Review of the Year: December

"The 12th of December and the PSP hits Japanese retail. Queuing in Akihabara reaches DS-beating proportions and a legend in its own schizophrenic skin is born. Early adopters of Sonys console, and the first credible contender to Nintendos portable dominance, report a machine that is almost sure to knock Nintendo from its portable thone."

LOL you guys really are taken in by the sony hype during launch week for the psp the nintendo ds sold 190,000 Ds's in comparison to only 160,000 psp's sold during the psp launch not only that the ds has now sold over 1 million units in japan and recent sales figures from media create pretty much put a downer on your fanboyish comments!

Numbers from media create:

1 Nintendo DS 252,000 221,625 ~(1,141,400)
2 Playstation 2 145,000 112,970 ~(2,648,532)
3 Game Boy Advance SP 111,000 80,271 ~(2,451,693)
4 PlayStation Portable 92,000 85,059 ~(337,048)
5 GameCube 54,000 29,991 ~(642,528)

try checking the facts before coming up with such statements! ds sold 460,000 on launch in comparison to the 160,000 sold psp's

Sorry those figures above are from enterbrain (which isn't reliable at all) not media create

Actual Media Create figures december 20-26:

DS 396,674
GBASP 190,268
PS2 188,134
GC 108,311
PSP 107,217
GBA 3,877
Xbox 704
PSone 90
SC 76

As you can see the ds has sold nearly 400,000 while the psp only just sold above 100,000 even the GBA SP sold nearly 200,000

<generic_metaphor>

It's a marathon, not a sprint...

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"report a machine that is almost sure to knock Nintendo from its portable thone."

i know its a marathone i ain't saying the psp is going to completely get crushed am saying that the statement made above is far from wrong

sony need to do more thqan beat the ds to take the handheld thone they need to maintain sales once the next gameboy is released as well and beat the gameboy advance SP which they are far from doing at the moment

it will take more than one generation to to take nintendo from the top in the handheld department

Early sales show that nintendo are completely on top while sony can't even produce enough machines to match nintendo

Nintendo have never had a serious contender in the hand-held market; the closest being the GameGear, and that barely figured on the general public's radar.

The PSP certainly looks the biz, and it is receiving strong 3rd-party software support. It will be one of the most interesting console battles for a while.

(hope that makes sense, my head's all fuzzy)

Sorry dudes but Spong, like everyone else who has used a PSP know that the DS is toast. Your very early sales figures are irrelevant because there's been such a low number of actual PSPs manufactured to date.

Can't wait till March!

^yeah and u know jack about the gaming industry then if you think early sales figures are irrelevent sony couldn't produce enough units because they have been rushed out with the psp through the shock announcement of the DS.

Sony at first thought they were only going up against the GBA SP and this was only a year ago. Then nintendo completely countered sony with the announcement of the ds and forced sony to be un-prepared with the PSP launch! (launched alot earlier than sony expected they would have delayed if nintendo didn't have the ds on the market and had a much better unit ready)

hence battery life only being around 4 hours with certain settings on ridge racer, weak launch games, UMD launching out while playing, analogue sticks falling off, pixals failing (which isn't sony's problem spans from the manufactures of the screens), and most important factor of a launch is the amount of units you can produce, sony in this area have completely flopped only being able to produce 300,000 units for 2004! while nintendo have sold well over 2.4 million units in japan and america recording sell outs in both territories

ITs a BAD thing that sony can't produce the units do u understand now! sony have not been prepared do u get it now

"Sorry dudes but Spong, like everyone else who has used a PSP know that the DS is toast. Your very early sales figures are irrelevant because there's been such a low number of actual PSPs manufactured to date."

Sorry dude if sony can't produce the numbers the psp is going to fall flat on its face, software has sold terrible with MGS acid, DW, and RR (the three big releases for the PSP) have all fell flat on their face not even making the top 10 for 20-26 december sales, while the DS is still a sell out regardless of the PSP launch.

DS software mario 64 ds sold 150,000 and is placed second in the chart and wario ware sold over 100,000 in the same period

The lack of psp's being manufactured is no excuss, like shearDS said it was caused by the announcement of the ds and sony had to quickly change plans.

