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Sony rethinks PSP demand
- Thread starter gofreak
- Start date
The Experiment said:
That's exactly how i feel. I've seen many threads listing the upcoming DS lineup of games and praising the "killer" list of software, but every time i look at the list i'm left scratching my head. This is supposed to be a great PSP killing lineup? The only games on that list i'm interested in are Castlevania and Viewtiful Joe. Everything else is either types of games i have no interest in (Nintendogs), or new games in franchises i never liked much on GBA.
I think the current US PSP software lineup is much better than the current US DS lineup, and i am looking forward to more upcoming PSP games than DS games. IMO the only thing holding back PSP sales is the cost of the system. Sony should try to cut the price as soon as possible.
TotalBastard
Banned
Another nail in the PSP's coffin. First UMD's get cracked and now this.
PSP is heading the way of so many other failed portables.
PSP is heading the way of so many other failed portables.
Good point.jarrod said:
But the original Game Boy ran on alkaline batteries, right? That would make better battery life an economic issue, rather than a performance one. (If people went with Ni-Cd instead of alkalines, then it would turn into a performance issue -- those were notoriously low-capacity.)
Red Scarlet
Member
Just counter the 'DS has a better game library (right now/this year)' with 'it has to, that is all the DS can do' or something. 
I own neither, but I'd get a PSP way before a DS if they had emulators. The DS, it's pen gimmick, and the games for it don't interest me at all one bit (aside from FF3 which was canned? again).
I own neither, but I'd get a PSP way before a DS if they had emulators. The DS, it's pen gimmick, and the games for it don't interest me at all one bit (aside from FF3 which was canned? again).
Red Scarlet said:Just counter the 'DS has a better game library (right now/this year)' with 'it has to, that is all the DS can do' or something.
I own neither, but I'd get a PSP way before a DS if they had emulators. The DS, it's pen gimmick, and the games for it don't interest me at all one bit (aside from FF3 which was canned? again).
Kirby. That ends all 'DS gimmick' arguments immediately. Not to discredit you or anything, as undoubtedly one will like the games of one system more than others
Red Scarlet
Member
Never cared for Kirby before, why would I now while using a pen to make rainbows (or whatever you do in it)?
I could never get into nintendo's games on gamecube, but on GBA (i've yet to get a DS.. waiting for a price drop and flash carts) they work like magic. I guess my expectations for games are just different when I'm at home looking at the tv vs. when I'm on a train.. And as some people said, the whole PSP is going to take handheld gaming mainstream like ps did with consoles doesn't make sense, since the gameboys were already about as mainstream as it gets (Consider how little coverage GBA got in the gaming press compared to PS2/Xbox/GC, yet it sold on par with PS2).
That's pretty much the theme lately. Although I'm still astonished at the number of people who get flustered and angry at it. Actually, the opening post of this thread is precisely about Sony revising its sales expectations, DOWN.
As for the PSP vs. DS line-up and attempts to write-off the DS line-up, there is or was another thread dedicated to discussing that so I won't go into it much, other than say it's always entertaining to see the new excuses used to dismiss the issue.
The best I've seen thus far is from a blogger and self proclaimed PSP salesman who acknowledged Nintendo's stronger line-up then went on to diss all the games saying he doesn't want to play Mario Kart on Wi-Fi even if it sounded interesting. I really wonder if the people he pushed the PSP on will agree with him on that.
Let us know when you actually establish such a majority consensus then and your methodology for establishing the "gamer population" within which this applies. Hopefully it won't be so arbitrarily restrictive as to exclude a population of gamers like the ones summarized over at Gamerankings.com who have yet to put Kirby at a higher overall score than the two best reviewed games on the PSP, Lumines and Wipeout Pure.borghe said:
Bluemercury
Member
I say its looking very fun to see Sonyboys being trapped in a corner..........you see its new experience to them........its like testing mouses with experiences, you never now how will they react......... :lol
The second I saw Sonic Rush that shut me the hell up about DS's library. DS's future looks undoubtedly bright and however that corelates to the success of the PSP or lack thereof isn't exactly clear cut. It may have absolutely no bearing and Sony are the only ones holding back the PSP from its true potential. I think in the end the developers will decide which sells more and for them it will be whichever platform makes them the most money.
kaching said:Let us know when you actually establish such a majority consensus then and your methodology for establishing the "gamer population" within which this applies. Hopefully it won't be so arbitrarily restrictive as to exclude a population of gamers like the ones summarized over at Gamerankings.com who have yet to put Kirby at a higher overall score than the two best reviewed games on the PSP, Lumines and Wipeout Pure.
