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Media Create Sales: 02/09 - 02/15
- Thread starter PantherLotus
- Start date
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Not that Garaph doesn't already get plenty of attention here, but for fellow Firefox users I want to point out that a combination of one of the search plugins (going to the game search should present the options in your search drop-down) and the Context Search extension makes it almost too easy, even with a cat sitting on your arm and limiting mobility. Highlight Mario & Luigi, right-click, choose Search for "Mario & Luigi", select Garaph LIKE (or BOOLEAN), and there are the results.Fuzzy said:
It's still its third worst February, out of three so far. Certainly from a Wii/PS3 weekly marketshare standpoint PS3 is doing better than normal, since Wii is having an even worse February relative to its previous two.cvxfreak said:
I don't know what their Japanese expectations are, but their worldwide expectations for the game across the two platforms is only a bit over 2 million. Considering how fighters (that aren't also crazy four-player games) have done recently, I doubt they expected a big portion of that from Japan.RpgN said:
In Japan they need to increase interest to boost sales. In America they need to decrease interest to relieve shortages.Tenbatsu said:
Not every game featuring Nintendo characters is a guaranteed multi-million seller. Or 100K seller. Certainly it's one of Smash's advantages, but one thing alone isn't enough to make it outsell the rest of a genre combined.HK-47 said:
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Or to limit it to a relevant early portion...
BishopLamont
Banned
The Smash bros. team put a ton of work into the game, you're not giving them enough credit if you think the sales are because of the characters. It might not be a near 2 million seller if the characters weren't there but it'd still sell alot more then all these other fighting games.
Western third parties shovelware > Eastern third parties shovelware!jj984jj said:
How's the advertising for Inazuma 11? That great is a beast in legs for an RPG.Vinnk said:
charlequin
Banned
HK-47 said:
Sure, but the idea that Nintendo's mascots are the single, straightforward explanation for the entire sales gap between SSB* and other fighting games is pretty ridiculous, especially when you have other mascot fighters with similarly popular characters not reaching anything like the same level of success.
Smash is such a big brand because the mascots give it that initial leg-up but also because the gameplay hit exactly the right note and dragged in a whole lot of buyers who don't generally buy Nintendo's other fanservice properties like Mario Tennis or whatever. I don't see any other way to read it that's even halfway sensible.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
HK-47 said:
Yeah who cares about Marvel mascots or Tatsunoko mascots? :rollseyes:
charlequin said:
Sure but Nintendo drags in people from all the other franchises too.
All I'm saying is that the game play isnt the driving force behind the sales gap. If Capcom made a mascot fighting game in the same style with good online, multiplat and included MvC2 as a free download it still wouldnt sell half as well as Smash...
Mario and Pokemon are far and away the heaviest hitters in the industry. How else do you also explain the huge disparity between Mario Party and all the other minigame collections? It certainly isnt better than them.
BishopLamont
Banned
Mario Party has always sold well and was one of the first minigames, it's brand has been built up, not by the characters but being a fun game. The characters was probably the hook to get people interested when it first started, but it's a known good party game by now. The same applies to SSB. The gameplay is the driving force for sales.HK-47 said:
People here complaining about high game prices obviously don't understand the Japanese game market. The list price may be around 8900yen, but no one pays that much unless they're a fool. The majority of stores drop the prices by a good amount so you end up paying much less. Even if you don't have a store that does that, you can always just order stuff from Amazon, where they have it Star Ocean for around 7100yen.
Anyway, despite iDOLM@STER seeming to be doing well, I've read that a lot of people are pissed off because the game won't run if you have custom firmware. In order to play it, you need to get rid of it and update to 5.05. Since the firmware just came out with this game, there isn't a workaround yet. I guess that lots of imas fans are also fans of custom firmware, so it's a tough decision for them to make! I wonder if it'll impact sales of the game in the long run, I sure as hell wouldn't buy a game until it was guaranteed to work on my system.
Anyway, despite iDOLM@STER seeming to be doing well, I've read that a lot of people are pissed off because the game won't run if you have custom firmware. In order to play it, you need to get rid of it and update to 5.05. Since the firmware just came out with this game, there isn't a workaround yet. I guess that lots of imas fans are also fans of custom firmware, so it's a tough decision for them to make! I wonder if it'll impact sales of the game in the long run, I sure as hell wouldn't buy a game until it was guaranteed to work on my system.
HK-47 said:
Mario Party 1-3, DS, eReader, and probably another one or two were awesome. Quality is definitely a factor here. However in this case, I think that Mario Party's position as the premier game in the field along with the continued quality has helped it remain the genre king. I do wonder about the lack of a Mario Party 9 for the last two Fall's, though. It often easy to lose your popularity if you stay out of the public's eye for too long.
