PSP Still Struggling For Notice

TheStreet.com is reporting that the 360 has captured the hype machine for this Christmas season. The PSP, meanwhile, is still struggling for mindshare compared to Nintendo's offerings. From the article: "Sony launched the PSP in the U.S. to great acclaim earlier this year and sold more than half a million units in the first two days. The device marked the first effort by Sony, the leader in the console game industry for the last 10 years with its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, to enter the portable game market, which has been dominated by Nintendo ... Right now, the PSP's threat to Nintendo -- much less to Apple -- remains hypothetical. Sales of the PSP are disappointing thus far, particularly this holiday season. Through the end of October, Sony had sold just 1.6 million of the devices after the first days' sales flurry."

Comments

Where are the games?

[MBCook]

As with most systems, the problem is the games. What great PSP games are there? Lumines was great, but it launched with the system back in Spring. I liked Hot Shots Golf (not a new title), but it came out in July. There hasn't been much since then. I played Burnout: Revenge when it came out (October?), but it wasn't fresh (just Burnout 3 repackaged). GTA:LCS came out to little fanfare (which suprised me). I've played it, and while it was interesting, the controlls were terrible (they are bad enough on the consoles, but without the second stick things are VERY tough). I still don't see how all the reviews gave it high marks (9 or 10 out of 10) despite some obvious flaws as such (it is a technical marvel, but it had flaws).

So I'm left with my PSP and almost no games. I've played others (Mercury, Twisted Metal, and a few others) but there is no killer game for the PSP in my eyes (Lumines is great, but I don't think it was THAT great); and there doesn't seem to be in anyone else's (I figured it would be GTA:LCS, but I guess I was wrong).

Compare that to the DS. It was slow at first but we got Yoshi's Touch & Go, Wario Ware, Castlevania, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Mr Driller (not new, but the second screen really helped), Phoenix Wright, Kirby: Cursed Canvas, Trauma Center, Mario & Luigi, and I know there are some I'm leaving out. Nintendogs was a massive breakout hit.

The DS has more great games right now, the PSP doesn't. Some of the titles they promoted haven't done well (Death Jr. turned out to be a bit of a dud). The mainstays aren't there (no MGS, Acid doesn't count; GTA didn't have a big impact; a Ratchet & Clank or Jak & Daxter game isn't out yet; we're waiting on Gran Turismo Mobile; etc). A quick look at the release date calendar over at IGN shows nothing I am interested in with a real date, or even a quarter. The next stuff is just "TBA '06". The only thing I can think of that is out now that I want to see is Tokobot which looks interesting but the reviews range from a 50% to a 90% and are all over the map (means it will be a rental at best).

I've had fun with my PSP, but it will be a while before the next game I'm interested in comes out. (Can't even think of what it is). But the DS has those games that just came out I mentioned (Mario & Luigi, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart) plus more comming (Metroid Prime Hunters) in the not to distant future. There is even a title in the Black & White series scheduled to come out in February. And let's not forget the new