PSP Still Struggling For Notice

[wraggster]

Article from Slashdot (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/07/203247&tid=207&tid=233)

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 please :)

[LampDev]

I'm really stupid when it comes to this shit. Where's the pie chart to show how badly they are doing?

[NeoXCS]

That really sucks. I think it'll do better after its list of games expands. Right now its got many good games. But I think a few more really noteable ones would kick up the sales.

[vincesecuricor2005]

well it must be different in the U.K. cos i got the last one in like five local towns (and that was only cos i knew the geezer that worked in one)

[ricflairandy]

They have shot themselves in the foot with not making enough of them. The demand has been huge but its not easy to get hold of. I can see a few people getting ds`s for 99 quid with a game because they find it hard to get a psp without any games for 180.

[NeoXCS]

Yeah, that is true. I heard demand was high so the low sales kinda made me wonder. I think your right ric i dont think they made enough. They should have known demand would be high.

[vincesecuricor2005]

they say they havent made enough but im thinkin maybe there tryin to build up the hype, and it seems to be working!

[NeoXCS]

Haha, yeah you could be right too. I wonder if Sony would do something like that. Knowing Sony probably.

[FarSight]

I think its just a case of Sony falling short of the mark. There have been so many problems since the devices launch it may have put a lot of people off. It’s a bit like when the game gear went up against the game boy. In theory a much better system but in reality far from the case. I don’t really need to mention any of the problems, as most of you will have one. (Battery, dead Pixels, general H/W S/W problems)
Coupled with the fact that they seam to be more bothered with keeping the systems hackers under foot than actually insuring the systems success.
Oh and lets not forget the shortages. Which I’m afraid, aint Sony trying to build up hype as some of you may be praying (see above) (Its time in the spot light is now well and truly over thanks to the 360). Its plain and simple the system was launched to soon before there were enough units to supply demand + it taks 3 times longer to manufacture a PSP to a DS.
All I can say is I expected so much but have got so little. But on the plus side I did get a 360 at the weekend ;-). So my xmas is set and I will be getting a GP2X after it.
It looks like my PSP will just sit in my draw next to my neogeo pocket, zodiac and game gear. (aint no way I will ever by Nintendo thou)

[VFerg]

Personally its probably just the marketing to everyone thats off. I havent really seen any news about the psp within this holiday season or at least enough to make a stir with people that dont know about it. Plus kids would still rather have a ds from what I understand hearing and why would there parents disagree especially at the steep price differences and how fragile it is. So after throwing in the hype of the 360's and canceling out most kids and the adults that wouldve gotten it but decided on something else not realizing what this system has to offer due to not enough advertising, its lucky sony sold as many as they did~! I think it should have done better but seeing all thats going on around the system its easy to see the little things that are bringing it down... poor old psp, its already dying!

[MaddyPaulus]

Hardly ever any to be found in stock over here in Worcester (Midlands, UK for the uninitiated)..... perhaps Slashdot screwed up bigger than a certain company with a 360 launch? ;)

PSP shelves major ad campaign in UK:
Sony has shelved plans for a holiday ad campaign for its PSP due to concerns over stock availability.

"The gaming giant had planned a major TV campaign as part of its £10m launch investment in the gaming and multimedia device. But as a result of huge demand since its September debut and dwindling stock on the high street, Sony will now run just one execution for it over two weeks in the run-up to Christmas." (taken from several sources)

:confused: confused? I sure as hell am! :)

[iniquitous_beast]

One year ago, I went out of my way to pre-order a psp for launch day. Back then, many websites still boasted the psp as being able to run unsigned code which, combined with a built-in usb port, guaranteed that it would have a flourishing homebrew community. To make things better, marvelous future releases such as GT4 and Tales of Eternia assured me that I would not be at a loss for things to play on it.
After only one year, things have changed drastically. Sony is now its own homebrew scene's biggest enemy, and the scene itself has lost many of its best coders due to the infighting and thanklessness of the psp homebrew scene. Oh yeah, there is still no GT4 or Tales of Eternia here in the States, and a better selection of UMD movies couldn't hurt the PSP either.