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First Week PSP Sales Results

Posted by Zonk on from the trial-by-sales dept.

Gamespot has results from the first week of PSP sales. Unit sales have already cracked 600,000, generating in the neighborhood of $US 150 million for Sony. From the article: "Sony would only say that the device sold 'over half a million units' during its first 48 hours on the market, meaning it sold only approximately 100,000 units continent-wide over the next five days--at best. Still, Sony said the tally was enough to 'further validate PSP as the most anticipated product of 2005 and an industry-altering force.'"

14 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. It'll be worth it... by Xlipse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Frankly.. the PSP is great for Sony and not so great for the comsumers - considering all the extra money you have to spend beyond the initial purchase price.

    Call me a GBA fanboy, but I've spent a total of $30, MAYBE $40 TOTAL on "EXTRA" things for my GBA besides what comes with the unit and games. Sony seems to want to milk us for everything we're worth :(.

    I'd consider it a LITTLE better value when the unit drops down to $150 and comes with a decent game. Probably won't happen until after XMas 2005 though.

  2. Force? by falcon5768 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    600,000 units is a force? I mean its not bad and Im sure Nokia WISHES they had sold 600,000 but a force? They havent even sold all their stock yet o_O. Give it till E3 before I even think about calling the PSP a ripple let alone a force.

    Also I would love to see how many of these users own a DS too.

    --

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    1. Re:Force? by nege · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I own a DS...hate it in fact. VERY few games out so far, nintendo is basically sitting on its rear. At least with the PSP you can do many more things with it like eBooks (now if we could find some eBooks), movies, pitures, mp3, etc.

      Anyone wanna buy a DS??

  3. Well, let's see. by schild · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. It was the end of March - not the christmas season ANYWHERE.
    2. It was $250.
    3. It had very little advertising compared to the Touching is Good campaign last October and November.
    4. It had triple the number of games Nintendo had out after 4 months at launch.
    5. Despite getting some of the lowest ratings, the top-selling game was a decent Diablo clone.
    6. Stores are still able to stock it and people still want it.

    There's no doubt in my mind that Sony can sell any PSPs they ship. It may take a while. But they'll sell. As more and more online-enabled games come out and more killer apps start to appear (GTA and Infected anyone? Maybe even Advent Rising if you buy into the hype.) they're just going to sell better. All things considered, they came into a market dominated by Nintendo and are outselling the Nintendo DS by I'd say a margin very close to 2:1. That, by any measurement, is monstrous success.

    --
    schild
    editor, f13.net
    1. Re:Well, let's see. by satoshi1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      2:1? My ass. Show me numbers that display show that the PSP is outselling the DS by 2:1.

    2. Re:Well, let's see. by MilenCent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your list of reasons seem to give both reasons for it selling well, and for it *not* selling well. Weird, that.

      All things considered, they came into a market dominated by Nintendo and are outselling the Nintendo DS by I'd say a margin very close to 2:1. That, by any measurement, is monstrous success.

      Except it's a new release, and the DS sold much better during the same period of its release. So the PSP is not a monstrous success "by any measurement."

      While it's difficult to argue against the potential selling power of GTA on the PSP, remember that the PSP is less powerful than the PS2, and Rockstar's first true-3D GTA was for that system. It's almost as much up in the air as how well that will work as it is how Katamari Damacy will work on the DS. (I've got my fingers crossed on that one....) And Nintendo *does* have some interesting DS software in the works, like Nintendogs, Meteos, a new 2D Super Mario Bros., Advance Wars, and other things.

      Anyway, none of this means that the PSP won't win out in the long run... but neither does it mean the DS won't. It'll be more competitive than the PS2/Gamecube fight.

    3. Re:Well, let's see. by SetupWeasel · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's because that's how many there were. Nintendo didn't have 1 mil the first week. They needed some of their produtction for the Japanese launch.

      Even though you are comparing apples and oranges here 600,000:513,000 is not 2:1.

    4. Re:Well, let's see. by brkello · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh give me a break. I don't understand the pro-DS attitude around here. Do you think you are going to sway people to buy more DS's than PSPs by trying to justify its existence. If Nintendo did this or that, man, then the DS would rock. Please, it's only strong point is it can play SP games (which is a good and valid system). If it couldn't play SP games, then it would be near worthless with its lack of interesting titles. I have a SP, I am happy with it. I wouldn't get a DS because the touch pad just seems silly to me. Is it innovative? Sure...but just because something is innovative doesn't make it generally useful or good. It would be innovative if it shot out perfume when you passed flowers too, but who cares? The touch screen may find a couple of good titles, but will just be a novelty. There won't be touch pads on every controller from here on out...that's when you know when an innovation is good, when it becomes part of the standard. For example, the analog stick...now everyone has one on the controller. Or rumble packs to give it that little extra feel. You don't need a touch screen to make gaming good. The PSP has all that you need for a good gaming experience. An ample number of buttons, a bright crisp screen, and games that (arguably) make it worth buying.

      If you want to compare two systems, compare the PSP to the GBA SP. There are plenty of advantages for Nintendo. Larger title base. Backwards compatible with older GB games. Longer battery life. Much cheaper. A sturdier unit better suited of people who drop things. But comparing the potential of the DS to the PSP is silly at best. The PSP already has better titles out than the DS...that's pretty sad. You said it yourself, the PSP will get more people developing games for their platform than Nintendo which leads to a much higher number of potential good games. I just don't see how slapping a touch screen in a system is going to give you more potential...sure, you have a chance for some different games...but not many are going to be able to take advantage of it effectively. You don't need a touch screen for good games...and from the looks of it, it is a lot easier to make flop games for it than anything else.

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    5. Re:Well, let's see. by mlyle · · Score: 2, Funny

      Also "its" means it is, "it's" is the possesive from of it.

      Maybe you want to look that one up again?

  4. Typo in headline? by macdaddy357 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The PSP did not sell out in its debut. It was not even close. Shouldn't that headline read first WEAK PSP sales results?

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  5. it might validate but... by aclysma · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sony said the tally was enough to 'further validate PSP as the most anticipated product of 2005 and an industry-altering force While many people anticipated it, I certainly whouldn't say it was the most anticipated... Did it sell better than Halo 2? hmmm.... I don't know the numbers, but I imagine quite a few more copies of halo 2 got sold than PSPs.

  6. Maybe the title should have read by Kamalot · · Score: 4, Funny

    First Weak PSP Sales Results

  7. Re:Shipped 1 million to America by Alban · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The specialty stores totally sold out (EB, etc). It's the walmarts and targets that haven't. The initial wave of buyers are early adopters, and these guys usually don't buy at Walmart but rather go to specialty stores.

    Apparently, the specialty stores went through 3 waves of shipments that sold out. That's very good.

    As word of mouth spreads from the early adopters, the non-early adopters will start buying them from "just anyplace", and the walmarts and tagerts will sell way more units.

    Sony probably made a mistake shipping too many units to the Walmarts, and not enough to the specialty stores.

  8. Re:Well... by u-238 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The PSP has a built in flash memory slot which can be used for many things, among them storage of movie and music files for PSP's built in mp3 and video player..

    There's already a program which can convert your standard 700MB 1 CD MPEG 4 (dvix/xvid/what have you) full DVD ripped movie to the PSP compliant standard, given that you can get your hands on a compatible 1GB memory stick.

    That alone is enough to convince me, but it's not like it stops there... there have already been several slashdot stories covering recent hacks, and one gets the impression that they've only just begun to unlock what the PSP is capable of.