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Will PSP and DS threaten sales of Next Gen consoles?

ziran

Member
I’ve been amazed at the success of the DS and PSP so I’m wondering if they are eating into potential sales of PS3, 360 and Revolution, and if they will pose a real threat to next gen’s success?

I’m really talking about the period between hardcore adoption and mass market, and next gen games sales.

I see the gap between the media/developers/hardcore and the majority of gamers widening. Even I find myself bored reading the major game sites these days because they’re talking about so much stuff that doesn’t interest me. For example, nice lighting is great but to read journalists gush about just watching a game, marvelling at the effects and polygon counts is dull beyond belief.

The majority of people only have so much interest and money to devote to videogames and also there is far more demand on their time (internet, mobile phones, huge amounts of tv channels, etc). I think gaming is becoming a more casual experience all round and the success of handhelds is fast forwarding this process, and more than any other generation could have a big effect on home console sales.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2044&Itemid=2
"The real story for 2005 was the incredible expansion of portable gaming," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The GBA continued to realize stellar sales, and the introduction of the (Nintendo) DS and PSP to the market brought older gamers to the portable format."
 

Kenny

Member
I think they already have.

THere wasn't so much overlap between handhelds and consoles in previous generations but now the PSP aims at the same age group as the PS3 and Xbox 360. I guess the DS does as well.

This means that suddenly they start stealing game revenue from each other...
 

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
krypt0nian said:
No more than DVD sales, music sales, movie ticket sales, etc, etc, etc.

Silly question.
More than DVD sales, music sales, etc. because DS and PSP are to some extent targeted to a gamer crowd (non gamers aside). DS and PSP are hot gaming devices, that sell more combined hardware and software than the GBA did. And consumers money will be split in more gaming devices than before, which could hurt Next Gen console indeed. Some people could also prefer the quick gaming access DS and PSP offer over the classic and less flexible TV/couch approach. Silly question it ain't.
 

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
Nope, I expect them to grow the gaming market actually and in turn increase console sales. I think this next gen will see more sales than previous gens.

Other factors will also expand the market, but don't want to get into that.
 
marc^o^ said:
More than DVD sales, music sales, etc. because DS and PSP are to some extent targeted to a gamer crowd (non gamers aside). DS and PSP are hot gaming devices, that sell more combined hardware and software than the GBA did. And consumers money will be split in more gaming devices than before, which could hurt Next Gen console indeed. Some people could also prefer the quick gaming access DS and PSP offer over the classic and less flexible TV/couch approach. Silly question it ain't.


Money is money...and yes it is a silly question.
 

Xellotah

Member
Maybe in japan, the handhelds will make an impact on next gen sales ... but for the other territories, the demarcation between handheld and console users is a bit more clear cut.
 

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
Discussing potential changes in gaming habits is interesting IMO. I admit it's hard to tell, and the contrary could also happen: handhelds could indeed increase the console market audience. But people won't be richer than they used to, and the more games they buy for PSP and DS, the less money they'll have to spend on Next Gen sonsoles. Quick question: do you play as much console games since you have your PSP/DS? I know I don't.
 
Have they ever?




edit: and I hardly play my ds at all (like total playtime would be less that 3 hours)


I own/ed Mario 64, nintendogs, castlevania, mario kart.


I just dislike playing on tiny screens with bad sound.



as far as playtime goes


ps2/xbox/gc/ds get maybe 10%
PC 90%
 

Izzy

Banned
marc^o^ said:
Discussing potential changes in gaming habits is interesting IMO. I admit it's hard to tell, and the contrary could also happen: handhelds could indeed increase the console market audience. But people won't be richer than they used to, and the more games they buy for PSP and DS, the less money they'll have to spend on Next Gen sonsoles. Quick question: do you play as much console games since you have your PSP/DS? I know I don't.

QFT - lately it's been PSP/PC/DS for me.
 

Kenny

Member
As long as the PSP games are port of console games user will buy one of the two formats (if they own both a PSP and a console... And many do). Never both formats.

That is why the PSP sales will definitely hurt the PS2/Xbox sales of a game that releases on both platforms.
 

ziran

Member
marc^o^ said:
But people won't be richer than they used to, and the more games they buy for PSP and DS, the less money they'll have to spend on Next Gen sonsoles. Quick question: do you play as much console games since you have your PSP/DS? I know I don't.
this my point.

i have played current gen consoles far less since ds and psp.


Kenny said:
As long as the PSP games are port of console games user will buy one of the two formats (if they own both a PSP and a console... And many do). Never both formats.

That is why the PSP sales will definitely hurt the PS2/Xbox sales of a game that releases on both platforms.
i agree.

continued handheld success for ds, psp and to a small extent even gba (added to ds and psp will make a considerable handheld market) will reduce sales of all next gen consoles. i also think psp has already had an effect on ps2 the world over.

handheld gaming is becoming more popular than ever, currently there is ds and psp both doing well and even gba is still around. gaming just isn't that important to the majority and somethig will have to give.


Gee said:
Did you really have to make a thread for this..
if you don't like the topic, don't post in it :)
 

Mashing

Member
What kind of silly question is this? The GBA outsold the PS2 on a regular basis. So of course they will. But it didn't hurt the sales of the PS2 at all.
 
Mashing said:
What kind of silly question is this? The GBA outsold the PS2 on a regular basis. So of course they will. But it didn't hurt the sales of the PS2 at all.


