PSP Reception Lukewarm in US?

There are plenty of interesting takes available on Sony's new media/game console. The neat tricks seem to be the most popular. An Anonymous Coward writes "A blogger figured out how to batch convert e-books so they can be read on your PSP. Check out the guide here for a complete walkthrough on this method." Meanwhile, RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "PSP Vault has a great story on how to Use Non-Duo Memory Sticks on a PSP! The process involves using an adapter that's meant for a Sony Ericcson phone." Via Joystiq, a way to get Tivo content on your PSP. Out in the real world there is already talk of the opening weekend sales. Doomstalk writes "According to IGN sales of the PSP have been lukewarm, with many outlets selling as little as 10 out of the 80 units they received." The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while. Early adopters on a holiday weekend may not be the best yardstick. Official numbers from the first weekend of sales likely available on Monday.

Comments

PSP Web Browser

[Ken@WearableTech]

The hacks are already starting to role in. A web browser has been found in the PSP game Wipeout Pure.
More info here: http://www.pspondering.com/

Re:PSP Web Browser

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, and it formats Slashdot correctly too.

Apparently

[Anonymous Coward]

from a friend of mine who works in a game store says its the most returned gaming console in history (faults/dead pixels)

of course anyone who knows Sony's gear thesedays its hardly suprising, their pro gear (broadcast) is still good but the consumer level gears build quality in the last 10/15 years has declined massively, i couldn't reccomend Sony anything for the average customer

still the concept is nice, until my mobile phone kicks its ass in 2006

Supply vs. Demand.

[sanityspeech]

From the IGN article:

I work retail, and our store received 60 PSP's and sold 10 the entire day. Outside of hardcore gaming stores, I was curious to find out if that was just an anomaly, or the standard. I actually had many people come up and talk to me about it, but balked at the price of $249.99.

This is a classic case of supply exceeding demand. Just knowing that Sony is willing to go for such a price point was enough of a turn-off for me. For that price, I am willing to wait a year or two before getting one.

...from the psp-stands-for-pretty-steep-price dept...

You can say that again.

Re:Supply vs. Demand.

[laird]

"I work retail, and our store received 60 PSP's and sold 10 the entire day."

I am a gadget fiend, and I looked at PSP's at two stores today and didn't buy one.

EB had the PSP in stock for $250, but had no demo units, though there were three employee units running movies against the wall behind the sales counter. Apparently they'd had a demo unit for people to test, and the unit got badly scratched so they stopped letting people see the PSP. As cool as the PSP looks from a distance, I'm not buying a $250 piece of electronics that I can't even hold first.

Then I went to KB Toys. All of their units were boxed, so I couldn't even see one one. Even more insulting, they were so convinced that people would go crazy over the PSP that they refused to sell it except as a "bundle" with two games for $350. To add insult to injury, you had to pick one game from list 'A' and one from list 'B', so you were forced to buy a crappy game!

If someone had let me hold a PSP for a minute, I'm sure that the unit would have sold itself. But with retailers this stupid, no wonder it's not selling.

It kinda reminds me of a visit to an electronic retailer long ago when the 3DO was hot. The store had signage and a demo kiosk set up, but off. When I asked the salesman in the nearly empty videogame area, he said that he unplugged it because it attracted such large crowds that he couldn't do his job (which apparently didn't involve selling things to people). His stupidity lives on.

So I can't say whether Sony did a good job launching the PSP (aside from NYC being blanketed in nice PSP posters), because the retailers were so braindead that the PSP never had a chance.

With the current state of our economy...

[LokieLizzy]

it's not surprising that these things aren't selling like hotcakes. What with the 18-29 crowd buying their iPods and flashy digital cameras, not to mention required payments of the rent (or tuition if you're in college), food, and *life*, it's hard for the average Joe or Jane to choke out an extra 250 for a system which can't do half of the things it's advertized to do without pumping out another 80 dollars for a couple of games, or a larger memory chip.

The thing's far too expensive to justify whatever niftiness it may hold.

Re:With the current state of our economy...

[Stalyn]

Tokyo is one of the most expensive places live (actually the most) yet everyone there has some new fangled phone or electronic device. The success I think on the PSP has less to do with economy and more with culture.

More tools

[Sv-Manowar]

http://www.pspvideo9.com/

"PSP Video 9 is a free PSP video conversion and management application. It can convert regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into PSP video files, as well as manage/copy these PSP video files between your PC and PSP."

The market for the PSP could get a lot larger if the software keeps coming at this rate

Not enough launch titles to merit cost

[Zetta Matrix]

At $249.99, there better be a handful of games I just can't live without. For me, there are none. This changes with the introduction of new titles and price drops on the PSP itself. At $149.99, I could see buying it for only 2-3 games (with the expectation of more).

The PSP had a

[BenZoate]

less than huge launch. At my place of employment we recieved in 40 units, and sold 2 on Thursday. The company wanted us to sell out of them by noon, similar to the DS launch before Christmas. I know the local Best Buy, EB Games, Gamestop, were all sold out, but people do generally not come to Toys R Us for the big video game launches. So if you are looking for a PSP hit the local Toys R US, they probally still have some in stock.

Weakness - Intentional crippling

[DemonWeeping]

The PSP would be a fantastic handheld with it's brilliant screen and fantastic hardware... ...except... They need to make UMD-R. Seriously. I am not going to pay 50%+ more (versus SD) for a 1G Memory Stick Duo that will not work in any other device I own just so I can carry around some extra media. Come on Sony. Didn't you learn your lesson about propriatary formats yet?