Edit:
Hardware is up.
DSi 53,483
PSP 34,256
Wii 21,016
PS3 18,656
DS Lite 14,810
Xbox 360 9,833
PS2 5,332
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Jtyettis said:
depends on the tracker, but 900k is the LTD basically.
PuppetMaster
Member
pseudocaesar said:
That is FUD. I don't know what shop that person is buying from. Maybe he is looking at import shop prices. It is not that much it is 6,712 on Amazon Japan right now.
I bought it from Biccamera for 7,550 and because it comes with 10% points it really was just 6,795.
6,712.00 JPY = 71.3415 USD
Still a bit high but then the yen is very very strong versus the dollar right now. And the pricing is par for the course for HD games.
donny2112 said:
Continued quality? MP8 was just about as bad as your typical shovelware party game. It barely did anything with motion control. DS deserved to sell. 1-3 deserved to sell. They have great boards and really fun and interesting minigames. Having played extensive amounts of 4, 6, and 8 and quite a bit of 5, they all fall woefully short, especially in the minigame department.
They phone it in so hard on this series it makes the AC series blush...
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
HK-47 said:
i agree with this
Famitsu Feb 2-8
01./01. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai Games) - 45,104 / 255,401
02./02. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 39,073 / 141,294
03./04. [PS2] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 38,401 / 140,258
04./00. [PS3] Demon's Souls (SCEI) - 36,794 / NEW
05./03. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 35,693 / 137,682
06./00. [NDS] Detective Conan & Kindaichi Case Files: A Chance Encounter of Two Detectives (Namco Bandai Games) - 24,470 / NEW
07./05. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (BEST) (Capcom) - 22,030 / 388,935
08./08. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) - 16,305 / 1,556,030
09./10. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 15,939 / 3,142,686
10./07. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii (Namco Bandai Games) - 15,258 / 378,314
11./09. [WII] Play on Wii: Mario Tennis GC (Nintendo) - 13,263 / 118,871
12./00. [PS3] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 12,344 / NEW
13./11. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode (Nintendo) - 11,880 / 734,944
14./14. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 10,157 / 2,143,975
15./00. [NDS] Chibi Maruko-chan DS Maru-chan no Machi (Namco Bandai Games) - 10,143 / NEW
16./00. [WII] Another Code R: Gateway of Memory (Nintendo) - 10,070 / NEW
17./15. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 8,801 / 2,326,150
18./00. [NDS] Destiny Links (Namco Bandai Games) - 8,657 / NEW
19./20. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 8,531 / 1,062,217
20./23. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra Deluxe (Nintendo) - 7,624 / 1,018,426
21./00. [PSP] Enkaku Sousa: Sana e no 23 Hiai (Remote Investigation: 23 Days Towards the Truth) (SCEI) - 7,501 / NEW
22./06. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 7,186 / 30,062
23./21. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 7,169 / 3,427,067
24./16. [PSP] Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Square Enix) - 6,522 / 863,581
25./00. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo) - 5,928 / 4,920,290
26./27. [NDS] Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi (Little Magician's Magic Adventure) (Konami) - 5,799 / 288,757
27./24. [NDS] Prof. Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5) - 5,638 / 718,147
28./25. [NDS] Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu! (A Penguin's Troubles: Strongest Penguin Legend) (Konami) - 5,550 / 210,228
29./28. [NDS] Momotarou Dentetsu 20th Anniversary (Hudson) - 5,498 / 216,774
30./00. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven (Level 5) - 5,208 / 276,218
*. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike) - 4,800 / NEW
*. [360] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 4,400 / NEW
*. [PS3] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 3,300 / NEW
*. [PS3] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 3,000 / NEW
*. [PS2] Momotarou Dentetsu 16 (BEST) (Hudson) - 2,600 / NEW
*. [360] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 1,700 / NEW
*. [PSP] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 1,200 / NEW
Bar Chart Feb 2-8 (thanks to JoshuaJSlone/garaph.info)
Note: Image may be delayed from the time of this post, but will automatically show once the data is ready.
