PSP Vs DS Again

[wraggster]

Source Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/31/psp-vs-ds-again/):

Though the DS leads the PSP by more than 3.2 million units in Japanese market share, the stateside race is a bit closer. By the end of 2005, Nintendo announced it had sold 3.97 million units compared to Sony's "more than 4 million" sold (not shipped) by mid February. I suck with numbers, but me thinks the DS sold well the first month and a half of 2006 and has only continued to do well up to this date with the release of several anticipated games. Keep in mind that UMD's have been selling poorly, so Sony might have a hard time continuing to play the "multi-device" card.

IGN writes: "Whether or not the imminent U.S. release of the 'brain-training' games will capture the dads-and-grandmas market that Nintendo so deftly wooed in Japan is anyone's guess. For now, the Stateside PSP vs. DS fight is shaping up like the Super Nintendo versus Genesis battles of yore -- a tough fight to the finish. And just as long as Sony doesn't debut a 32X add-on, it's likely to stay that way."

Would you liken the DS and PSP US market share to the SNES and Genesis of the early 90's?

[rememberthe8bit]

Kinda, neither the SNES or the Genesis console tried to overtly do media stuff, and online gaming (which, in my opinion, was the key reason the DS is where it is in the U.S.) wasn't really around then. But, I can see some things from the SNES/Genesis era getting revived. Like the SEGA Channel and the Satelliview, where you can download games. Both systems do this, but I envision that there may eventually be a "Nintendo" or "SONY" way to do it. Though people can do this now with the Wireless Multi-Boot software, we just need people to capture us some more demos. :)

Overall, I think that it is similar, but not the same.

[b8a]

Yeah, I don't really see the comparison much myself. Sure, there's some valid comparison since there are die-hard, devoted DS and die-hard, devoted PSP owners just like back then, but that's always been around since the days of SMS and NES. Plus, with the Genesis and SNES, each console was marketing and catering to distinct demographics, and even though Sony's been using questionably distatasteful ad practices, we're not seeing anything resembling the distinct rift back in the 90's. Nintendo and Sony are pretty much marketing to the same crowd, except that Sony's trying to bite off more than they can chew and trying too hard to make more money off of it. The non-gaming public already have great portable media players which means the only thing unique about the PSP is it's gaming functionality. Since the PSP has largely failed to deliver an exciting or unique line-up of games so far, it's loosing the race. It's as simple as that. Neither the Genesis nor the SNES had similar problems supplying a library within their first year.

I wanted a PSP for years before it came out and hated the gimmick behind the DS, but having owned a PSP for close to a year and still not having gotten any games specific to it and seeing all of the great DS/GBA releases in that same time, even I'm seriously considering getting behind the DSL.

EDIT: My appologies, I missed that Wraggster was talking about market share, not the overall situation. Can't comment on that!

[GaMeR_2000]

hated the gimmick behind the DS
It is no gimmick. It is essential to many games and makes many better. The DS compared to the PSP is not fair to Nintendo. The DS is a league of it's own. The PSP should be compared to the GBA Micro.

[b8a]

It is a gimmick for those of us that do see it as a hindrance to gameplay. Two screens is entirely unnessecary, and is just a distraction for many, many games. That's great if it enhances the games for you, but it doesn't really take away from the fact that it's a gimmick.

But I agree with you about the DS being in a league of it's own. Thanks to it's "gimmick", nothing else can compete with it on the same level (!_!)