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Portables (Games) Sony

PSP Hits 10 Million Units 73

Posted by Zonk from the great-screen-poor-games dept.
Gamasutra is reporting that Sony's PSP Handheld has hit 10 Million units shipped. From the article: "Broken down into regions, Asia (including Japan) has shipped 3 million units, North America 4.47 million, and Europe and other PAL regions 2.53 million. However, Sony's use of statistics for shipped units can be a little confusing to some, since these figures do vary significantly to the amount of units thus far sold in stores. Nonetheless, citing shipment numbers for consoles is common practice within the game industry, and is carried out by all three major console manufacturers."
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PSP Hits 10 Million Units More

PSP Hits 10 Million Units

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  • YAWN (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OSS_ilation ( 922367 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @03:26PM (#13847501)
    Sharp eyes will catch the fact that this is "shipped" sales, not PSP's sold. Sony's good at marketing, I'll give them that.
    • I wasn't aware you needed "sharp eyes" to read over half of the summary.

      Sony's use of statistics for shipped units can be a little confusing to some, since these figures do vary significantly to the amount of units thus far sold in stores. Nonetheless, citing shipment numbers for consoles is common practice within the game industry, and is carried out by all three major console manufacturers."

  • Shipped vs. sold (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Phisbut ( 761268 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @03:27PM (#13847512)
    According to recent statements from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, the PSP has sold "over a million units throughout the PAL territories"

    and

    As ever, figures for North America remain the most obscure, although recent estimates from The NPD Group put the figure at over 2 million units.

    So they haven't sold 50% of what they shipped yet... meaning 10 million shipped, but less than 5 million sold.

    • 10 million units shipped.
      5 million units sold.
      Your accountant ran out of red pens?
      Priceless!
    • See the words "most recent"? They could well be from 6 months ago.
    • It's a nice theory; but if it's true, why was the European release delayed? Surely if they were having trouble selling all the PSPs they were making, they wouldn't have postponed selling to the Brits and the French...

      Also: use NPD numbers with care. They (and they admit this) only cover a minority of retail in the US. Their sales numbers do not include Amazon.com, for example. In addition Sony management has been telling investors they are to ramp PSP production to 1.5m units a month: again, not something t
  • I finally see a couple PSP games around the corner in 2006 that might have my interest. Overall this is the most patience I have shown a new system. Usually I want it the day it launches.

    In the meantime I don't see any more DS titles besides castlevania that would be even worth it. Maybe DS has maxed out?

    • Re:Gaming Library (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21, 2005 @03:40PM (#13847634)
      I just bought a PSP...and I see nothing interesting for it. So far, I think the PSP has become what I envisioned its worst case scenario to be - a home for console ports, at console prices. It's really sad, since its a beautifully crafted piece of hardware, just nobody takes the time to make a unique game to take advantage of both its massive storage and its portability.

      As for your comment about the DS maxing out, they do have three major releases next month, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, and Mario and Luigi, all of which I played at Digital Life last weekend, and all of which are pretty freakin' sweet. And there's always the fact that a DS Zelda is in the works that will be a massive paradigm shift and DS Mario which has been long awaited. Plus, if you're really dying for a purely 2d platforming-at-its-best experience, there's Super Princess Peach.

      But I digress, this is about PSP, not DS ;)
      • It's not the one game to make me buy one, but Ready At Dawn's game, Daxter, continues to the story of Jak games, is a PSP exclusive, and actually looks better in some respects than its PS2 counterparts.

    • Re:Gaming Library (Score:3, Informative)

      by DarkYoshi ( 895118 )
      You should play Advance Wars, and the DS hasn't maxed out. Even better games like Mario Kart DS are showing up, and the games are just getting better.

    • Re:Gaming Library (Score:4, Informative)

      by ReverendHoss ( 677044 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @03:46PM (#13847686)
      Depending on the genre you like, there are some good ones on the way.

      Coming Soon:

      • Mario Kart DS
      • Animal Crossing DS
      • Metroid Hunters

      Rumored but not confirmed:

      • Starcraft
      • Diablo

      Of course, none of these may be your cup of tea. But for those of us who are Card Carrying Nintendo Fanboys, there's quite a bit to look forward to.