Recent Famitsu Top 30s
Jan 5-11, 2009
Jan 12-18, 2009
Jan 19-25, 2009
Jan 26-Feb 1, 2009
01./01. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai Games) - 45,104 / 255,401
02./02. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 39,073 / 141,294
03./04. [PS2] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 38,401 / 140,258
04./00. [PS3] Demon's Souls (SCEI) - 36,794 / NEW
05./03. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 35,693 / 137,682
06./00. [NDS] Detective Conan & Kindaichi Case Files: A Chance Encounter of Two Detectives (Namco Bandai Games) - 24,470 / NEW
07./05. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (BEST) (Capcom) - 22,030 / 388,935
08./08. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) - 16,305 / 1,556,030
09./10. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 15,939 / 3,142,686
10./07. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii (Namco Bandai Games) - 15,258 / 378,314
11./09. [WII] Play on Wii: Mario Tennis GC (Nintendo) - 13,263 / 118,871
12./00. [PS3] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 12,344 / NEW
13./11. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode (Nintendo) - 11,880 / 734,944
14./14. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 10,157 / 2,143,975
15./00. [NDS] Chibi Maruko-chan DS Maru-chan no Machi (Namco Bandai Games) - 10,143 / NEW
16./00. [WII] Another Code R: Gateway of Memory (Nintendo) - 10,070 / NEW
17./15. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 8,801 / 2,326,150
18./00. [NDS] Destiny Links (Namco Bandai Games) - 8,657 / NEW
19./20. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 8,531 / 1,062,217
20./23. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra Deluxe (Nintendo) - 7,624 / 1,018,426
21./00. [PSP] Enkaku Sousa: Sana e no 23 Hiai (Remote Investigation: 23 Days Towards the Truth) (SCEI) - 7,501 / NEW
22./06. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 7,186 / 30,062
23./21. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 7,169 / 3,427,067
24./16. [PSP] Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Square Enix) - 6,522 / 863,581
25./00. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo) - 5,928 / 4,920,290
26./27. [NDS] Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi (Little Magician's Magic Adventure) (Konami) - 5,799 / 288,757
27./24. [NDS] Prof. Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5) - 5,638 / 718,147
28./25. [NDS] Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu! (A Penguin's Troubles: Strongest Penguin Legend) (Konami) - 5,550 / 210,228
29./28. [NDS] Momotarou Dentetsu 20th Anniversary (Hudson) - 5,498 / 216,774
30./00. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven (Level 5) - 5,208 / 276,218
*. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike) - 4,800 / NEW
*. [360] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 4,400 / NEW
*. [PS3] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 3,300 / NEW
*. [PS3] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 3,000 / NEW
*. [PS2] Momotarou Dentetsu 16 (BEST) (Hudson) - 2,600 / NEW
*. [360] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 1,700 / NEW
*. [PSP] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 1,200 / NEW
Bar Chart Feb 2-8 (thanks to JoshuaJSlone/garaph.info)
Note: Image may be delayed from the time of this post, but will automatically show once the data is ready.
Recent Famitsu Top 30s
Jan 5-11, 2009
Jan 12-18, 2009
Jan 19-25, 2009
Jan 26-Feb 1, 2009
Arpharmd B
Banned
donny2112 said:
360 at 10k? Could Star Ocean launch put it past Wii next week? Serious question.
jeremy1456
Junior Member
Arpharmd B said:
Stranger things have happened. It will probably push the 360 above the Wii for one week, same as Yakuza 3 for the PS3.
Arpharmd B said:
Possibly?
The sure bet is PS3 in two weeks (and probably lasting a couple weeks if not more with Yakuza 3 and RE5).
The thing is after those two games hit we know of absolutely zero big HD releases for the rest of the year. You have the FF13 demo and maybe FF13 (though I have my doubts with DQ9 delayed), and nada. For as horrid as the Wii is doing, we at least know of some big games coming this year.
pseudocaesar
Member
Arpharmd B said:
Yes, but expect it be front loaded as hell, and still not sell as well as WKC did. Its been getting poor reviews in the west.
Sidenote, can someone post previous First week and LTD sales of Star Ocean. I still think Square are retarded for making it a 360 exclusive. It just wont sell that much as it would if it were multiplat or even a ps3 exclusive.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
pseudocaesar said:
so2 374k on lifetime of 700k
so3 386k on lifetime of 533k
so3 dc 81k on lifetime of 146k--this is sort of a special case, i'd normally never include a re-release broken out separately like this given your question but i would in this case.
pseudocaesar
Member
Does anyone expect it to sell like that on the 360?
FINALFANTASYDOG
Member
donny2112 said:
Yes, the game was unplayable on First Version PS2 models and was riddled with a ton of other bugs that made things not work as they should
Fun things like this:
GAMEFAQS said:
GAMESPOT said:
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
donny2112 said:
Yes, there was a major bug which broke the game on early PS2 models and caused quite a good deal of ill will. It was kind of a minor crisis as Sony and Square Enix traded barbs over who was responsible and neither agreed to fix it.
