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[soundwave05]

I'd agree with that. Worldwide actually, it seems like publishers are thinking of PSP as a target for "PS2 market" games while DS seems to be the target for "GBA market" games.

Yup, which really should be more or less expected. The question is does the audience Sony is targeting buy more games than the Nintendo/Game Boy audience. Its possible that the answer is yes even going by early sales trends.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I don't buy the idea that low tie ratio = bad for third parties. At the end of the day, all they care about is how many units they're going to sell, not what percentage of the (huge) userbase they hit.

Tie ration only matters to the console maker, who has to make up some of the development cost in licensing fees. Sony better hope the cheaper-to-make UMDs allows them some more margin on 3rd party titles, since the PSP is going so cheap.

Anyway this is all abotu business model anyway. As a gamer, nothing matters to me except the games that get made and how much they cost. Looks like, for the PSP

$50 (bad) and
a lot, and not as shovel-wary (good)

 

[Pimpwerx]

If handhelds were lucrative for 3rd parties, I think you'd see them releasing more marquee titles for the systems. But something tells me they don't make all that much with handhelds...at least not to date. Which is why most 3rd party titles on the GB are kinda 2nd-tier stuff. I mean, the userbase is huge, and everything, and if it was lucrative, it would be worth a bigger investment. Hopefully the PSP will change all that, but we'll have to see if PSP owners actually start buying more games. PEACE.

 

[sprsk]

DS software will likely always have a slightly lower tie ratio than it would otherwise since it plays GBA titles which obviously wouldn't go towards its tie ratio even if the user only can play the game on their DS.

this is true.

people will always buy more games for a system that is new over one that already has a ton.

 

[jarrod]

If handhelds were lucrative for 3rd parties, I think you'd see them releasing more marquee titles for the systems. But something tells me they don't make all that much with handhelds...at least not to date. Which is why most 3rd party titles on the GB are kinda 2nd-tier stuff. I mean, the userbase is huge, and everything, and if it was lucrative, it would be worth a bigger investment.

Well, it still has to do with the market, even in Japan GBA is seen as a mainly kids machine. The lower investement is part of GBA's development appeal too, similar to mobiles it's fast and cheap with sizable returns for little work. Though I wouldn't exactly call franchises like Rockman, Gyakuten Saiban, Yu-Gi-OH!, Castlevania, Winning Eleven, PowerPro, Sonic, Tales, Tekken, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Gundam, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball or Super Robot Taisen "2nd tier" either. If GC/Xbox had all those, they'd clean up in Japan.

 

[Link316]

...the only real reason that PSP might seem a stronger platform for 3rd party sales is simply because it's gotten the stronger 3rd party games so far. How well do you think Kimishine, Tendo Dockuta or Zoo Keeper would've sold on a userbase a third the size?

but didn't you just say that Nintendo gets good 3rd party support in Japan? so wouldn't this stronger showing for the PSP tell you that 3rd parties are favoring Sony?

How well would AC!D, Ridge Racers and Shinsangoku Musou have sold on a userbase three times the size? Will Rockman.EXE and Final Fantasy III only put up comparable numbers to Kimishine? Are people really this dense?

we've already seen how RR DS did,

Ridge Racers (185,976) Namco on a 500K Japan userbase
Ridge Racer DS (54,728) Namco on a 1.4M US userbase

even if RR were also available in Japan I doubt their combined sales would be 2 or 3x the PSPs, you track sales, you must've noticed that 1st party games dominate sales on Nintendo platforms, so I don't what makes you think that would suddenly change with the DS when sales are already reflecting the same trend

 

[nubbe]

NDS doesn't have weaker third party support. All the large houses have already announced numerous titles from strong franchises and new ones to boot.
What NDS suffers from is a rushed launch with some fast, simple games and N64 ports.

It will be fairly hard to compare them in the future with software penetration since they will have different types of games. Crying over it now is silly.
Trying to run statistics between two seemingly successful launches is uninteresting at the current state. How they perform in 6 months from now when the hype cools down is far more interesting.

 

[jarrod]

but didn't you just say that Nintendo gets good 3rd party support in Japan? so wouldn't this stronger showing for the PSP tell you that 3rd parties are favoring Sony?

Well, most of these PSP games reuse PS2 assets and/or base concepts, so they were done pretty quick. The biggest 3rd party DS game in Japan so far is totally original yet it managed to sell just as well as an all new PSP Metal Gear game... but if you look at the announced lineups both seem almost equally strong in the region with big hitters on both sides (again, mostly "PS2 style" for PSP and "GBA style" for DS).

we've already seen how RR DS did,

Ridge Racers (185,976) Namco on a 500K Japan userbase
Ridge Racer DS (54,728) Namco on a 1.4M US userbase

even if RR were also available in Japan I doubt their combined sales would be 2 or 3x the PSPs,

It's not the same game though, unlike Puyo Puyo Fever. Not to mention the game content, resource investment, region of sale, release timeframe, promotion and developer all differ wildly, all they share really is the same franchise brand. Seriously, this one may be the single most irrelevent comparison in the thread. Congrats. :/

And yes, even if RRDS was released in Japan I doubt it'd have put up the same numbers as RRs. Were it released in Japan with the same exact content as RRs (barring the inherent visual difference, with likely DS specific additions like the analog wheel screen), developed by the exact same team, released at the exact same time and given the same level of promotion though... I'm not so sure.

you track sales, you must've noticed that 1st party games dominate sales on Nintendo platforms, so I don't what makes you think that would suddenly change with the DS when sales are already reflecting the same trend

Strong 1st party sales shouldn't discount 3rd party potential inherently... indeed Japan's biggest PSP game is from Sony and all their own releases made the top 10. Seems PSP is a more first party focused machine than PS2 as well... GT4mobile could very well be the platform's top seller ever with DQ/FF shackled to consoles. What's that say?