Kotaku: "Sony Is Doomed! Ray Redirected Toward PSP"

[danbala]

From Kotaku:

It's been a rough couple of months for Sony and the PlayStation 3, particularly in the mainstream press. Now that the two year old console has been sufficiently thrashed, we think the PSP is due.

And so does Yahoo! Games, who paints a very bleak picture of the PSP's current performance and its future. Clearly, we're all beyond admiring the PSP's success relative to previous Nintendo handheld competitors and ready to start giving the PSP the what for over its middling 2008.

Yes, Yahoo! makes some good points — the 2008 software line-up was largely forgettable, as third parties have moved on from shipping PlayStation 2 to PSP ports to... well, not doing much at all on the platform. On the quality side, the DS has had more games rated 80% or higher, as Yahoo! points out. And that's translated to a bigger gap between the Nintendo DS and PSP, 1.5 million versus 420,000 units sold in the US in November.

But Sony's still holding its own in Japan, even if it's regularly bested by the DS — thanks to the recently launched DSi. But is it really over for the PSP? And, if not, will it really be over for the PSP when Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars makes its appearance on the DS next year?

I'd actually think that Sony is doing a respectable job of continuing to hold its own against Nintendo, despite seeing far fewer high quality releases on the PSP and that its transition from UMD only games to digitally delivered software is a step in the right direction for the next-generation of PSP.

Goodbye, Sony PSP [Yahoo! Games]

Edit: whoops. i forgot the link (as was pointed out below). Here it is: http://kotaku.com/5120359/sony-is-do...ted-toward-psp

And here is some bonus content from a related story:

Whatever happened to the PSP? The device that Sony once touted as "the Walkman for the 21st century" is fast disappearing from popular consciousness, and if you believe the rumors circulating just three-and-a-half years after its launch, it's up for a major rethink in 2009.

Over the crucial month of November, the Nintendo DS shifted a jaw-dropping 1.5 million units in the US alone (up 20% from last year) while the PSP languished, managing just 421,000 sales -- actually down 27%, in what was in general a tremendously strong month for video games.

Even the software support is eroding. Despite the PSP's healthy install base of around 13 million consumers, only six 2008 PSP releases scored better than 80% on review aggregating site gamerankings.com, compared with 16 on the DS. There's a good reason for that: nobody's making PSP games, because outside of one or two hits like this year's Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, nobody's buying them. That's only going to worsen when the superheavyweight Grand Theft Auto series (previously exclusive to the PSP on handhelds) releases its first DS title early next year.

In a lot of ways, it's a shame. The PSP is a far more capable hardware platform than the DS. It's a phone, a portable music player, a pocket-sized movie device, a mobile web browser, and when paired with a Playstation 3, a remarkably capable remote control for the system, capable of streaming music and movies from a PS3 over the Internet to wherever you happen to be.


Time to put this gaming warhorse out to pasture?
Next to it, the DS looks like a product of another age. It's barely capable of 3D, let alone delivering a suite of mobile applications of the PSP's caliber. Not, in fact, unlike the contrast between the Playstation 3 (modern, immensely powerful, and pricey) and the Wii (underpowered, basic, and cheap.) Oh, and phenomenally successful. The parallels you can draw between Sony and Nintendo's offerings go deep.

But then, set the PSP next to the iPhone or iPod Touch, the year's other big winner in portable gaming, and the PSP's hardware design suddenly looks old hat. Where's the touchscreen? What are all these buttons for? What on earth is the point of this useless analog nub of a joystick? And why, in an age when flash memory is so cheap it practically comes in Cheerios boxes, are we still stuck with a huge, bulky, slow, and noisy optical drive? If you're going to compete by offering a powerful hardware platform, you actually need to outperform the competition. As the iPhone steps into the portable gaming ring, it's already got the PSP on the ropes.

Guess what, Sony: Apple already made the Walkman of the 21st century, and you missed the boat.

Link: http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/...ny-psp/1276225

[michealo]

the DS has had more games rated 80% or higher, as Yahoo! points out

how many are rated below 80% ?

people labeled the PSP as an expensive failure from the start, how many 10's of millions have been sold?
honestly, what other competition is out there in the handheld market aside from the iphone?

on a side note, it's time for a new HDD meme.
one that describes posting a 'doom and gloom' article without any individual opinion attached and in this case...not even a link (it's just lazy).
i suggest "crop dusting"

[edschmoe]

Better not go down...I just bought one...

[Godstar]

I think the PSP is a better system than the DS, but the DS just has way more software. I think if you want a portable movie player, it's awesome. And it plays movies and music which the DS doesn't. I think the writer is right to say that moving towards digital download games is better than the current UMD format they use, and I'd rather just download and store them on my memory card and play them than carry around a bunch of little disks that could get scratched.

[Badger3920]

Interesting... Attacking the PSP here - you don't see that all too often.