Separate from that, SO3 received a DQ8-ish boost when they localized it. The localized version formed the basis for the DC. It also had extra characters, extra dungeons pretty much balance and UI changes. I think the versus battle mode was added as well. I also think the voiced dialog or maybe just some of the voiced dialog is new to the Director's Cut.
Either way, the controversy surrounding the original was serious enough and the upgrade was substantial enough that I'd say this is an exceptional circumstance for a re-release so I'd hash it out sort of separately.
Heh, and people complain about excessive patches in current-gen systems. Back in the day, if a game was broken, then it would either stay broken or you'd have to buy a "special edition" version to play it properly. At least now, devs can patch bugs and add the content as DLC instead of forcing you to buy a new game (or some "append disc" nonsense). I guess that the west never really experienced it as badly since most of the problems were fixed when the games were brought over.
Zihark said:
Sorry to say I am not familiar with Tongariboushi. And considering that I watch a good 3-4 hours of Japanese TV a day and havn't seen an ad for it, I am guessing it is not being heavily advertised.
BishopLamont said:
No ads for months. It seems to be selling on word of mouth and it's connection to the anime.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
31. [PS3] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike)
32. [PS2] Yakuza 2 (Playstation 2 The Best) (SEGA)
33. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
34. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (includes PS3 Bundles) (Konami)
35. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (includes PSP Bundles) (Square Enix)
36. [NDS] Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor (Atlus)
37. [NDS] Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5)
38. [WII] Another Code: R Gateway of Memory (Nintendo)
39. [NDS] Power Pro Kun Pocket 11 (Konami)
40. [PS3] Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (SCE)
41. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
42. [PS3] Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (PlayStation 3 the Best) (SEGA)
43. [WII] Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo)
44. [NDS] Kanji Brain 2 + Dictionary (IE Institute)
45. [NDS] Tamagotchi Star School (Namco Bandai)
46. [WII] Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson)
47. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix)
48. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike)
49. [360] SKATE 2 (Electronic Arts)
50. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)
SOFTWARE | HARDWARE | CONSOLES | HANDHELDS
The second chart is new. It's a 16-week glance at total hardware marketshare. What I notice is remarkable consistence over the last 4 months. Also notice that it appears the Wii benefited the most (at other hardware's expense) of the year-end gift giving season. What do you think this means?
32. [PS2] Yakuza 2 (Playstation 2 The Best) (SEGA)
33. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
34. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (includes PS3 Bundles) (Konami)
35. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (includes PSP Bundles) (Square Enix)
36. [NDS] Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor (Atlus)
37. [NDS] Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5)
38. [WII] Another Code: R Gateway of Memory (Nintendo)
39. [NDS] Power Pro Kun Pocket 11 (Konami)
40. [PS3] Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (SCE)
41. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
42. [PS3] Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (PlayStation 3 the Best) (SEGA)
43. [WII] Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo)
44. [NDS] Kanji Brain 2 + Dictionary (IE Institute)
45. [NDS] Tamagotchi Star School (Namco Bandai)
46. [WII] Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson)
47. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix)
48. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike)
49. [360] SKATE 2 (Electronic Arts)
50. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)
Code:
[B][U]Hardware | This Week | Last Week | YTD | LTD [/U][/B]
NDS | 68,293 | 62,013 | 680,002 | 25,799,645
PSP | 34,256 | 34,969 | 411,782 | 11,775,801
WII | 21,016 | 20,412 | 285,017 | 7,763,918
PS3 | 18,656 | 16,082 | 179,339 | 2,801,767
360 | 9,833 | 8,311 | 73,738 | 904,278
PS2 | 5,332 | 5,089 | 45,768 | 21,445,292
--------------------------------------------------------
DSi | 53,483 | 49,529 | 533,487 | 1,764,854
DSL | 14,810 | 12,484 | 146,515 |SOFTWARE | HARDWARE | CONSOLES | HANDHELDS
The second chart is new. It's a 16-week glance at total hardware marketshare. What I notice is remarkable consistence over the last 4 months. Also notice that it appears the Wii benefited the most (at other hardware's expense) of the year-end gift giving season. What do you think this means?
BishopLamont
Banned
Ah I see, thanks.Vinnk said:
Prediction time:
Star Ocean 4
First week - 170k
LTD - 250k
PSP software sales
Famitsu data from GEIMIN.net (thanks to bttb):
First number is total sales from GEIMIN. Second number is PSP sales in my database for the same period. Third number is the percentage of sales my database was tracking vs total sales.
