Slashdot Mirror
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?"
The PSP broke the N-Gage's record?!
Does this solidify Sony's position in the handheld market with a firm foot in the door?
... Next.
No.
Of course it does, it really is an impressive piece of kit for the price and is better for gamers since a bit of healthy competition in the handset market for nintendo will hopefully produce better games for both the DS and PSP.
Perhaps the sales figures are inflated somewhat by the fact that it's been released in other markets for some time. People here have had a chance to hear lots of reports of it from elsewhere before the launch. It also probably has a larger set of games at launch than the DS did, for the same reason. It will be more interesting to see how many units in total each sell after a year on the market.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
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.
Disclaimer - I work for Sony :)
:(
The only longer-term UK figures I can find for DS say that they sold "over 200,000" units in the first six weeks. So it looks like the initial surge of sales is definitely in the PSP's favour. Whether this momentum will continue remains to be seen, but it's still an impressive launch.
Just wish I could afford one myself
Game dev and music blog
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).
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
Are those figures for actual sales to end customers? According to this1UP article, Sony has an interesting sales counting methodology:
"As a rule, Sony prefers to release "sell-in" figures, or "units shipped" figures -- for instance, it recently announced that it "shipped" 70 million PlayStation 2s worldwide. What that means is that retailers have ordered and received 70 million PS2s, not that consumers have bought 70 million PS2s. Many of those 70 million PS2s have already been bought by consumers, and all of them may eventually be bought, but for now, the "shipped" figure is more impressive."
And also...
"Sony is going against type here. Though it's rounding off its sales figures, at least it is releasing genuine sales figures, a practice to which it is generally averse."
I like my DS and everyone I've shown it to has been impressed by it and enthusiastic about it (even my girlfriend bought one!)...but what my (non-gaming) friends have been talking about is the PSP, and in salivating in the same way my Apple friends were pre ipod launch. It also helps that at launch they have a wider (though not necc. better!) range of games than the DS has after 6 months here. If it wasn't for importing certain items I'd be less enthusiastic about the DS than I am. That will be sorted out by the end of November.
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
we all know the reason the Brits love it is that it's great for perving on pr0n in the dunny.
......stop crippling it! The day Sony releases a firmware update allowing MP4 video playback from Sony memorystick i WILL buy one, until that day.............. maybe. I don't like buying deliberately crippled hardware, leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. It would be worth Sony's while, because i would even buy one of their hideously expensive 1GB Memorystick Pro's. Sort it out Sony.
Disclaimer: I own every modern console, and alot of older stuff too. I couldn't care less about sales figures, but thought this point was saillant enough to make.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
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
Hello little Anonymous Trollward...
The PSP is just another time wasting device made by a company that saw a crowed market and said me too.
Can you tell me how is the handheld console market crowded? before the PSP the only company "competing" in that market was Nintendo... since the days of the GameBoy... of course I know there where others but, Nintendo did had a real monopoly on this market.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
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.
Firstly, in case anyone hasn't read that fine article, this is UK sales, not Euro-wide, worldwide or whatever.
But my main point is that they're so impressed with their stuffing of the software charts. Frankly, there's such a massive games drought here in the UK at the moment that I'm almost surprised it wasn't even more 'impressive'; they've got nothing to compete with.
Just as an example, the UK's biggest selling DS title (which people are always desperate to compare the PSP to) is Mario 64. Yes, a launch game. We don't have Nintendogs yet, nor Advance Wars. The last big PC game was Battlefield 2 months ago, and there's been nothing on PS2 worthwhile since God Of War. This was the 'Full Price' chart, so the budget release of the new update to Ghost Recon 2 on the XBox doesn't count, either.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
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.
when the PSP was release here stateside - there was very little reason to purchase one - the launch games were mediocre and the hardware price was twice its nearest competitor.
fast forward to today, the game selection is much better and the movie support has been surprising as well. but thats not the true reason if i did purchase one.
its the availablity of homebrews. that and the huge amounts of pirated software thats available for it. its the same reason why the xbox sold well with the "computer power users"
300 bucks is easy to swallow if you know games can be gotten free....
