Well, Sony *does* have an excellent first party pool. It's amazing how much it's grown even over the last five or six years. But Sony also typically benefits from a strong third party presence. Sony carrying a platform nearly on their own is not something we've had to see yet. I don't doubt they might be able to pull it off, but I'd hope they wouldn't have to.
Yeah, shipping 1.76m units worldwide over the holiday quarter is a sure sign of a healthy hardware platform and accelerating sales momentum.
I'd be wary of calling "production shipments" sold as well... based on rough sell through data we have for Japan and North America, PSP's actuall hardware sell through is about 20-25% below Sony's regional financial figures.... I wonder if the same holds true for software actually?
Seems to me the most painful lesson they have to deal with here is the fact that they haven't, like most other companies, figured out how to get handheld users to buy content as heavily as they do on consoles.
In Japan, certain companies have sold more handheld games than console games within the last year. Nintendo of course comes to mind, so do Bandai Namco and Sega. I'm fairly sure Capcom would be under this classification too, contingent on how GTASA shook things up for them. Japan is handheld territory at the moment. Handhelds have a long way to go before they match the pure tie ratios of the PS2, but it's not impossible to have robust software offerings that result in robust sales.
IMO I think Sony shouldn't reintroduce an all new handheld. Instead they should redesign the existing PSP and drop that price as much as they can afford. Their price point is their main issue, not needing better hardware.
A redesign would signal this new PSP lite of sorts, drop the price to a more competitive area and try to compete more on price with the DS.
If they come out with a new more powerful hardware and price it out of competition again, what the hell is the point.
So basically, it would need to be a far less capable device to be considered a success? Reminds me of what some paople say about PS3. And as a technology enthusiast (that's doubletalk for geek) I hate it.
I recently bought a DS for the exclusives, but seriously, compared to the PSP it seems like a retro gadget at best.
Exactly! Especially about the region freeness. One of the main reasons why I still strongly dislike Nintendo as a company (I'm saying nothing about their games or developers) is that the Wii is still region locked.
Listen, maybe your not understanding where people are coming from.
Expected goals. Current goals. All the numbers you throw out are fine and dandy, but the fact remains.
What does Sony do with PSP2? It will NOT have the same support from the start. Software sales have slowed tremedously. UMD's are dead. Hardware sales are meh.
THIS is the question at hand, and the reason why I am saying that its a failure thru, and thru.
In Japan, certain companies have sold more handheld games than console games within the last year. Nintendo of course comes to mind, so do Bandai Namco and Sega. I'm fairly sure Capcom would be under this classification too, contingent on how GTASA shook things up for them. Japan is handheld territory at the moment. Handhelds have a long way to go before they match the pure tie ratios of the PS2, but it's not impossible to have robust software offerings that result in robust sales.
Never said anything about impossible, just pointed out that most companies aren't achieving robust sales. I see no reason to doubt that there's plent of potential for robust sales in the handheld space for more companies to tap into, but pointing out handheld sales in comparison to console sales during a year that is the lowpoint of the console cycle (last gen waning, next gen still finding its footing) isn't necessarily identifying a trend that will continue.
I've now gone and searched for the Sony Financials, NPD software numbers and stuff. Basically wasted my time to find facts that show that the PSP is healthy.
Sony - 3rd Quarter Consolidated Results 30th Jan 2007
PSP: 1.76 million units
2006/12/31 24.70 million units (Japan: 6.23 million/ USA: 9.58 million/ Europe: 8.89 million)
PSP Software Units:
17.1 million Q3 '05
21.2 million Q3 '06 +24%
Financial Year 2005 = 41.6 million software units.
I imagine they are on target to incress on the FY2005 software numbers in FY 2006.
To put it in perspective the PS2 in it's second year sold 35.4 million software units.
I don't know if it has been mentioned in here already or not, but if they do release a second machine, I hope they improve the form factor (This goes for you too Nintendo).
playing games for more than 20 mins on my PSP or DS causes my hands to ache. Generally this applies to games that use all the buttons, but hopefully it gets addressed
They'll need to have the discs in a protective casing of some sort like UMD's for people who tend to "throw games in their backpack" for when they're on-the-go.
#1 comparing the PS in any way to the ngage is beyond absurd, and comparing the relative support each console recieved is laughable. If the PSP2 launched with ngage level of support it would be DOA.
#2 WE ALL know Sonys goals with the PSP, as they have been spouting from the roof-tops to anyone who will listen about said goals. Gaming-ghetto and all. They have failed miserably by thier own standards. The current PSP market is just wretched.
They'll need to have the discs in a protective casing of some sort like UMD's for people who tend to "throw games in their backpack" for when they're on-the-go.
I'm personally very happy with the PSP, and I don't want Sony to kill it and release a PSP2.
