DS more popular than PSP with Japanese adults, survey shows

Adult gamers in Japan have a strong preference for Nintendo's DS over Sony's PSP, according to a new magazine survey - published as the Nintendo DS breaks the million unit sales mark in year to date sales.

The survey, conducted by Otonafami magazine and partially translated by US website GameSpot, polled 1000 gamers aged over 20, revealing that 25 per cent of them owned a Nintendo DS, 14 per cent owned a PSP, and 19 per cent owned both consoles.

The higher ownership of the Nintendo DS seems set to continue, too. Of those who didn't own a next-gen handheld console, 35 per cent said that they planned to buy a DS, ahead of the 31 per cent who want a PSP and 19 per cent who plan to buy both.

The survey comes as the Nintendo DS broke through the million unit sales mark for 2005, with the console now around 45,000 units ahead of the PlayStation Portable in terms of sales since January 1st according to figures from market research firm Media Create.

Overall sales of the two consoles see the Nintendo DS with an 800,000 unit lead over its rival, with 2.4 million units sold as against 1.6 million units of the PSP according to Screen Digest figures.

The DS is ahead even more significantly in software terms, with 23 per cent of DS owners claiming to own more than six titles for their console, compared to just 11 per cent of PSP owners.

Those figures are borne out by the overall sales of DS and PSP software in Japan to date, with WarioWare Touched selling 740,000 units, Super Mario 64 DS selling 710,000 units and Nintendogs currently on around 400,000 units and rising - while the best-selling PSP game remains Hot Shots Golf with 350,000 unit sales.