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PSP Smashes Sales Records in the UK
404Ender writes "According to recent numbers the PSP has sold more than 185,000 units since launching September 1. This blows the previous record away, which happened to be set by the Nintendo DS. This is wonderful news for fans of the Sony handheld, and it certainly quiets many of the naysayers who have been pointing to the success of the DS sales compared to the PSP. Does this solidify Sony's position in the handheld market with a firm foot in the door?"
05/Sep/2005
Sony's new PSP console has sold an estimated 185,000 total market hardware units in its launch week, outdoing Nintendo's DS (87,000 units at launch) to become the most successful UK console launch ever. 24 games were available at launch, the largest for any console, with 20 entering the All Formats Top 40 and 9 games breaking into the Top 10. Games were priced at £34.99 with the console itself retailing at £179.
Sony PSP takes over the All Formats chart this week with the biggest software launch for any console. 20 out of the 24 PSP launch titles enter the All Formats Top 40 with Sony's 'Ridge Racer' (PSP) topping the list, knocking Codemasters' 'Brian Lara International Cricket 2005' (PS2/XB/PC) down to No2 and becoming not only the fastest selling PSP game but also the fastest selling Ridge Racer game across any format. 1 in 5 people who bought a PSP game bought 'Ridge Racer', but it was over 6 years ago since a Ridge Racer title reached number 1 in the All Formats chart with Ridge Racer Type 4 (PS1) back in week 17 1999. 'Brian Lara International Cricket 2005' is the only non-PSP game in the Top 10 with PSP games filling all the remaining Top 10 positions and Sony claiming the top 2 PSP games with 'Wipeout Pure' (PSP) entering the All Formats Chart at No3. Sega's 'Virtua Tennis' and Konami's 'Metal Gear Ac!d' debut at No4 and No5 respectively, holding off EA's big PSP release 'Need for Speed: Underground Rivals' which is a new entry at No6. The most popular type of PSP game is racing with 5 racing games in the Top 10 PSP chart, including 'Toca Race Driver 2' at No6 and 'Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition' at No7, while out of the 24 PSP games released, 5 are new IP. Non-PSP new releases are eclipsed by the dominance of Sony's new console with Novalogic's 'Delta Force: Black Hawk Down' (new this week on XB and PS2) debuting at No1 in the Xbox Chart, but only reaching No15 in the All Formats Top 40. Microsoft's new RPG 'Dungeon Siege II' also suffers the same fate, reaching No1 in the PC Full Price Entertainment Chart, but only No33 in an All Formats Top 40 where half of the games are new PSP titles.
Four of my friends bought PSPs. Only one of them got a perfect PSP, the other three got dead pixels.
Whats annoying them is that they are getting conflicting information as to returning.
#1 Returned with no problem. Had another dead pixel got it returned again. Third is ok.
#2 Two dead pixels. Told by shop that they are allowed sell them with a certain amount of dead pixels. Refusing to replace.
#3 same as previous friend except they would exchange if more dead pixels appeared. (same shop).
disclaimer: I'm from UK and I hope I haven't fallen for a troll
2 8
4 306
The following stats in general conflict with your opinion. Xbox stats follow what you say, the picture is quite different for other consoles. Especially if you then normalise for population, gdp per head, whichever other metric you choose.
"From gaming-age: http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=336
All shipment figures as of December 2004.
PS2
19.47m Japan
32.86m USA
29.06m Europe
81.39 Total
XB
1.70m Japan (asia pacific- some discrepancy as sony and microsft count as japan, others count as Europe/Pal)
13.20m USA
5.00m Europe
19.90m Total
GC
3.78m Japan
10.11m USA
4.13m Europe
18.02m Total
GBA
15.48m Japan
32.82m USA
17.44m Europe
65.74 Total
DS
1.45m Japan
1.36m USA
0.03m Europe
2.84m Total
"
Taken from http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=1
I was actually looking forward to the European release since I already own a PSP (a US one), bought for a reasonable price. I don't care about the movies (since I can make them myself from my DVD collection and region encoding mean they don't work) but I was looking forward to being able to buy games locally. I don't think I'll bother for a while - what's the point when I get the same game sent all the way from Honky Kong from Lik-Sang.com and still pay less, even if I did get caught for the duty?
Why would anyone be so eager to buy a PSP in this climate? I realise the PSP is a great console, but to be honest most of the current titles are pretty meh. Lumines is great but most of the others are so-so. I'm looking forward to seeing what GTA & PES looks like when they appear on the PSP but they're at least a month or two away.
The same goes for the XBox 360 BTW in case you think I'm rooting for that. Assuming it appears this side of Christmas, you just know early adopters are going to be raped for their zeal. In return they'll be rewarded with an overpriced box and a handful of games.