Its dirty play by nintendo who still have to announce the next gameboy so if the psp gets past the DS and GBA SP hurdle it still as the next gameboy to contend with. Not only that sony are losing money like mad on the dam thing so if the ds isn't brushed aside quickly which seems unlikely sony are going to be in trouble. NIntendo hold all the cards

Remember the ds is only the third pillar for nintendo the real handheld (the next gameboy is still yet to be announced) the announcement alone will affect PSP sales worldwide!

Nintendo also produce the best handheld games, sony psp will merely see remakes of ps2 games being ported over. I certainly won't buy a game on my ps2 and then re-buy it for the psp.

If you want to play shorter version of GT4 on psp rather than ps2 version then get psp. I can't see people paying money out for the ps2 game of GT4 and then re-buying the exact title with less content for the same price just to play it on a smaller screen! Turn-based mgs is just a joke as well give me MGS 3 over that any day!

Obviously, but the launch hardware availability is no indication of what Sony can produce. In fact, only a fool would suggest that Sony are not capable of producing quality electronics in large numbers.

The fact is, PSP shares some components with PSTwo, and they launched it at the busiest time of year for PS2 sales. So they were competing with themselves for hardware availability and production resources.

By March, it will be a very different story... production capability will have increased, PSTwo sales wil be in the traditional quiet time, PSP availability will be good.

I have the advantage of having a DS and a PS2 in front of me as I type, and though the DS is interesting, I wouldn't be seen dead with one outside of the huose/office. It is cheap and plasticy, design and build wise. The PSP, I want to take with me everywhere. It is beautifully built and beautifully designed.



These figures are meaningless. How can an console with an installed base of under 100,000 hope to chart software.

I mean, I'm not telling you what to think. I'm just telling you what I think... and I think Ninendo are going to have to do something about DS, or it is going to be outsold by a FAR superior piece of hardware.



How do you figure that? That's not discussion that's just declaiming spurious anbd unsupportable opinion and hoping people will read it and believe it. True Sony have rushed out PSP just to try and prevent DS getting too big a lead...

But how can you sugest that they could sell more than they produced? And how can you suggest that they could have produced more than they did?

Lets see how things look this time next year. When Sony have had several months hardware sales in all regions.

But anyone who holds the two and says DS is going to win is the kind of person who would CHOOSE to drive a Vauxhall when they had the offer of an Audi for the same price...



Ah, I see now. You're saying that Nintendo purposefully released a badly designed, shoddy console just to lure Sony into a false sense of secuirty, so they could kill them with the GBA2.

That explains everything!



And Nintendo are making a killing on the DS? No, no they are not. If you consider dealer and distributor margins, no manufacturer makes much or any money on hardware. But Sony has global TV, DVD, Stereo, projector, computer etc etc sales to buffer their losses, what does Nintendo have?



In Nintendo fanboyland they do. But in the real world, Sony just revealed their hand, and it's non too shabby.



Hmm, that's the story THIS week. But before the PSP was revealed, it was an entirely different story. No-one cared abotu the GBA2... which let's face it, is pure speculation at present... everyone was saying that the DS was what Nintendo were going to take on PSP with, and that getting DS to market first was going to ensure them a lead that PSP could never catch. Now that that is looking unlikely, suddenly the not-even-announced-yet GBA2 is going to answer all Nintendo's problems.

I hope it does, I'm anti-monopoly. I don't want one player to command any market (but then, I don't want only two to either). But the reality is, on the PSP vs DS issue, Sony's hardware is WAY superior.

And let's face it, if Nintendo announced GBA2 tomorrow, we wouldn't see it until October 2005... And what, really is it going to do that PSP can't? And why would it look any better than DS?



There's you're unassailable logic again. Because Sony have only ever had PS2 style games, they can not ever now begin to produce portable games. Sure that's the same logic that said because Sony had never had ANY games (before PS1) they could never beat Sega and Nintendo in the console market... but they did.

We are already seeing games like Lumines appearing. That is only the tip of the iceberg.

Sure Nintendo are old hands, and proven masters of portable gaming, but that is the most dangerous position to be in. Everyone can see what you have done, and imitate it.



Agreed. But what if people want to watch movies, play MP3s and play games, all on one piece of kit that is affordable, and great looking? What if Xbox owners want a hand-held?

The idea that there is no market for the PSP is like the guy from IBM who predicted a world market for five computers ever.

