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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."
But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race.
A lot of people purchased the PSP because it was new and cool, and for its multimedia features. Now that the PSP isn't so new anymore and the UMD format is falling out of favor, I fully expect that the DS will begin to pull ahead of the PSP in sales. The reason is that DS sales are driven by the titles themselves (e.g. Nintendogs, Metroid Prime, Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, etc.) rather than the hype of the hardware. As a result, the Nintendo DS is likely to gain momentum as long as Nintendo keeps producing blockbuster titles for it.
In addition, the Nintendo DS targets a far larger market (adult men, teenage men, children, and women) than the PSP (young adult men with disposable cash) and competes heavily at a lower price point. Customizations like "pink" hardware help push it with the alternative markets.
Basically, Nintendo has a winner on their hands, and will do well as long as they don't screw it up. Sony has a first attempt on their hands that did exceptionally well. We'll see if they follow it up with a more focused device.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I haven't read the article, I try to avoid things like this because of the insane fanboyism but..
In the community it seems the PSP is mostly being used for emulation and the DS is being bought for DS games. The PSP might be a good jack of all trades machine, but the DS is for games and in the gaming community it's wiping the floor with the PSP.
To quote a message I saw once "I love my PSP, but it's collecting dust while I play my DS". This seems to be the general feeling around the two handhelds. One is worth playing and the others great, but it's not being used as a handheld, more as a portable PS2. Which is not what people want.
I like muppets.
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.
It's difficult to ignore, though, that the PSP seems like the most attractive prospect right now for Western developers making "mature" games.
[...]
But in the U.S., the DS is seen as more like the successor to the Game Boy. Far from the brief flirtation with adult games like Sprung, Western devs are looking at the DS and thinking, "kids."
I still don't buy the "maturity myth"--or rather, I'm increasingly convinced that the "mature game" demographic is rapidly shrinking as a percentage of the overall gaming population. I genuinely don't think that either system's success or failure hinges primarily on the availability of "mature" games.
I wish the author had provided some support for his assertions--for example, which Western developers are shunning the DS because they think it is for kids? What makes the PSP inherently more attractive to the makers of "mature" games?
I think that Sony not releasing US sales figures is telling--if they were outselling the DS, don't you think they'd be shouting that fact from the rooftops? Of interest, too, is the slow-death of UMD movies. The DS is flying off the shelves--is the same true for the PSP?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
The PSP has done well because of its overwhelming advantage in the war of shelf-space. At the local Circuit City, the DS shares a shelf with the GBA, while the PSP has its own special stand devoted to it and accessories. The demo DSs always are heavily scratched and look like shit, next to the PSPs superior (and unscratched) screen. Adding insult to injury is the terrible selection of DS games that most retailers (wal-mart, target, etc.) stock. The games that really utilize the system and show off what it can do aren't even on the shelf, instead you get the EA shit, Disney shit, and crappy ports from other consoles (King Kong). If Nintendo America was really aggressive in marketing the DS over here, I think they'd have a lot more success. DS has been out a year or so and the only ad I've ever seen on TV is the new one for Tetris; the PSP ads (its portable cheese? a nut you can play with outside? wtf?) are on all the time.
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.
So, what, does the GBA not count anymore?
Last I checked, that was beating both of them by a fairly sizable amount.
The article, scant as it was, is remarkably balanced.
I have a DS, but through a friend I had a chance to test the PSP over the weekend. It's hard not to love the PSP -- the screen is amazing, the graphics are superb and the ability to play MP3s and custom video on a memory card is a huge bonus. That said, the PSP has three weaknesses that the DS does not have namely, in-game battery life is a short four hours (which drops like a rock to two hours if playing a WIFI game. Straight MP3 play time is a respectable ten hours, though), the screen is extremely easy to scratch or mar with fingerprints and game load time is excessively long on occasion.
The DS doesn't really have these drawbacks as the battery life is a phenomenal nine hours (in fact, I haven't charged mine in over a month of on and off use. The DS Lite is expected to have a theoretical battery life of 15 hours), the screens seem impervious to scratches and smudges to a large degree and game load time is negligible. That's not to say the DS doesn't have its flaws as I feel the design is clunkly, the built in speakers offer tinny sound and the 3D graphics capabilities are underwhelming.
On the whole, I'd have to say the PSP is ideal for the type of 3D single player game you're used to on a PS3, but the DS is perfectly suited for multiplayer WIFI games like Metroid Prime and Advance Wars DS (duh, considering there doesn't seem to be a PSP analog to either game).
I bought myself a PSP a few weeks ago. I was attracted by the homebrew scene, and thought it just looked like an interesting piece of kit.