It sure does not look "a drop in the bucket". You only prove your ignorance of both geo-political matters and economy when you make such sweeping assertions.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
You can playback mp4's from memory stick - just not at full resolution. you have to play back at reduced resolution (which you can then stretch to full screen if you so wish).
Probably an attempt to a) mitigate piracy on the console by reducing the ability to playback off MSduos (though if you want to pirate a dvd, you'd watch it on something bigger than a psp surely?) and b) Persuade people to buy more UMD movies.
Personally, I don't care too much if isn't at a huge resolution - the screen is tiny anyway - it just offers portability if I really want it, along with the option of having UMD movies if I so wish (as well as the games, photo slideshow, web browser, etc, etc).
If you want a DVD player, you can pick up portable ones fairly cheap nowadays, and you don't have to go through the hoops to rip, re-encode and transfer.
It's nice for PSP owners since it somehow justifies their purchase (in bizarro fanboy land where they compare the sony's and Big-N's stock quotes instead of the quality and playability of games (no matter which system)).
I think PSP still is no competition for DS because it seems to be still necessary to throw 14-year-old-biased-games.slashdot.org-shit at the other handheld in the same article. Even though the other handheld obviously wasn't purchased by the submitter.
I mean what's the point of having games.slashdot.org when this childish crap still makes it to the front? And why are the articles passed by ScuttleMonkey always reading like Fud'ed-Yellow-Press-buzzword-shit?
Thank god, I never bothered to subscribe and pay money for this.
European Union 456,953,258 July 2005 est.
United States 295,734,134 July 2005 est.
From the CIA World Factbook.
Tell friends #2 and #3 to go back to the shop and discuss the Sale Of Goods Act with regards to Merchandising Quality. Tell the shop that they're not allowed sell them with a certain amount of dead pixels by law. That normally makes them think again. If it doesn't try Citizens Advice or even a solicitor.
If enough people do this then shoddy salesmen will get the message
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
The BBC says it's how many have been sold, not how many have been shipped. Apparently the figures don't come from Sony, but from Chart-Track, who are the official stats providers for this sort of thing.
Gavin
At the same time, its late release here in Ireland (same time as UK) and higher price (extremely important, most Europeans don't realize how much they get ripped off) prompted me to buy it while I was in America. The only two people I know with the PSP in Ireland also bought it in the States.
I kind of wonder if these figures would be higher if they had just mirrored the US price, or are the consumers here truely sheep waiting ot be fleeced...
Yup...
Look at Sony's own software shipment figures. Right now, the market for games goes US > Europe > Japan, and I assure you game developers care about this.
Have you SEEN our DS gameslist?
Once again, the UK gets shafted by Nintendo and 3rd party publishers and has to wait months to get the games which people in the US enjoy.
The DS ran away with the lead in the US because it had a damn good lineup of games (right now both Nintendogs and Advance Wars DS are selling strong). Here in the UK we haven't even had Meteos.
All we're enjoying is a lengthy break before the killer apps get here and I've got to say it doth royally suck. The PSP's launch titles in the US were better than the DS but in subsequent months the DS got its excellent games into circulation and started to pick up momentum.
What we're seeing in the UK is what happens when licensing and bureaucratic publishing houses delay the launch of games in Europe months after their release in the US. It's not normally noticeable for the companies concerned but at a time like this it's the games released soon after launch that are critical to a console's success.
I'm a mac user so I'm kind of used to being treated like a 2nd class citizen for gaming (except for games produced by ID and Blizzard) but if Nintendo would like to know why their arguably superior system with its stellar lineup in the US is getting pounded here, they might want to look at the utter disgrace that passes for cross-continental licensing and distribution.
(The author is currently sitting on his ass waiting for Advance Wars DS, Nintendogs, Meteos and a variety of other games already out in the US to be released in the UK)
No, I don't think so.
http://www.walkingtaco.com
I feel bad for answering the flamebait, but I must.
Anyone can see: PSP looks ok, DS looks ok. PSP sticks to the formula for living room consoles, never tested on a portable, DS sticks to the tried and true portable formula. PSP is a gaming portable which can do PDA things, DS is a gaming portable with a touchscreen much like most PDAs. PSP is fat, not sexy, DS looks solid. For the PSP you need to buy a case to protect the screen, the DS has it naturally with its clamshell design. PSP lasts for 2 hou..LOW BATTERY, DS has at least 5 with backlight, up to 10 without. PSP games have long load times due to media, DS games have near 0 load times. PSP still uses console like control for FPSs, the horrible analog stick, DS uses the stylus for that in a way similar to mouse on the PC.
It's no doubt the graphics on the PSP are far superiour to the DS's, in screensize, resolution and power but the DS power is not too shabby either.
However, the CONTROLS for the DS are vastly superiour. How can you compare an analog stick with a complete touchscreen?