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.
The European Union is the worlds biggest market:t m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2266385.s
However, Europe has traditionally had much smaller sales of game consoles and computer systems than the United States. More game consoles, however, are sold in Europe than in Japan.
As of december 2004, The Sony PS2 had sold 29.06m in Europe, 32.86m in USA and 19.47m in Japan. Given that the launch was later in Europe, it could have sold more in Europa than the US by now Granted, the Xbox have sold more than twice as many units in the US as in Europe.
Also, the EU being the largest market in the world, means that the POTENTIAL for further sales in Europe is larger than the potential for the US. Focusing on the EU as a target market could lead to massive future incomes. Any company would be complete and utter idiots to ignore this market.
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.
Thanks for reminding me that we're all drones. I had forgotten how much having leisure time harmed my productivity.
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.
Whats the typical age of a PSP owner? 15+, 20+? Its very unlikely that any parent would stump up so much money for their little kids to have a portable gaming system.
This is where Nintendo comes up trumps - they are cheaper, have a great range of simpler games, suitable for smaller children (my child is 4 this month, he loves the GBC), and the really, really crutial point, is that battery life on the gameboys is better than the PSP, so you don't have the problem with your son/daughter coming along asking for "more batteries please, daddy".
No personal discount on the PSP for Sony employees? Or sony really pays you little, you happen to be a musician with a new record deal?
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
What horrible games lineup? I'd absolutely agree that the lineup was pretty thin at the US and Japanese launches, but here we've got 24 games, including Virtua Tennis, Toca 2, Mercury and Snooker as well as the older but still great things like Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racers and Lumines.
Now, admittedly a large number of my PSP wants are racing games, but overall there's as many games that I would consider buying as a DS.
My wife would completely disagree with me, as the PSP games aren't the sort she likes to play. But if we all liked the same things it'd be a dull world.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
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?
^_^
The PSP is more 'lickable' than DS: the promise of better graphics, movies everywhere, superior sound, hackable etc make it a better choice.
That's irrelevant though to the fact that DS games are more fun, simply because Nintendo is better at making games.
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).
Actually, this device WANTS more than games. There's a lot of potential here for all kinds of third party/community apps. Granted, text input is by way of an onscreen "keyboard" which is more like a phone's pad than anything, but with features like WiFi and a browser there are all kinds of things that could be done from the community if Sony would release to the public a (legal, approved) SDK for it.
A couple of things could be done to improve the unit itself, number one being the addition of a larger (in GB, not dimension) hard drive, making some of the buttons more sturdy feeling (R1 and L1 both feel like they could fall right out of the unit) and some other minor things.
R(k)
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
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.
If they don't follow up with more interesting games then the foot may be planted firmly in the mouth. I bought a PSP a couple of weeks ago and so far I'm pretty happy with it playing Lumines, Wipeout Pure, and tooling around with the web browser, but I really want to see some really interesting stuff before the year is out. What I'd really like to see in the near term is Flash support for the browser which would suddenly make thousands of web games potentially playable on the PSP. I wonder if Sony is actually afraid of that?
In any case, it looks like the UK launch has gone pretty well for Sony. But they'd better not rest because quite honestly, the DS has the better stable of games right now.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
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).
This all ignores a real problem- that sources (such as News Corp's rag) had been. for a long while, actively whoring the psp and deriding the ds. In one cares there was a "comparison" when the psp wasn't out in *any* market.
Unsurprisingly, I believe the psp got a 9 or somesuch.
Then again, this IS the land of Edge....
"I find it funny how Sony are trying to soften the problem by calling them 'stuck pixels' rather than dead. Almost like you could give 'em a little nudge and they'd start working again!"
They're not dead, they're... stunned. Those PSP pixels stun easily. Give 'et a rest and it will come right back! Remarkable things, those PSP pixels. Beautiful colors!
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.