I'd like to see them drop the price to $150 and continue supporting it until 2010. Then release a PSP2 with more powerful graphics, some extra features, and have the games come on memory sticks instead of discs.
I'm personally very happy with the PSP, and I don't want Sony to kill it and release a PSP2.
I'd like to see them drop the price to $150 and continue supporting it until 2010. Then release a PSP2 with more powerful graphics, some extra features, and have the games come on memory sticks instead of discs.
That's how I feel. I believe a price drop to under $150 could reinvigorate the platform. I'm sure there will be some physical redesign at some point, but I don't think we'll see a more powerful "PSP2" for at least two or three more years.
They'll need to have the discs in a protective casing of some sort like UMD's for people who tend to "throw games in their backpack" for when they're on-the-go.
You guys don't have to take DJK's comment at face value - follow the link, it's referring to a mini format only TDK is showcasing ATM. Nothing to do with Sony.
moku said:
#2 WE ALL know Sonys goals with the PSP, as they have been spouting from the roof-tops to anyone who will listen about said goals. Gaming-ghetto and all. They have failed miserably by thier own standards. The current PSP market is just wretched.
Actually it is.
It's doing even more in JPN and EU (where it did 500k in A WEEK not too long ago).
Probably much higher than that as well, since Nintendo did have to up the production from 2.2 million/month to 2.5 million.
I always thought big companies had contingency plans for things like this, but maybe I'm wrong. Any guesses as to what Sony's next move is? Has their games division learned a painful lesson and chosen to stick with home consoles? Are they secretly working on a successor to the PSP?
Their games division needs to be more committal to the PSP when you look at Sony's first party offering compared to the PS3, you've just got to ask WTF man!?!
Plus with that line you could have said the same with MS might as well stick with Windows OS and Nintendo should have stuck to Handhelds, if your making money in the division and your not leaking money like diarrhea why not continue in that space?
The multimedia side of the PSP is alright saying that, fix the battery issue and sort the damn movie files Sony, the gaming side on the other hand needs more working out what we've learned is that applying home console foundations to a handheld is more miss than hit and 2D games rock.
I think they will continue with a PSP2 me thinks if Sony hits Gameboy type figures that would be brilliant for their first attempt.
playing games for more than 20 mins on my PSP or DS causes my hands to ache. Generally this applies to games that use all the buttons, but hopefully it gets addressed
I haven't found a solution for the DS (or found it that annoying, actually, but I don't play any action games on mine), but with the PSP, I bought one of those powergrip dealies and that really worked well. Just use a little black duct tape to make it secure, and it's almost like playing on regular controller.
#1 comparing the PS in any way to the ngage is beyond absurd, and comparing the relative support each console recieved is laughable. If the PSP2 launched with ngage level of support it would be DOA.
#2 WE ALL know Sonys goals with the PSP, as they have been spouting from the roof-tops to anyone who will listen about said goals. Gaming-ghetto and all. They have failed miserably by thier own standards. The current PSP market is just wretched.
My theory is that Sony saw te amount of GBA titles in the Japanase Top Charts and they started designing a system where they could defeat GBA and with this PSP was born.
Obviously with the design of the PSP they made important mistakes like the ones that all us are discussing here.
Thanks to this htread, I went out looking at handhelds for the first time in a long time. Didn't really see anything I liked enough to justify the price given that I'm gonna be playing them in my home anyways. If I ever see a couple of killer SRPG's, I may go for either one.
Are you new? The DSL sells like 175,000 a WEEK in Japan. I don't think there's been a month yet where the DSL in America has sold less than 300,000. By comparison, PSP's hardware sales have been a steady 150,000 in the region. In Japan, the system sells roughly 30,000 a week. In Europe, it's pretty much all DS, especially in regions like Germany and France. UK (Sonyland) has even embraced the DS a lot more in the last year or so.
redesigned or new improved hardware won't help the psp, psp lite or psp2.
what a sony handheld needs more than that is titles that people want to play.
without the excellent third party support that they have enjoyed with the ps1 and ps2, their handheld platform is pretty much screwed.
while they do have some talented teams in house, they just don't have the quantity of quality output to sustain a platform themselves.
their development teams may be able to dazzle the hardcore gamers with the latest all singing all dancing tech. but as the chart below shows they have a hard time developing mass market friendly titles themselves.
i can't see this changing any time soon, so their only hope is to hand out large money hats to the talented developers to ensure continued support for the sony handheld format.
first of all, all those companies except Capcom are worthless when it comes down to it.
and i played a Tecmo-developed game on the N-Gage. Not exactly awe-inspiring. Doubt they'd helpt the situation for N-Gage 2 anyway.