^_^
Well, if your job involves a fair amount of reading, as technical jobs do, then you could try doing some of that...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Bahhhahha, touchscreen for gaming... Did someone mention afterthought? oh, and anyone that only gets 2 hours out of their PSP's battery has a faulty unit or battery. Mine lasts 6 hours (3.5 with the Wifi on).
I heard this from a helpful EB employee.
Bring the thing back, and say it has battery problems. A: They'll be required to return it, as battery problems are a valid reason to exchange a PSP, and B: It takes too bloody long to test, so nobody tests them.
I don't think anyone is happy selling a substandard screen, especially not with the hype around how super the screen is. Just tell the people at the store that the battery doesn't hold a charge, and that you'd like another one. Try to get one you can test first "just to make sure." Used PSP's are great for this, if the store has any.
The ______ Agenda
Not when you realize that this is the number of units sold to retailers, not customers.
Those are the standard conceptions, yes, and without checking I'd guess that most people would agree with you.
However, the reality is slightly different. From that link, Europe has gotten a lot more games than North America. There are several reasons for this. The main three are, firstly, that games released in North America do tend to get released in Europe eventually, with very few exceptions, so most of the lineups will be the same. Secondly, in Europe we tend to get the occasional game that the North American audience just aren't interested in - soccer games, for example, or games based on other sports that aren't quite so popular in the US.
The final major reason is that following various court cases against Nintendo and Sega quite a while ago, content "approval" (SCEA-style) isn't legal. Once a publisher has a publishing license in Europe, SCEE can't do much stop them from releasing a game - certainly not as much as SCEA can. This means it's easier to release a game in Europe - you can, for example, just pick up a Japanese license for very little, spend a bit on translation, and have yourself a PAL game the wasn't originally intended for release outside of Japan. There are even various budget labels that specialise in this.
Well I have been often teased as such by my friends. I live in Canada and mostly, I tend to buy Sony because they have this Macish (making up words here hope it make sense) style to them. Very slick, very intiutive.
So, of course being a geek at heart, I went to buy a handheld. And after a bit of deliberation between DS and PSP, I was blown away by the PSP graphics and bought it. This is in the early days of PSP, when it was still hot off the press and very few people actually knew anything constructing about it and much about it was speculations.
So why am I feeling ripped off and let down:
1) since release of PSP, I have Hotshot Golf (ps1 caliber game at best.. but fun to play for a bit), Untold Legend (yet another ps1 caliber game completely linear, idiotically simple), Need for Speed (this existed in the arcade from my 2nd year university days) and Dynesty Warriors (ps2 game, choppy as hell, most frustrating).
So where are the GAMES??? I think there is 3 or 4 game available that I couldn't get myself to spend the money on. I think I have wasted enough on the crap I already bought. Why is a Sony game device released with out any RPG??? Hello, Finaly Fantasy?? NO I don't want to be a fucken ghost and walk around town.
2) What's with the crippled hardware??? WHY the hell would Sony do this?? Well I know why, because they want to code up the UMD for their god aweful movies that they are releasing all over the world with their fancy DRM. Anyone with more than 1 brain cell would realize that these movies are low quality in graphics and in sound and COSTS more than an actual DVD. And why make this cheap excuses for DVDs so bloody expensive?? DRM cost?? Why bother?? Who in their right mind will rip these crappy videos when they can do they can do ACTUAL DVDs?? Why region code in the first place?? it's a bloody hand held... Some corporate weenie needs to be smacked them hung from his/her finger nails (or made to live his/her mother-in-law for an year).
3) Where are my bloody games?? I think I said that already.. Why is every bloody update designed to cripple my PSP even more??
I know DRM is here to stay and it's the corporate mantra for salvation. I am just feeling tired of geting ripped off no apparent reason and paying good money for it (other than corporate greed and exclusivness).
How many games there are is pretty irrelevant to me - how good the games are is far more important.
I only own 4 games for my X-Box, and around 6 for my PS2 (and 3 of those are PES1,2 and 3), yet I play on both of them very regularly.
I've got my PSP today with 2 games, which on first play both look like they will keep me happy until PES5 comes out. I don't care if there's 10 or 100 on the platform, if those other 90 are ones that I'm not going to play.
debatable... but look at what is coming for the PSP in the next 2 months:
09/13 : Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children
09/13 : Burnout Legends
10/01 : Ghost in the Shell
10/01 : Legend of Heroes
10/24 : Grand Theft Auto - Liberty City Stories
11/15 : Metal Gear Acid 2
11/15 : Street Fighter
11/21 : Need For Speed - Most Wanted
Now, it sucks that it's taken this long to get that kind of line-up, but now there is.
And what does the DS have again... Nintendogs?
Burnout Legends and NFS Most Wanted will also be available for the DS.
And one of the "games" you listed is actually a movie.
I would love to point people to
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050907/1311206
or more simply,
http://hive.jup.com/analysts/elliott/archives/010
(man, slashdot needs to do more research!)