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PSP Vs. DS One Year Later
1up has a feature revisiting the ongoing struggle for supremacy in the handheld market. The PSP and the DS have had many ups and downs in the past year, and the column lays out the successes and failures for both systems. From the article: "And then there were two. The DS is cleaning up in Japan -- the sheer demand for the console there has siphoned every single unit from the marketplace, while PSPs sit unloved on store shelves. But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race. And, since the PSP launched one year ago on March 24th, 2005, we thought it'd be an excellent time to revisit the past year and gauge the situation as it stands today."
Warning: the article's data is 75-80% ads, the server is slow, and it's broken up into tiny little pieces. I couldn't find a printer-friendly link.
Translation: reserve most of the afternoon to read this baby if you must.
When first evaluating my next portable hardware purchase, I was intrigued by the PSP appearing to be a portable "Playstation 1.5" as far as graphics and other capabilities go...
:) but still play the games on the DS.
But I ended up going with the DS for three main reasons.
1. ~$120 USD cheaper
2. GBA-compatible -- I have a decent GBA library so I could give the GBA to my son
3. Mario Kart DS -- 'nuff said
At first I was also dubious about the dual-screen thing, but now I think of it as a great idea. It's nice for even simple things like in Mario Kart where you can glance down to check the overhead view of the other cars, etc.
For future RPG games it seems like a great thing as well to always have map or inventory available on another screen. I'm also looking forward to the recently announced Zelda game.
Not trying to sound like a "fanboy", just my $.02.
As E3 2006 draws near and the great next-gen console war begins to take shape, it's easy to forget, in all the hype surrounding the Nintendo Revolution and the Sony PS3, that there's already a major knock-down, drag-out brawl in progress.
That fight is, of course, between the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. And it's been a bloody affair. In fact, the portable-format wars have already seen their share of casualties. Nintendo and Sony, for all their competition, can take heart in the fact that the time and money invested into their handheld battle has at least had the effect of destroying all the other competition in record time, from the Zodiac to the Gizmondo to the N-Gage.
And then there were two. The DS is cleaning up in Japan -- the sheer demand for the console there has siphoned every single unit from the marketplace, while PSPs sit unloved on store shelves. But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race. And, since the PSP launched one year ago on March 24th, 2005, we thought it'd be an excellent time to revisit the past year and gauge the situation as it stands today.
Dueling Announcements
E3 2003 was pretty boring.
Nintendo's booth was mostly filled with the scattershot dregs of its ill-considered "Connectivity" campaign, a disappointing early version of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and a Japanese-language demo of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles that nobody knew how to play. Microsoft did no better: Besides the hands-off demo of Halo 2, all its booth had to offer was a bunch of half-finished Rare titles that wouldn't be released for another two years.
Sony didn't have much to get excited about, either. And maybe the company knew that, which is why it dropped a bomb that seemed very much like a last-minute addition to its press conference. In a shocker, Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO Ken Kutaragi said the company would debut a handheld system the very next year. Although no images of the console were shown, the specs announced were enough to make "PSP" the buzzword on everyone's lips.
Nintendo's immediate reaction was to point out that "PSP" was just that: only a buzzword. It didn't exist yet. But the company knew that Sony was serious, and it was widely speculated that Nintendo would end up announcing a new Game Boy soon enough. What nobody expected was that in January 2004, Nintendo would begin to talk up an innovative new portable system that featured two screens in a vertical alignment.
These tiny scraps of information were all anyone had until E3 2004. Sony's PSP showing was impressive -- the unit was sexy, and the games looked positively PS2-level quality. Journalists then packed into buses and rode to Nintendo's press event, wondering how the company would top the PSP. Whether the stage debut of Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo's then-new executive VP of sales and marketing), did indeed best Kutaragi is a matter of debate. But the early videos of games like Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters were impressive, and the system's stylus-based touch screen controls took everyone by surprise.
Two Launches
The DS and the PSP ended up dropping on Japan within days of each other in December 2004. The price difference wasn't as pronounced as many speculated. Industry insiders said that, at ?19,800 (approx. $180) for the Core Pack, Sony was losing around $200 on each unit sold. But the DS still undercut the PSP at 15,000 yen, which was roughly equivalent to the U.S. launch price of $149.99.
The DS launch was unique for Nintendo in two ways. For one, it was the first Nintendo gaming system ever released in the U.S. first, hitting during the lucrative Thanksgiving shopping season. (Early indications from Satoru Iwata are that the same may hold true for the Revolution.) The launch also differed from past system debuts in that Nintendo's own launch games were bumped off the lineup to make room for Western developers, which were present in full force with games like Activision's Spider-Man
I work at Gamestop. Remember a couple months ago when Sony announced they had shipped x million units worldwide? Less than a week before that announcement my store received a serious overstock of PSPs. Now we're loaded up on PSP "core" systems as well, which leaves out the memory card and other little extras for $50 less. It doesn't really matter, though, because we always have used PSPs in stock and people always buy those. The PSP's biggest problem is that people don't buy many games for it, they don't buy many UMDs for it, and when they do they buy used product. There's never a "must have" new game that people are willing to spend $40-50 on. Then end result is that Gamestop profits more off the PSP than Sony (90% of UMD movies I sell are used also).
PSP's market penetration is comparable to the DS, but like the XBox in the console world, it's a monetary black hole for it's developer. Sony needs to find the guy who decided the PSP didn't need two analog sticks and fire him, even if it's Kutagari himself.