Then, I noticed the problems in the PSP gaming community, and felt a little buyer's remorse. But I think things are looking up.
The PSP was done no favours by the Playstation development community. Games seemed to be ports of PS(not P) games. Porting an existing franchise is a safe bet when a new platform's released. The Nintendo world did better out of this: Nintendo have a legacy of great games targeted at portable play. Developers saw the PSP's pretty damn awesome abilities and gave in to the porting temptation. But not straight ports from regular console games rarely survive 100% intact after the move to a portable. Even if the portable's got all the tech to make it an almost seamless port, many games just don't feel right on a portable. The controls are odd. The 'style' of play feels wrong. _Splinter Cell_ is a great example of this: the original was great, the PSP version's technically gorgeous.... but it's a bastard to play.
I think Playstation development world needed a taste of failure to make them take a step back and actually develop _for_ the PSP. Continuing along the 'Splinter Cell' vein, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is what SC on the PSP should've been. The 'stealth-combat' genre reworked for the portable format... and it's fantastic. Nintendo already knew how to make great portable games, and the DS has some brilliant titles. Looking at some upcoming PSP games, I'm a bit more happy with my purchase. It's taken a while, but I think the PSP's on its way towards getting out of the shadow of the PS. I hope we'll see some games that are both great to play on a portable, and make full use of the PSP's abilities.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Who cares if the PSP and DS are neck and neck here in the US.
How well are PSP games doing?
Last time I saw numbers the DS was selling way more games.
I'm sure Sony is losing money on each PSP sold so who cares about that.
I want to know who is selling the most games. That's where the money is.
That's an excellent comment.
When I think of truly mature games, I think of the games that adult visitors would be willing to play in a group setting (hint, not DOA volleyball). My games that currently fall into this "mature" category are:
1. Mario Kart DD
2. Donkey Konga
3. Super Monkey Ball
I own other good games like Resident Evil 4 (or now Oblivion on the PC) that feature more non-child-appropriate content that's appropriate for the type of game. I suppose there's a teen demographic that specifically looks for violent or sexual content - but that content is hardly "adult" or "mature", it's adolescent and often detrimental to a game. It certainly dissuades me from buying it, as it makes it much less likely to ever be played multiplayer. It's not that my friends are prudes, it's just that very few females I know are interested in playing a zombie game. They find it distasteful - and when the content is not attractive they assume the gameplay will not be as well (although they'll overcome their distaste if they do like the gameplay - Typing of the Dead is a favorite with many visitors who don't like other games).
I don't hunger for more "adult" content on my Gamecube or DS - in fact I wish more games were cast in less threatening settings, as it increases the number of people who can enjoy playing.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
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 know this is a silly point to contend on, but DS development really isn't all that expensive. You can easily get everything you need for about $80.
GBA Movie Player: $25
CF Card: around $30, more or less depending on capacity
PassMe: $25
Roll in the DS and that's still not as expensive as a PSP base package. (And that's assuming you don't get one or more components for free; for example, I bought a wireless card for WifiMe, flashed my firmware and returned it the next day; and for some reason all my relatives have used CF cards they don't want any more, so my DS devkit ended up costing a stellar 25 bucks.)
I'd also like to point out that flashing your DS's firmware is not a "mod" in the traditional sense - you don't solder anything, there are no exposed boards; you just stick a metal bit in one easily accessible hole next to the battery casing for a few seconds. It's pretty damn foolproof.
Also, as someone already pointed out, the DS is not "living hardware" like the PSP; you can still play games on it without ever losing your mod. (The first 64k of the DS's firmware is write-protected - thus the circuit shorting - and in the modded firmware, this includes the code that passes execution to the GBA slot.)
When the DS and PSP were revealed to the public, but not yet released, I thought that I would probably purchase both, but get the DS first. I got as far as the DS, and I don't think I'll be picking up a PSP. There's a lot of cool things about both systems, but when it comes down to it, I love the touchscreen. The PSP offers me a portable version of PS2 gaming, which is cool and all, but I don't really play video games away from the house, even with my DS. Since I have the PS2 experience at home, I might as well get the console that has totally different gameplay? If you haven't seen the bonus games that came with Super Mario 64 DS, they are a perfect example of what is possible with touch screen gaming. The ones where you draw a line, and it becomes a trampoline for Mario are amazing. There's some game coming out that's a RTS RPG (the stylus is a great replacement for the mouse, so PC style strategy and FPS games work quite well) where the player casts spells by writing runes on the screen. The better your handwriting, the more powerful the spells. It's quite cool to have a totally unique perspective on gaming like that, and the GBA support means I have Street Fighter Alpha 2 on it.
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Oh yeah, please buy my computer.