents. It was rare to get on a train and not see someone using a DS. The variety of titles available for the platform is also staggeringly wide compared to what we have in North America. Some of the more interesting titles I saw: - an interactive wine appreciation guide called "Sommelier DS", as well as an equivalent title for sake - numerous training titles for kanji - numerous training titles for english It's no wonder the DS is selling well in Japan, with the breadth of available Japanese titles it's a viable purchase for anyone who speaks Japanese, young or old, gamer or non-gamer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sciros ( 986030 )
      That reminds me, can U.S. DSs run Japanese DS games? Not that I was even able to *find* Revenant Wings in any store but assuming I did...

      And yeah I second what you said about the DS being all over the place. On more than one occasion I saw groups of 4 girls sitting around on the sidewalk with their blue and pink and white DS Lites. Overall I think I saw more females playing DS than males, actually.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by benzapp ( 464105 )
      Amusingly, the exact opposite is true in New York City. I'd say the ratio of PSP to DS users on the NYC subway system is about 10 to 1. It is rare to be in a car where someone isn't playing a PSP (not at nighttime - NYC is 24 hours, unlike Tokyo). Most days I don't see anyone using a DS, and when I do it typically is someone who is East Asian.

      I have both systems, but typically play the PSP. It just has more games I enjoy, and I'm a stickler for graphics.
    • I've been living in HK for more than a month now, and take the train (MTR) everyday to school. So far, there is not a time where I didn't see someone playing with a DS lite. I see PSP players too, but the DS players outnumber them about 4:1.

  • 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.

    How do you get 3/5 of a unit? Did the submitter mean 1.6 million Wii units?

  • My mother just bought Brain Age yesterday, and borrowed my DS, because she saw my nephews playing it on theirs. (I gave it to them when I got bored of it, never thinking she might care.) She'll probably buy a DS of her own soon, and she's talking about buying one for my father for the Sudoku and Picross games on it.

    My mother also has a Nintendo Wii that she (and my niece and sister) play quite a bit.

    Nintendo has really figured out how to capture the 'casual' gamer. I paid for half the Wii because I knew

  • Wii outsold the PlayStation 3 by more than four to one in Japan, with 1.6 Wii units sold versus 385,492 PS3s

    Seems to me that if 1.6 Wii's were sold and 385,492 PS3s were sold that the PS3 would have a pretty good lead... Is this 1.6:1 Wii vs PS3 here or what? You'd think it was a problem with the summery, but this is a quote from TFA...

  • I have a DS with M3 Simply homebrew/warez card and must say I am very satisfied with it. Lots of good games, great homebrew being written, and Opera on DS has saved me many times when I needed a network connection but left my laptop in my other pants.
    The only problem is that here no one else seem to have it, at least I have never seen another one but mine. In the 3rd world developing country I live, I can't just go playing in the subway or I will most probably end without it since it would draw so much att

    • left my laptop in my other pants
      You seem to have developed a way to use your laptop more, err, "directly" than I do. Please, share you secrets.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Nosklo ( 815041 )

        You seem to have developed a way to use your laptop more, err, "directly" than I do. Please, share you secrets.
        This is nothing. You should see when I lost it in my own house [slashdot.org]. Hmmm. Thinking again, you should not.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Ant P. ( 974313 )
        By day, he posts on Slashdot. But at night... he's MC Hammer.
  • I was in Tokyo a month ago.

    At Yobodashi(9 floor store) in Akihabara, I saw 3 Wiis being rung up simultaenously. After doing my shopping there, I stop in the little park-area outside the shop. There was a group of 4 people with a STACK of Wiis, must have been like 14-15 or so. All of them were in Yobodashi bags. Musta been hoarding.

    • Musta been hoarding.
      It happens in the US, too. I remember seeing a manager ring up 3 Wiis for a guy at a Best Buy. The dude paid with credit card AND cash. Me thinks the cash went to the manager to hold onto it for him or to sell him more than one.

      With how easily you can get one on ebay for over retail price, I wonder if there would be any Wii shortages at all if there weren't any scalpers.
  • ...according to vgchartz.com there are 23.79M PSPs out there. That's a lot of systems and most would say a sign of success. It's only once you look at Nintendo's numbers - 50.64M - that there's a sign of something amiss. That doesn't change the fact that there are 24M PSPs, though, and that's a lot.
  • I bought a DS and a PSP both when they first came out. I will agree that with standard firmware the DS is better than the PSP, but with custom firmware, the PSP is much, much more interesting. I am not a Sony fanboy (I dont like sony's in your face attitude or business practices), in fact quite the oposite I am a huge Nintendo fan, I have owned every Nintendo system (except the virtual boy), going back to the 'game and watch' and 'table top arcade' games (I had Donkey Kong). In my opinion the PSP is just

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by xtieburn ( 906792 )
      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 ca
      • I already have a DS as I mentioned in my original post, and I have done custom stuff on that as well with a programable GBA cart... and it wasnt as good as the PSP with custom firmware. I would go blind watching a movie on the DS... I think I will hang on to the DS in case any future games catch my interest, but seriously nothing beats a customized PSP, it can emulate virtually anything, including NES, SNES, GBA, and even DS emulation is in the works.
        • I'm curious to see how they implement dual screens and a touch screen in software for that DS emulation. I sort of understand the mindset of doing something just to see if it can be done, but I hope that we don't have to hear people going around telling everyone that the PSP can act as a DS.

          (You'd likely be able to play Advance Wars 2 reasonably well, and that wouldn't be so bad)

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by pi8you ( 710993 )
        I've yet to attempt homebrewing with my DSLite, but while it may offer many of the same homebrewing capabilities as the PSP, the capability of having a truly portable PS1 is what sold me on getting a PSP, as there's tons of cool games that I'd missed the first go around paired with a lot of time away from home for mobile gaming. That and the amazing screen. Looking at stock capabilities, DS wins on the gaming front hands down, but the PSP is a lot more useful as a portable media device than I had ever real
  • This is the kind of announcement that has been copied and pasted every month since the DS took off. The only thing different about the text of this press release is that it mentioned the PSP Slim launch. They even took the time to mention the Wii killing the PS3. I am a die-hard Nintendo fan, but even I'm getting sick of the broken record...

    How is this a /. worthy news post if everyone already knows?
  • The PSP Slim and FF7 Crisis Core got a week or so of the PSP outselling the DS about 3-1... But it may not last.

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