You mean the sample which represents, at most, 0.0001% of the total population of gamers? Come on, I assumed you knew better than to bring something as arbitrary as review scores into this debate -_-
sonycowboy
Member
Vieo said:
If you saw the April NPD sales numbers for the DS you probably wouldn't be so confident. They were anemic.
On Thursday, we'll get May's NPD's and the PSP will have a big fall, but still clobber the DS in sales unless the DS has a monster recovery from April. True, it's only the third months of sales, vs the DS' 7th, but that's what it is.
So, you're saying that the DS is killing the PSP in Japan, where for the year, they are essentially equal, with the PSP on a down slope with absolutely no software releases and the DS riding a high with several high profile releases. Even though, weekly sales for both are quite bad.
Maybe people are declaring victory just a tad early here. DS has a great lineup and so does the PSP later this year. Sony still has the ability to drop the value pack and see how well consumers accept a $199 handheld vs a $249 one.
The only thing we can really say at this point, is that the DS haters and Sony fans were wayyyyyy too arrogant in declaring victory. It's far, far too early for anyone to declare victory. Although, that in itself is a victory for Nintendo and a setback for Sony (based on expectations, not on viability of the respective platforms)
sonycowboy
Member
chinch said:
Have you not read this thread at all? The past several pages have all been about how the DS and PSP are compared and contrasted and thus are affecting each other. They are inextricably linked and most of us have known that for a long time. Other than gloating and restating the initial thread subject, do you have anything to add?
sonycowboy
Member
chinch said:
That's not the way it's turning out. DS seems to be appealing to a wider audience, IMO. and the PSP is not as appealing to the older techies as many thought. It appears they might just prefer to stay with consoles / PC's / iPod's. Thus some of Sony's current problems.
They are going after a demographic that had little history buying handheld systems and the thought was, it's a market that can be tapped into and marketed to and thus expand the market. It appears a good bit more work needs to be done in this area.
Virgin Wii
Banned
kaching said:
So, let me get this straight... if a Sony software release generated 50 replies in a thread - 25 of them being seperate people praising the game, the other 25 made by 5 Nintendo fans bitching relentlessly - you would say the game got as much criticism as it did acclaim, in that thread? That's pretty strange logic, but as long as you're consistant with it...
I don't know; I never see unwaranted criticism against a game or console unless the person leveling it has an agenda. If they don't, then why complain, unless they actually see some fault? Give me some examples of unwarranted criticism dished out by people not interested in the handheld battle.
Of course it's not going "as planned on GAF" 'cause real world people don't obsess over a bulky PSP device with no game library at $250sonycowboy said:
DS is a bit more $$$ than the traditional "Gameboy" but it sells mostly to preteens/teens in the USA... not 20-30 somethings which the PSP is said to appeal to here.
Obviousy Sony just learned with the PSP that "appealling" to people is not always enough to make that person a CUSTOMER
Here's a thread from PSP owners criticizing the PSP.
http://forum.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=52241
http://forum.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=52241
So Sony originally planned to make 18M PSPs, huh? Didn't read the full thread, but looks like my rants months ago weren't so crazy afterall. I said 10M easy this year. Still sticking to that. But I also figured they could have anywhere from 15-20M units by the end of the fiscal year. Sounds like they were originally in the ballpark, but dropped those numbers. The PSP is simply overpriced, and I don't think there's the demand even for the 12M units they plan to ship. A one handheld future is very real if Sony don't get off their ass and lower the price on the system. They've been awful quiet on the PSP front of late, with even sketchy PS3 info taking the fore ahead of the PSP. That doesn't bode well. Virtua Bomba 2? PEACE.