      Now give me Super Smash Bros. DS, dammit...

    • Re:Gaming Library (Score:4, Informative)

      by pnice ( 753704 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @04:00PM (#13847854)
      I already have Castlevania for the DS but here is my want list. Maybe you will like some of these too:

      Trauma Center
      Phoenix Wright
      Lost In Blue
      Zoo Tycoon
      Metroid Prime Pinball - 10/24/05
      Mario Kart - 11/14/2005
      Animal Crossing - 12/05/2005
      Mario and Luigi 2 - 11/28/2005
      Sonic Rush - 11/15/2005

      • Re:Gaming Library (Score:4, Informative)

        by Castar ( 67188 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @05:02PM (#13848440)
        I picked up Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright a week ago.

        I haven't even played Phoenix Wright yet because Trauma Center is so great! It really feels like you're performing surgery, the level of tension is really well done. You feel like you have to do everything quickly and well, and weird things keep happening to throw you off.

        It's very linear, and they tell you every procedure to use, so you don't have to use any actual creativity, but it's still a lot of fun.

        The game really shows what the stylus is good for, though - the game wouldn't be the same without it. It really gives me hope for the Revolution games.
        • I second that notion, Trauma Center is excellent and a truly different kind of game. The sense of desperation you feel when a patient's vitals are dropping and you're balancing multiple injuries at the same time allowed me to react faster than I ordinarily thought I could (or would) for a game. This and Castlevania are all the reason I need to justify the purchase of my DS.

    • I have thought about this recently and I've determined we're willing to give Sony the benefit of the doubt, simply because they have delivered with their consoles recently. The PSX had a massive library. The PS2 started out very very slowly, but now it has a massive library. The PS3 already has a ton of games lined up.

      Contrast this with recent Nintendo; I don't give them the benefit of the doubt. Not because I don't like Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I have a Gamecube, a GBA SP, original GBA, an N64, a

      • Depends. They still crank out their first party titles, which have always been my motivation for buying a system during the first year. And Nintendo seems to be positioning themselves into a place where no one is really competing with them via interface differentation.

        They're also cleaning up on the software/hardware sales in the land of the rising sun, have far lower development costs, and seem to have made a lot of headway in undoing the whole N64 debacle with developers and customers(The GCN is, to me,
  • They may have shipped millions of PSPs, but I still haven't seen one, and I'm not likely to buy one until I do, am I?
    • I haven't seen one in use, in person, either. I did, however, see John Leguizamo playing with one on ER last night, with actual gameplay closeups - Ridge Racer if I'm not mistaken. It didn't, however, inspire me to run out and get one. :)
    • This is a good point. I was able to play with the DS on day one via the kiosks set up in the game stores. I have yet to see or touch a PSP. I've been trying to understand why Sony has done this. By all accounts, the screen is beautiful, and the games look great. Why hide it? I can play the PS2 all I want at these same stores.

      It is puzzling.
      • I played with a PSP in a Sony store. It was disappointing. I have no idea if I'd like to play games on it. There was no UMD in the thing. In the Sony store. Where they sell PSP games and PSP movies.

        Good job, Sony. Good job.
    • I've seen a few in action but mostly all I've seen is Loading loading and more loading.
      • Yeah, go ahead and mark parent Informative. He's just adding to the hype. Until you've actually used the device yourself I doubt you're in a position to comment on its performance.

        The reality is that the PSP is not always necesarily to blame. I have about 8 different games and loading times are completely different for each game. Some, such as Virtua Tennis and Ridge Racer actually have pretty decent load times considering the content your getting at once. Virtua Tennis is extremely impressive. It eve
        • gee, and people put nintendo down when they decided to use cartridges for the n64/gba/ds.

          load times for ps1/saturn/neogeo cd were atrocious back in the 90's.

          even the fastest optical drives are no match for solid state memory like flash.

          even with carts, they were still priced competitively, even though cd's were nothing but cheap plastic. makes you think.

          optical drives without caching sucks, period.
        • Here is my story, sitting in class (University I'm Canadian) waiting for a lecture on J-Unit to start, I see a guy sit down 2 seats over and pull out his PSP so I pull out my DS in the hope I can try his PSP, it doesn't really look that sexy to me but it's supposed to have ps2 quality games and I don't have a ps2.

