A man walks into a shop and asks for a PSP

As an interesting exercise in analysing the games market of the UK I tried to buy a PSP today. The interesting thing is that I toured the shops of SPOnG's home town gathering information regarding interest, stock, bundles and estimated replenishment schedules.

Oh, and I didn't pre-order my PSP, I've just winged it.

This is an exercise I also indulged in to get my GameCube on launch day.

Generally the shops round here are sold out - big surprise. However you can find consoles if you look hard.

Gamestation
All allocated units have gone on pre-orders. They have loads of bundles, most of which are also available on their website. They expect to be re-supplied in two weeks.

HMV
Again, all allocated units (40) are for pre-orders. However, they will be putting any un-claimed units on the shelves tomorrow, so if you've pre-ordered from HMV, get down there now. HMV expect to be re-supplied on Monday since they are the launch partner for PSP, apparently.

Ninja Games
Had one in stock, but were cagey about whether it was an import. Wouldn't let me see the unit running and have had no problems with displays in the four months they've been selling the PSP. When asked, they confirmed that those were imports from Japan and the US.

WHSmiths
My source of a GameCube let me down today, no PSPs in stock and no displays, games or movies for it.

The Sony Centre
Had four EU PSPs in stock! This is surprising when you consider that the Sony Centre is nothing to do with Sony except that they license the name and only sell Sony products. The chap I spoke to had a lot to say about the PSP, he's had one for a couple of months that he imported from Japan. Anyway, this place was only selling the PSP in a bundle, no idea on re-stock, depends on Centresoft - Sony's official distributor in the UK.

Argos
Well, here we go. The local Argos had 14 units in stock when I walked in. It now has 13 at most. Argos are doing most games at £15 when bought with a PSP. The assistant that served me said I was lucky to get one and was then surprised when I told her how many were in stock. They are apparently going to be re-stocked every day!!

What can we learn from all of the above? Well, if you want to get a PSP, avoid the specialist shops and go for the general chains it appears. Specialists, especially indies, have been getting the short end of it for a while now as anybody who reads MCV can attest.

With the buying power of large chains and supermarkets worrying the games specialists and independent shops, are we approaching a time when Game, Gamestation and the rest are an irrelevance?

OK guys, over to you. What has your launch day been like? Have you bought a PSP? Why or why not? How have your local specialist shops fared versus the large chains?

I was hoping to check Newcastle out, but no opportunity popped up.

Personally, not interested. UMD certainly doesn't sell it, and the "please rob me of this device" looks killed it even more. And if I'm having to resort to playing at home, well my 360's on preorder so...

A quick message from my PSP.

I had a look in game and gamestation today. Why does Sony have no display PSPs?
When the DS came out there was millions of the things on display for age before launch.
PSP - F**k all!

Really? The SPOnG local Gamestation had display boxes, window displays and a demo PSP in a Sony stand.

I didn't look in Game due to various socio-political reasons that I won't go into here.

Well I did go to my local town (Staines...yes Ali G's Staines...) and I wasn't looking to buy one, I was getting some stuff together for the upcoming Academic year. But I saw everywhere sold out. Game didn't have any display units but if you asked they gave you one to try out from behind the counter. I watched someone buy it and they chose the Transformers film. Not sure why exactly. Gamestation had two display units being set up as I was in there. First time I saw one up close and that screen is a higher resolution than I ever though possible.

It's almost erotic...

It;s astounding the first time, isn't it? The PSP screen is pretty good too! :-)

Games look fantastic, but movies just look the bomb!

The UK PSP comes with a demo disk that includes a trailer for Spider-Man 2. It looks as good as, if not better than, the Quicktime trailer I have stored on my PC.

Finally checked in Newcastle, where the DS was sold out for a month.

I was surprised to see that Virgin were advertising that they had "limited stock" still- HMV and Virgin are on the main shopping street, you see, and so things like this sell out there faster. So, I checked around...

Game also advertised "limited stock". I believe this to mean around 10-15 units left. Gamestation had 10.

So, it seems that, surprisingly in a city full of students, no selling out. Maybe the Metrocentre was a different story...

I managed to play my friend's this weekend. I have to say, Lumines is rather nice. As soon as the PSP gets a price reduction, I'm picking one up, I'm sure.

Did Sony not say that they weren't going drop it's price?

I think they said they weren't going to sell it at a loss. I also think they gave up on that 'cos it's got to take more than £180 to put that thing together.

I had a go on a friends PSP with Wipeout. It was nice but I never was a Wipeout fan. And indeed the PSP itself was nice with good screen res etc. (who said I never praise Sony?)

Still not interested until that price comes down and the games get better though. Knowing Sony that will be a very long time indeed.

Now excuse me while I hunt for somewhere to buy Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! on DS.

You're probably right Tyrion, that sounds like a much more Sony thing to say. However, that does translate into Sony not dropping the price for a while.


Joji, you probably praise Sony just as much as they deserve, which is almost none. Hell even I've never told anyone the PSP wasn't cosmetically pleasing.

While I might sound like the doom bringer of Sony in my posts, who wants their head on a stick but I'm just about the good games and getting a fair deal.

Stuff on PSP that I do like the look of are Burnout, Pursuit Force, Ridge Racers, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Ghouls n Ghosts aas well as some others like Colin Mcrae some RPGs and stuff. Problem is that many of these games are for off from release.

If I could reccoment just one of the games I've played, it would have to be Lumines.

That game is digital crack! It's so addictive with its simple gameplay and entrancing music. It makes use of the PSP's graphical horsepower too.

Lumines is the sort of game you'd expect on a Nintendo handheld.