I said 10M easy this year. Still sticking to that. But I also figured they could have anywhere from 15-20M units by the end of the fiscal year. Sounds like they were originally in the ballpark, but dropped those numbers. The PSP is simply overpriced, and I don't think there's the demand even for the 12M units they plan to ship. A one handheld future is very real if Sony don't get off their ass and lower the price on the system. They've been awful quiet on the PSP front of late, with even sketchy PS3 info taking the fore ahead of the PSP. That doesn't bode well. Virtua Bomba 2? PEACE.sonycowboy said:
I don't think the PSP's selling all that poorly, all things considered. However, I think Sony might have done better to adopt a more Nintendo-like approach by first setting an affordable target price (say $200), then revising the system specs downward as necessary to meet it (so for $200, let's say something on par with the Dreamcast). A $200 handheld with Dreamcast-quality visuals would have still been powerful enough to impress, and I suspect the price would have made a very real difference in terms of sales. As manufacturing prices dropped, they could have lowered the price of the original unit to coincide with the release of a more powerful, backwards-compatible 'PSP 2' at the same $200 price point.
In Japan pricing isn't the main issue. The standalone PSP is about $180. It's not that much more expensive than a DS that it would be a make or break decision.
Secondly, NDS games are just so dominant on the sales chart right now that the early tie ratio advantage of the PSP is all but gone. This also suggests larger structural issues with the PSP that is turning off buyers from buying games ( probably just a piss poor software line-up) and new buyers from buying a PSP (poor software plus poor functionality)
As I've said, after the new car smell wears off, the warts of any hardware begins to nag on the user. The PSP just has awhole lot of warts underneath the sleek cool exterior, a lot more than probably most people had initially suspected.
Secondly, NDS games are just so dominant on the sales chart right now that the early tie ratio advantage of the PSP is all but gone. This also suggests larger structural issues with the PSP that is turning off buyers from buying games ( probably just a piss poor software line-up) and new buyers from buying a PSP (poor software plus poor functionality)
As I've said, after the new car smell wears off, the warts of any hardware begins to nag on the user. The PSP just has awhole lot of warts underneath the sleek cool exterior, a lot more than probably most people had initially suspected.
slidewinder
Banned
Try harder, Sony.
I think you need to take a closer look at what I was responding to understand the point I made.jman2050 said:
No, that's not what I'm talking about at all. I'm not talking about acclaim vs. criticism here, I'm talking about signal:noise ratio. I'm talking about people who clearly have an axe to grind rather than a desire to contribute constructively to a conversation.RE4 vs. SH4 said:
No shit, sherlock. People with an agenda are who I've been talking about from the start.
Who said anything about people not interested in the handheld battle? People truly uninterested in the handheld battle wouldn't be commenting on it. But you don't specifically have to be a fan of handheld gaming to take interest in the handheld battle - there are some who think handheld gaming is an aberration and as such any resources devoted to it are resources inappropriately diverted from the 'true' path of videogaming: the latest and greatest set-top console hardware. And then there are people who have a chip on their shoulder about one company or the other and so therefore take an interest in anything that company does as a potential source for heckling material.
sonycowboy
Member
Deku said:
Hey! Can you post that link again. I missed it 6 posts ago!
kaching said:
This wasn't a bashfest until the damage control started. Actually it was well on its way to being pushed to page two. And FYI the bashing came mainly from the PSP supporters blaming everyone but Sony for this piece of bad news. The fact that some posters felt they had to gloat about Sony's situtation is beside the point, considering how DS fans were treated a few months back, I think it's almost warranted.
At the end of the day, Sony is still going to cut their projections down to 12 million and that was what was originally being discussed, before posters like you feigned indignance about this whole situation and started it off topic. Go scream at Sony for fucking up the PSP launches or the lack there of in Europe.
Virgin Wii
Banned
kaching said:
I don't see why this is important. So a few fanboys make a lot of noise. Who cares? The only danger vocal minorities pose on the net comes in the form of distributing false information, but this is a gaming forum. If someone has found their way to this site, they should be savvy enough to know what's bullshit and what's not. The regulars have the additional benefit of knowing who the fanboys are. Do you really think people like Deg were swaying any opinions?
You can't look at the actions of such a small portion of the whole -no matter how loud they may have been- and say, "Didn't like the abuse? Well, you lot gave plenty, so tough shit."
Yeah, you just made that clear in the quote above. Thanks.
You don't have to be interested in how a handheld sells versus its closest competitor to be interested in the machine itself, or to contribute your views on its shortcomings and potential profitability. But I thought that was obvious.
Ah, yes, the evil boogeymen out to get Sony for hardware that doesn't compete with their interests. I've seen enough of this type of crap with Deepthroat and his Gamespot conspiracy theories.
Virgin Wii
Banned
Before I get ready to hit the sack, I have some things to say:
- The people expecting PSP to be a megahit were justified in thinking so.