EA has already spouted off support for N-Gage 2. Biggest game company in the world supporting your platform ain't too shabby...not to mention others will probably sprout their wings into it too, just to compete with EA.
moku said:
#1 comparing the PS in any way to the ngage is beyond absurd, and comparing the relative support each console recieved is laughable. If the PSP2 launched with ngage level of support it would be DOA.
i was comparing ngage to ngage2. if ngage2 can do it, why can't psp2?
#2 WE ALL know Sonys goals with the PSP, as they have been spouting from the roof-tops to anyone who will listen about said goals. Gaming-ghetto and all. They have failed miserably by thier own standards. The current PSP market is just wretched.
getting out of the gaming ghetto = how many in sales? because as far as i'm concerned, they delivered on that promise with having excellent audio and visuals for a handheld. quality audio is a bigger deal to me than excellent graphics when it comes to a portable. that's why Q Entertainment games have become some of my favorite games in the past year.
i know i've been freed from the concentration camp set up by nintendo for the past 10 years.
a) This is January, which has traditionally always seen massive dropoffs in hardware sales. And for some reason, Nintendo has consistently been hit the hardest.
b) Demand for DS can't be accurately gauged anyway because it's supply constrained.
Is PSP2 really necessary to talk about already?
PS1 took over 2 years to break 10M shipped worldwide - that's less then 10% of it's final total 7 years later.
PSP sold more then double in same time-frame and that without a price drop (PS1 was already 200$ for over a year by then). Now maybe PSP doesn't have a great future left - but cutting it off right here and now seems a bit premature.
i still think the biggest problem with PSP has ALWAYS been marketing.
Sony WASTED a whole year on that ridiculous dustball campaign. The first one was funny and different, but then it quickly became a complete disaster. And i don't even have to mention the graffiti, flogsite, or border-line racist billboards
Hells yeah, I'd hit that.
.
They are starting to learn their lesson with the Killzone and Ratchet commercials, and I personally thought the "girl at the concert" commercial was a clever way to show all the different functionality of the system.
You can tell PSP's marketing is broken because the "PSP has no games" argument still persists as "PSP needs original games". Neither claim has ever really been true when you consider PSP launched with about 30 titles, many of which were quite good. By March 06, the system had a strong library of completely original content. So where's the marketing!?
Sony needs to realize (with PS3 also) that the multimedia stuff will sell itself. Hook people with games, and then when they hear about the other stuff, it pushes them over the edge. I don't think a redesign is necessary (though it couldn't hurt), but some new colors could work wonders.
My plan for Sony to begin turning PSP around:
#1: major advertising for God of War PSP (we all know its coming), not just on TV, but also in magazines like Maxim, Blender, etc (stuff guys read).
#2: introduce the first colored PSP around the time of GoW release, in a bundle with an early game (i recommend Wipeout Pure), USB cable, and a 512MB memory stick for $179. This pack could also include a coupon for money off God of War.
#3: begin to release high profile blu-ray movies with portable files included that PSP can play. Put a sticker on the box that says so, and advertise in the same magazines from #1.
#4: Fall firmware update that includes major improvements to Music/Movie sections (playlists, easier navigation) and PSN integration (unified buddy list, PS Store, etc). Added: the PSP Playstation Store should be PACKED with downloadable demos. Every 3rd party publisher should get on board with that.
#5: Publicly push high-profile upcoming PSP games at E3/E4 such as FF7 Crisis Core, Silent Hill, GT Mobile (WTF), etc.
PSP may never "beat" DS in installed base, but it could easily earn back its respect with a batch of killer titles, smart marketing, and firmware retooling.
PS: PSP still sells surprisingly well in Japan despite the doom and gloom.
Um, none of those would be particularly big issues for casuals. Not so much that they'd forego the system, anyway.
PSP may never "beat" DS in installed base, but it could easily earn back its respect with a batch of killer titles, smart marketing, and firmware retooling.
PS: PSP still sells surprisingly well in Japan despite the doom and gloom.
I think Sony could really increase hardware sales by doing a redesign at a lower price with a nice punchy ad campaign, but the hardware sales aren't really a huge problem...I don't know why software isn't selling, and the only thing I have suspicions on, I don't know how they're going to fix beyond what they're already doing.
You the consumer, should demand more price drops from Nintendo.
High prices, regardless of sales because I'm not interested in the company's bottom line, are a major turn off when it comes to games being an impulse purchase. However a game priced at $19.99 or less is in the range of comfortable impulse purchase.
So far as I'm concerned Sony's aggressive multi-tiered software pricing (MSRP, Greatest Hits) on the Playstation family is a big win for gamers.
The only $19.99 games I see at retail for the DS are of the unappealing non-game variety. I apologize for dragging out the term, but folks Big Brain Academy, Cooking Mama, and Break'em All are definitely not a Castlevania DoS.
A new Castlevania is out. Why is DoS still $34.99 when I look?!
The why is pure and simple - Nintendo abuse of power.