From the way that I do this calculation and the prevalence of end of year data vs. mid-year data, the six month periods A) won't sum up to the yearly totals and B) cover as high a percentage of the total sales. Also, we don't have a 2005 1st half Top 100, so that year will be a lower representation per half than the others. Just wanted to give an idea of where this is starting from, though.
Why GBA? It couldn't be DS. DS makes the PS2 look poor for total software. I didn't want to compare it to a console (e.g. GCN), since it's different markets. It looks like the PSP could approach GBA's total hardware sales, though GBA got there faster which likewise gives it a software advantage. However, there is less yearly or mid-year data for the GBA's lifespan, which lowers it some. GBA was also essentially a monopoly whereas PSP was pitted against the DS. The PSP did have the PlayStation name and publisher support going for it, though.
Since there isn't an exactly comparable system, GBA was chosen to at least give a frame of reference.
PSP software sales have gotten better. Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was half of the 2008 1st Half total, but I think it's still pretty clear that the PSP was improved in 2008 over its 2007 performance.
I've been a pretty strong advocate that the PSP hasn't been selling as a primarily UMD game playing device for a while now. Thinking about it more generationally, though, I think the PSP may be coming back a bit more toward the video game software side than it used to be. The PSP started out selling primarily for games. That didn't go so great as shown by the graph up through 2007. Pretty much no growth in 2007 despite Monster Hunter Portable 2 launching in the first half of 2007. Obviously this had an impact on developer support (and the overseas performance didn't help out much, either).
However despite that lowered publisher support, 2008 still saw good gains. Even though Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was over half of the 2008 1st Half total, that still means that the rest of the software was equivalent to 2006's 1st Half with fewer games (40 > 10K in 2006's 1st Half vs. 24 > 10K in 2008's 1st Half). 2008's 2nd Half showed similar improvement vs. 2006/2007 (8 games > 100K with 2 > 500K vs. 10 > 100k in 2006 and 7 > 100K in 2007 with 1 > 500K).
In short, I'd say that the PSP's software sales have improved a good amount over the past year, which I think is very surprising for a system this far into its generation. Nice!
Famitsu data from GEIMIN.net (thanks to bttb):
First number is total sales from GEIMIN. Second number is PSP sales in my database for the same period. Third number is the percentage of sales my database was tracking vs total sales.
Code:
2004: 551K / 544K / 98.7%
2005: 4179K / 3870K / 92.6%
2006: 6659K / 5717K / 85.9%
2007: 6750K / 6087K / 90.2%
2008: 9746K / 8399K / 86.2%From the way that I do this calculation and the prevalence of end of year data vs. mid-year data, the six month periods A) won't sum up to the yearly totals and B) cover as high a percentage of the total sales. Also, we don't have a 2005 1st half Top 100, so that year will be a lower representation per half than the others. Just wanted to give an idea of where this is starting from, though.
Why GBA? It couldn't be DS. DS makes the PS2 look poor for total software. I didn't want to compare it to a console (e.g. GCN), since it's different markets. It looks like the PSP could approach GBA's total hardware sales, though GBA got there faster which likewise gives it a software advantage. However, there is less yearly or mid-year data for the GBA's lifespan, which lowers it some. GBA was also essentially a monopoly whereas PSP was pitted against the DS. The PSP did have the PlayStation name and publisher support going for it, though.
Since there isn't an exactly comparable system, GBA was chosen to at least give a frame of reference.
PSP software sales have gotten better. Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was half of the 2008 1st Half total, but I think it's still pretty clear that the PSP was improved in 2008 over its 2007 performance.
I've been a pretty strong advocate that the PSP hasn't been selling as a primarily UMD game playing device for a while now. Thinking about it more generationally, though, I think the PSP may be coming back a bit more toward the video game software side than it used to be. The PSP started out selling primarily for games. That didn't go so great as shown by the graph up through 2007. Pretty much no growth in 2007 despite Monster Hunter Portable 2 launching in the first half of 2007. Obviously this had an impact on developer support (and the overseas performance didn't help out much, either).
However despite that lowered publisher support, 2008 still saw good gains. Even though Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was over half of the 2008 1st Half total, that still means that the rest of the software was equivalent to 2006's 1st Half with fewer games (40 > 10K in 2006's 1st Half vs. 24 > 10K in 2008's 1st Half). 2008's 2nd Half showed similar improvement vs. 2006/2007 (8 games > 100K with 2 > 500K vs. 10 > 100k in 2006 and 7 > 100K in 2007 with 1 > 500K).
In short, I'd say that the PSP's software sales have improved a good amount over the past year, which I think is very surprising for a system this far into its generation. Nice!