- The above doesn't include people who thought PSP would drive Nintendo out of the hardware biz. Those people were insane.
- The reason, I believe, many Nintendo fans were quiet at first was because they themselves thought PSP would crush the DS. They didn't want to end up eating crow.
- Everything is still up in the air.
- The people expecting PSP to be a megahit were justified in thinking so.
- The above doesn't include people who thought PSP would drive Nintendo out of the hardware biz. Those people were insane.
- The reason, I believe, many Nintendo fans were quiet at first was because they themselves thought PSP would crush the DS. They didn't want to end up eating crow.
- Everything is still up in the air.
No, its not beside the point, its very much PART of the point. It does nothing but contribute to the problem I originally described, wherein I didn't single out one group or the other as being significantly more innocent than the other.Deku said:
My indignance is very real regarding the pathology I originally described. Beyond that I have no indignance over the cut projections for PSP manufacturing, since my own predictions have been more modest than Sony's.
Come on, you're walking right into this. Why is it important to you to take me to task for saying something about it? So I made a little noise about behavior I didn't like. Who cares? Well, apparently, at least a few of you do.RE4 vs. SH4 said:
As for why I care, I've already explained myself, in my very first comment in this thread. It's got nothing to do with fanboys spreading disinformation, its got everything to do with a desire to just be able to more frequently have a conversation untainted by petty, unoriginal heckling and gloating recycled ad nauseum, inflicted upon those who probably had nothing to do with the original offense.
It is obvious, but it was you who originally asked me to give "examples of unwarranted criticism dished out by people not interested in the handheld battle" out of the blue, because I was never referring to such people. Hence the followup comment.
It is crappy, but don't act like there aren't a number of GAFers with a running bias against a specific company around here. And I didn't single out Sony as the only recipient of such negativity, so I don't know why you are.
MetalAlien
Banned
I was at Best Buy today, the number of game tittles for the PSP looks unchange... maybe there's more, but at first glance it looksa the same! Shouldn't there be a whole section of just games now? They filled in the space with UMD movies..... just great... the dumbest idea ever gets more shelf space than the games!
I like UMD movies, but 30 friggen dollars for the Cursed? It's 20 bucks on DVD!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!
10 bucks! They should be 10 bucks! You can ONLY watch them on the PSP for gods sake... I feel like I'm living in a crazy town!
I like UMD movies, but 30 friggen dollars for the Cursed? It's 20 bucks on DVD!!!!!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!
10 bucks! They should be 10 bucks! You can ONLY watch them on the PSP for gods sake... I feel like I'm living in a crazy town!
DCharlie
And even i am moderately surprised
indeed - BUT Sony would simply point you to the sales of UMD movies (which i believe are fairly strong).
UMD movies have an element of risk in their distribution because there isn't the established userbase of DVD, so the plan could be to either go low cost and hope everyone buys the item, or remain high cost and see what happens.
What the UMD companies are doing, whilst i think the price is stupid, is RIGHT in a business sense. It's much easier to bring a cost down than it is to put it up. If people are stupid enough to pay $30 for a UMD movie, then i tip my hat to the companies taking in the cash.
Since launch, there have been a mess of UMD movie releases, but there hasn't been many game releases.MetalAlien said:
And it's not going to get much better in the short term... according to EBGames, from now until the end of July there are going to be 11 UMD movies and 3 PSP games released - Midnight Club 3, Dead to Rights Reckoning, and Coded Arms.
Bing! I still find it funny though. A friend of mine took the time to show me a movie playing on the system, and when he told me the price I laughed out loud. We then spent the next hour playing Advanced wars 2 on my DS, and Super Mario64. He said he bought the PSP becuase it "was like having a mini-PS2". I told him just buy the game on the PS2, and he gave me a stupid look.DCharlie said:
I bought my DS becuase of a promise of playing a game in a new way, something I'm very keen on. Kirby justifies the purchase 100%. The game is just kick-ass.
30$movie? WTF? Just get a portable DVD player, and buy the damn DVD. It would be cheaper to buy that, and a DS, then get a PSP almost.
MetalAlien
Banned
moku said:
I own a PSP, but when I saw the price of that movie I flipped it around to see if it was a game/movie combo or something... I didn't see anything special.. I thought maybe some cool PSP feature on the movie.... nope... just a plain friggen movie.... insane!