Lackluster compared to DS launch

[N5]

I've been to numerous stores today, and each place had plenty of the units. By the looks of it some places had sold as little as 2 or 3. Worse part still is the fact that at all the places I saw like 2 people maximum looking at them. It's release was front page news in the local paper with quotes such as "It's the biggest realease in seven years, since the Xbox" (this was a gamestop employee, who obviously can't count) and claiming they were sold out. Mabie they were, but no other place I was to were. The DS launch was far better sales wise, most places having only games but no units.

Very suprising, but that launch lineup wasn't exactly stellar. (DS was no better, but still...)

The games still suck.

[PxM]

As with many console launches, I think a big problem here is the games. This happened with the DS too since their selection was limited (Mario DS and Metroid are the only two good ones from what I've heard) even though they have their GBA games to fall back on. Since the DS is less expensive, can also do movies, MP3s and ebooks using Movie Player Advance, people don't seem to want to spend the $100 extra for it. Both companies want to create a new industry around downloading content over WiFi and other non videogame things so they seem to be holding out on their initial releases. It might be better to wait six months and see which side has better stuff.

--
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Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof

Re:I myself was dissintrested...

[nate nice]

"Until I played Lumines for one minute on a PSP at my local gaming store. The sheer (sic)addictivness of this game alone makes me (sic)desperatly want a PSP..."

Your feelings are confused right now. You're not addicted to a game after playing it for 1 min. The feeling you have is called *impulse* and is the worst feeling a consumer can succumb to.

Re:EB Games

[mrlpz]

And from talking to my Mgr friend at EB.... SCEA actually sent out an email to all EB district managers stating UNEQUIVOCABLY that it would not accept as "defective returns" units that had dead pixels. The fact that Sony tries to slight this off when just a few months ago Nintendo came out publicly saying that they would REPLACE any DS's that had screens with blown pixels, is such a disappointment. I smell CLASS-ACTION ( anyone know a good class action lawyer ? ). Before any of the fanboys descend on me.....I have both. I like the DS alot, but I'm still waiting for the games ( the Metroid Prime teaser level is getting old now ). The PSP has an incredible screen ( except for the REALLY noticeable dead spots ). I have to agree with folks that Sony needs to produce UMD-R's. But more importantly, it needs to own up to the dead pixel issues. No excuses.....

I'm Happy

[larryj]

I bought a PSP on Thursday (launch day) at Wal-Mart. No one was camped out and I was the first person to buy one at that location. No dead pixels, but I think I'm going to exchange it as the left d-pad button is sticking when I play Lumines every once in a while (typically during "oh crap, I need this block way over THERE moments).

After a few days of playing, I love it. Is it worth $250? That's very subjective, but I think so. I almost wish I had daily commute time that didn't involve driving because the PSP would be a no-brainer if you have an hour or so to kill on a train each day.

I have 3 games, including the 2 which seem to be the 'hot' titles, Lumines, and Ridge Racer. I wanted to trade in some old games for Ridge Racer at EB Games or Gamestop, simply because I felt guilty for spending so much money on the PSP and 2 other games, but it was so hard to find that I jumped on the opportunity to pick it up at Target tonight.

While shopping for other things with my wife this weekend, I came to the conclusion that it's safe to say that people who bought multiple PSPs with the intent to make a buck on eBay wasted their time and money. I've seen multiple PSPs for sale at Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target and BJ's. Maybe the demand just isn't there, or maybe we can thank Sony for shipping a million of these things at launch to prevent eBay hoarders from ruining it for the rest of us.

I have an iPod so music on the PSP wasn't that compelling to me. However, I did want to see how it handled music files, so I downloaded iPSP for the Mac and created a 'PSP' playlist in iTunes, consisting of an iTunes purchased song along with a regular mp3 file. I had added an album cover image to the mp3 by dragging an image from amazon.com to the song via iTunes. The DRM protected iTunes song wasn't even transferred over when I synced. At least it didn't show up in the PSP's music/memory card menu. The mp3 was there along with the album art. Sound quality was acceptable to me, but I didn't put too much thought into it as I knew I wouldn't be using the PSP for music anyway.

While I probably won't use my PSP for viewing picture slideshows that often, it's a feature I'll use more than music playback. Much like music, iPSP uses iPhoto albums to transfer pics over to the PSP (you can't transfer individual photos over as far as I can tell). So, I transferred over a 'vacation favorites' album via iPSP. Along with video playback, viewing pictures on the PSP is where the LCD display really shines. Displayed pictures look incredible, although the widescreen format of the PSP means you'll have bars on the side unless you zoom the image. That's no fault of the PSP though.

I only have the 32 meg memory stick that comes with the PSP, but I had to see what video looks like, so I downloaded a Star Wars Episode III trailer. Much like viewing pictures, the PSP display does not disappoint. Even more impressive is the Spider-Man 2 full-length movie that is bundled with the PSP. I can't see myself buying UMD movies, but the image quality is breathtaking. It looks as good as DVDs on my plasma although obviously in a smaller form (which might help hide any image quality issues). My wife, who doesn't care about this stuff but tolerates my gadget obesssion, commented about how she can't believe how good the image quality is.

That leaves games. As I mentioned earlier, I guess I'm lucky to have found Lumines and Ridge Racer on release weekend. While the PSP is easy to find, these 2 titles seem to be somewhat hard to track down.

I'm not a big fan of puzzle games. Tetris always seems to blow my mind once the pace picks up a bit and I can't think quick enough to move pieces into the appropriate place. The only 'puzzle' game that I really like is Bejeweled, probably because I can stop to think of what my next move is. I couldn't dismiss Lumines however after reading all of the great reviews. My first couple of games were frustrating, my brain refusing to think in terms of which way to f