Thats not what he wants to hear




NOW YOUVE REALLY DONE IT!
 

ziran

Member
Mashing said:
What kind of silly question is this? The GBA outsold the PS2 on a regular basis. So of course they will. But it didn't hurt the sales of the PS2 at all.
your example is old, we're talking about the present and future, things have changed.

ps3 owners will likely own a psp, revolution owners will likely own a ds and gba and 360 owners could potential own a handheld also, and there's multi handheld owners.

both ds and psp are selling really well and certainly from their support they will continue to be successful.

i think handhelds will eat into home console sales, but if you disagree, that's fine.
 

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
i think its obvious portable consoles sales will have zero impact on home console sales.

What they WILL and already have impacted on is our gaming habits. I spend less on console games and spend less time playing them!

Given the choice of Xenosaga PS2 or Xenosaga DS, I would choose DS, same goes for game slike Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Castlevania etc.

However I will most certainly buy at least 2 of the next gen consoles. Consoles themselves won't be affected, GBA sales prove that, they are seperate markets.

What isn't seperate is our leisure time, we can only spend so much time and money on software. Looking at the charts, portable games are now more mainstream than ever before and thanks to wifi and so on they're really eating up our gaming time. This isn't something the GBA really had.
 

ziran

Member
kaizoku said:
i think its obvious portable consoles sales will have zero impact on home console sales.

What they WILL and already have impacted on is our gaming habits. I spend less on console games and spend less time playing them!

Given the choice of Xenosaga PS2 or Xenosaga DS, I would choose DS, same goes for game slike Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Castlevania etc.

However I will most certainly buy at least 2 of the next gen consoles. Consoles themselves won't be affected, GBA sales prove that, they are seperate markets.

What isn't seperate is our leisure time, we can only spend so much time and money on software. Looking at the charts, portable games are now more mainstream than ever before and thanks to wifi and so on they're really eating up our gaming time. This isn't something the GBA really had.
so you're saying home console game sales will decline as a result(?), which i agree, because people aren't going to buy console games if they are not playing them, or they find most of their game-time occupied by a handheld.

this will have a huge affect on the industry as developers will not only have increased budgets but more platforms to support to sell the same units!

beyond the hardcore i think the need to jump onto next gen will be delayed considerably (and if the situation becomes severe enough, negated) for many gamers because more are playing handheld games.
 

kaizoku

I'm not as deluded as I make myself out to be
ziran said:
so you're saying home console game sales will decline as a result(?), which i agree, because people aren't going to buy console games if they are not playing them, or they find most of their game-time occupied by a handheld.

this will have a huge affect on the industry as developers will not only have increased budgets but more platforms to support to sell the same units!

beyond the hardcore i think the need to jump onto next gen will be delayed considerably (and if the situation becomes severe enough, negated) for many gamers because more are playing handheld games.

Only to a small degree. There are still plenty of games I would choose to play on home consoles and the big games certainly wont be missed out on next gen. I think maybe PC gamers will spend more time on consoles, a lot of mmorpg type games will start taking off on consoles and so on. There is so much demand overall there wont be any negative affects imo.

Thats like saying will the explosion of MMORPG games in the past few years affect sales of FPS games as people spend all their spare time on WoW or whatever. Not really a problem.
 

MrSardonic

The nerdiest nerd of all the nerds in nerdland
I imagine PSP won't affect sales. Maybe DS will in Japan? Too complicated to say until we get to look back with hindsight
 

Pimpbaa

Member
Kenny said:
As long as the PSP games are port of console games user will buy one of the two formats (if they own both a PSP and a console... And many do). Never both formats.

That is why the PSP sales will definitely hurt the PS2/Xbox sales of a game that releases on both platforms.

If the current gen wasn't coming to an end, this might be an issue. But I doubt any developer is gonna wanna port a game built from the ground up for the 360 and ps3.
 

elostyle

Never forget! I'm Dumb!
Mashing said:
What kind of silly question is this? The GBA outsold the PS2 on a regular basis. So of course they will. But it didn't hurt the sales of the PS2 at all.
Smaller gap and diminishing returns.

You don't think the same game on PS2 and PSP will cut into PS2 software sales even if the PSP expended the market a bit?

It is very strange seeing many people dismissing even the question as stupid and then just giving explanations for it that are at least on par as far as stupidity is concerned.

Pimpbaa said:
If the current gen wasn't coming to an end, this might be an issue. But I doubt any developer is gonna wanna port a game built from the ground up for the 360 and ps3.
Unlikely but even though the PSP hurts PS2 software sales now, it will help the PS2 to stay a viable platform for longer than PS1 was because if there are 2 similar platforms to target, then a downscaled version of next gen games would be more feasable.
 
MrSardonic said:
I imagine PSP won't affect sales.

If anything's going to affect console sales, it'll be PSP. If I spend 250 on a PSP, I won't be spending 300-400 on a 360 anytime soon. 50 dollar PSP games will discrouage me from spending 50-60 on next-gen console games. I think I can handle a 130 dollar DS and 25 dollar games, though.
 

ziran

Member
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2044&Itemid=2
"The real story for 2005 was the incredible expansion of portable gaming," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The GBA continued to realize stellar sales, and the introduction of the (Nintendo) DS and PSP to the market brought older gamers to the portable format."
i still believe an expansion of this size could easily reduce sales of next gen consoles and slow down their adoption rate. people only have so much money to spend on videogames.



Sweedishrodeo said:
Gee said:
Did you really have to make a thread for this..
QFT
ziran said:
if you don't like the topic, don't post in it :)
 
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