          I start Kirby and start playing, he doesn't look over.

          I play for about 3-4 minutes, and look over again.

          He still hasn't done anything, The lecture starts and I close the lid of my DS (putting
    • When working at SummerTech (a summer camp of dreams for super nerds 8-16 in New York) one of the kids had one, he was kind enough to let me hold it, but not play it. I made sure to target him latter in the staff vs campers dodgeball game.

      Otherwise, I've never seen one back here in Texas. But then again, I've only seen one other DS here too... I do see a lot of the Gameboy SP, however. (I have a black one myself, love that Minish Cap and Advanced Wars 2!)

      I may never really want a PSP to play, but I do

  • ...sitting on my shelf gathering dust.

    1. Was sucked into the hype vortex.
    2. Under a state of hype-nosis, bought into an EB bundle deal.
    3. Got 5 games for it.
    4. All 5 sucked.
    5. Unhappiness breaks me out of hype-nosis.

    Never again will I buy into a 'bundle'... (see xbox 360 bundles for even worse deal)

    I guess this is a good time to ask, are there any games out yet that will give me a reason to dust off my PSP and hunt around for the certainly now lost power adapter?
  • Were any of these seventy-three billion PSPs shipped to Montana? Now, granted, the general consensus seems to be that only about half as many have sold as have shipped; but that's still over thirty-six billion, five hundred ninety-six million, six-hundred seventy eight thousand PSPs. I have yet to see one. I'm not sure they even exist. Instead, like the AMD Geode processor, they are an internet myth, designed to make me happy that someone is putting actual pressure on nintendo to make better handhelds. Oh,
    • "Montana"

      You answered your own question. Move to a state where one city has a larger population than the State of Montana, and you might see a PSP. There are many cities/metro's in the US that would fit.
  • If these things aren't selling too well, I'll be more than happy to pick one up at a highly discounted price- for the homebrew and Grand Theft Auto if nothing else.

  • What the PSP needs (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Friday October 21, 2005 @07:54PM (#13849681)
    Is some cheap games. I hear prices are starting to go down for some "Greatest Hits" titles, but how about a UMD full of small puzzle games, simple/ported side-scrollers, etc.? I know everyone is going to start yelling "homebrew," but honestly, I think that'd be the fastest and easiest way to make up for the slow flow of new releases.

    That, and open up the UMD format with an affordable burner, so people don't have to pay $200 for a 2GB memorystick or tack-on microdrive! I know, I know--dream on, ATRAC, dream on.

    • open and sony should not be used in the same book, let alone the same sentence.

      they make ms look standards-compliant.
      • You would think getting their ass handed to them by Samsung over the last 5 years or so would wake them up a bit. Seriously, give us a UMD burner and some cheap media, and the PSP would rock. Heck, Sony could even take out the expensive gaming guts and make a cheaper, smaller "UMD player" with the same screen...imagine the possibilities that will never be realized.
  • 2.53 Million units in Europe is pretty impressive, seeing as it's only been out here for less than two months. It'll be interesting to see what the post-Christmas figures are like. In the UK at the moment it's extremely difficult to get hold of a new (non-import) one - everywhere is sold out. I wonder if Sony will be able to meet demand in time for Christmas?
    • That's shipped. Sure, it's still impressive that retailers bought that many of 'em but most of them are probably lying around in a warehouse or a shop noone cares about.
      • I think it's highly unlikely that there's lots of PSP languishing somewhere in a warehouse. They are really hard to get hold of - almost everywhere has sold out. There won't be many units in "some shop[s] no-one cares about" because those shops wouldn't have had many allocated to them in the first place.
  • I own a PSP and use it quite a bit, but playing PSP games on it is like 10 on the list of things I do with it, the biggest thing I like to do with it is play music videos! I can compress music videos to about two to three times the size of a MP3 (sometimes its smaller than a 320kbps MP3 of the same song!), and make them full screen. That is why the Ipod video will kick so much butt when it comes out...music videos are a great way to kill time in short burts. Also the emulators on the PSP are nothing short o

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