I could pull the ol' "You can't include anything but the PS3" mantra we hear in sales discussions I suppose

[Godstar]

how many are rated below 80% ?

people labeled the PSP as an expensive failure from the start, how many 10's of millions have been sold?
honestly, what other competition is out there in the handheld market aside from the iphone?

on a side note, it's time for a new HDD meme.
one that describes posting a 'doom and gloom' article without any individual opinion attached.

I think it's funny that the simplier, less feature filled and overall cheaper product are outselling their competitors. I think the iPhone is doing well, but I still don't think it can compete with the DS in terms of software, hardware sales and price.

[Shadow1019]

I think it's funny that the simplier, less feature filled and overall cheaper product are outselling their competitors. I think the iPhone is doing well, but I still don't think it can compete with the DS in terms of software, hardware sales and price.

I think the iPhone and iPod Touch are much bigger threats to the DS than the PSP. I don't own a DS, but, from what I've seen, what percentage of DS games couldn't be sufficiently created for the iPhone/iPod Touch? If Apple can get a price point of $150 or less, then I think the developer support will come. The install base is already there.

[Godstar]

I think the iPhone and iPod Touch are much bigger threats to the DS than the PSP. I don't own a DS, but, from what I've seen, what percentage of DS games couldn't be sufficiently created for the iPhone/iPod Touch? If Apple can get a price point of $150 or less, then I think the developer support will come. The install base is already there.

Right, and I think if Apple can get the price down then they have a chance of competing in that market, if that's what they're looking to do. I'm not sure if that's what they really want to do, but I'm sure they could. But really the PSP is closer to the iPhone than the DS feature wise, so they both get hurt if Apple starts competing. I think that that point though, that both Nintendo and Sony would be forced to cut their prices well below that of the iPhone if Apple tried to directly compete with them for the handheld audience.

I think that's the big question, is Apple going to try to capture handheld gamers that use the DS and PSP or are they just trying to sell iPhones that do other stuff like play music and games.

[TheAnalogKid]

Apple has already made several public statements in regards to the iphone crossing over into the gaming territory...and not chintzy flash games like poker, either..but games like..Metal Gear.

[Godstar]

Apple has already made several public statements in regards to the iphone crossing over into the gaming territory...and not chintzy flash games like poker, either..but games like..Metal Gear.

Ouch, well I hope both Sony and Nintendo are looking to cutting their price because that could potentially hurt them if Apple starts to compete in that arena with them. Especially with all the features that the iPhone has, and it's much, much smaller than both.

[rm082e]

As much as I love the PSP hardware (and I really really do), I have to agree with the general point of the article: The number of quality titles for the PSP is fading. I only own a half dozen games for the machine and there's pretty much nothing on the horizon that I'm excited about. I really hope there is one more push from Sony for some good titles before they move on to a new hand held, but I'm not holding my breath...

[GizmoDVD]

The only time the PSP gets dusted off is when I have a craving to play some NES/TG16 games.

[Shadow1019]

how many are rated below 80% ?

people labeled the PSP as an expensive failure from the start, how many 10's of millions have been sold?
honestly, what other competition is out there in the handheld market aside from the iphone?

on a side note, it's time for a new HDD meme.
one that describes posting a 'doom and gloom' article without any individual opinion attached and in this case...not even a link (it's just lazy).
i suggest "crop dusting"

I'm fine with "crop dusting." But it doesn't seem to illustrate the intent of the poster.

To me, it should be "carpet bombing" or something similar because it invokes the image of someone flying down and just indiscriminately dropping a bomb (carpet refers to the wall of text) and pulling out of the area ASAP (no opinion or commentary on the article) leaving the rest of us to deal with it. "Crop dusting" is too nice. It seems to fit more with blanket assumptions where there is no real intent to bash someone or something.

[Clessy]

I really dont get the market.

PSP is vastly better in everyway and the market just rejects it.

Its amazing. Its got good games but nothing in the world seems to come out for the psp in the states.

If you go into a gamestop and look at the psp release list there is normally less than 10 games coming out for it.

I believe the psp had less than 30 games come out for it last year in America. Its just fucking pathetic.

I own 40 psp games and there all imports due to this stupid little reason.

They get awesome rpgs like the legend of heroes series, some y's games. Hell Sony has its whole line of Bleach fighting games for the psp which are fantastic too.Tons of rythme music games from the Dj max portable series. Tons of classic psone remakes like
Megaman legend 1 and 2 and Breath of fire 3 hit japan also.

I think the psp is the new sega saturn. Doing perfectly fine and well in Japan and not even alive in America.

[Chachi]

I really wanted to love the PSP, had one at launch but didn't feel natural to hold playing games and the dismal library and expensive no-frills UMDs allowed it to collect dust until I reluctantly gave it to my nephew.

I just keep picturing it to somehow play Halo MP...(sigh).