"Obviously, but the launch hardware availability is no indication of what Sony can produce. In fact, only a fool would suggest that Sony are not capable of producing quality electronics in large numbers."

agreed, sony are masters of mass production but quality i don't think so! ps2 breaks down every year and the dvd player sucks thats not quality! just look at the problems the psp has

"The fact is, PSP shares some components with PSTwo, and they launched it at the busiest time of year for PS2 sales. So they were competing with themselves for hardware availability and production resources.

By March, it will be a very different story... production capability will have increased, PSTwo sales wil be in the traditional quiet time, PSP availability will be good."

So your saying that sony have done the worst possible thing ever, they have launched hardware that sells against its own product! nintendo have never had this problem look at GBA SP and DS sales both very very high yet DS can play GBA games so nintendo seem to cope pretty well

"I have the advantage of having a DS and a PS2 in front of me as I type, and though the DS is interesting, I wouldn't be seen dead with one outside of the huose/office. It is cheap and plasticy, design and build wise. The PSP, I want to take with me everywhere. It is beautifully built and beautifully designed."

That is pathetic its a solid product and nintendo have never made a product that breaks easily unlike sony's psp which seems to have tonnes of problems with it

"These figures are meaningless. How can an console with an installed base of under 100,000 hope to chart software."

you are already showing yourself up the psp has an install base of 350,000 not under 100,000!

"I mean, I'm not telling you what to think. I'm just telling you what I think... and I think Ninendo are going to have to do something about DS, or it is going to be outsold by a FAR superior piece of hardware."

Nintendo have made a successful product in the DS and psp superior i don't think so! its a portable ps2 thats all ds has multiple functions and with mp3 and mp4 player coming to ds soon it will have the ability to play music and movies

"But anyone who holds the two and says DS is going to win is the kind of person who would CHOOSE to drive a Vauxhall when they had the offer of an Audi for the same price..."

first off they are not the same price there is around a 50 - 100 pound difference in price. And ds is the car that has all the functions and gives you a different experience to what everything else does

"Ah, I see now. You're saying that Nintendo purposefully released a badly designed, shoddy console just to lure Sony into a false sense of secuirty, so they could kill them with the GBA2."

badly designed what the f**k are you on its better designed than psp nothing falls off lol and battery life seems like it goes on forever!

"Agreed. But what if people want to watch movies, play MP3s and play games, all on one piece of kit that is affordable, and great looking? What if Xbox owners want a hand-held?"

ds will soon be able to play music and movies anyway and who wants to re-buy every dvd they have just to play it on their psp? UMD isn't even a proven format yet, films will take along time to come out on UMD if ever they do

after saying all that the only thing i haven't mentioned is who is going to win! personnally i don't think either will run away with it and psp will do well once sony sort out their production of the unit.

I only came out with the comments i made because people seem to think the psp is going to slaughter the ds, i was putting facts across that proves overwise

I'm no Nintendo fanboy (if I'm a fanboy of anything, it's SEGA), but the car comparison mentioned earlier by someone else (the DS being an Audi or something) is kinda b******s. The DS, I feel, is superior to what the PSP can do, in terms of simply playing the game. I would not mind having a PSP myself, but:

= Yes: The PSP has "more power" (I doubt anybody cares about this 'fact' except the rather mentally challenged casual gamers amongst us anyway)
= Yes: I probably would want to show it to my friends, if I was an attention-starved cretin.
= Yes: I would not be seen dead spending £200 on one. Sorry, but it's just not worth it.

Don't get me wrong, I do admire the PSP in it's style, but it really is style over substance, which kinda defeats the point really.

I don't know what fashion-incompetent friends the person has, who said they wouldn't be seen dead showing their DS outside their house. o_O I've taken it to work (because I'm kinda addicted to it now...), and several people (who are about, as casual as you can get) took a great interest into it. I think the whole "DS has no pulling power" is mere biased fabrication really. Several people who have been ardent "Sony is teh best" gamers for years took one look at my DS and wanted me to sell it. I think there will be just as much appeal for DS as there will be for PSP.

And, not that I give a toss about all this "sales = better" nonsense, but just to point out that for those people who mentioned that initial sales are not important, to some extents you are right (look at XBOX's sudden kick in popularity in Europe during it's lifespan), but look at the PS2. The Dreamcast was in its prime, Sony released PS2 with little over 100,000 units in the UK for the first week or so.

Oh look, it's a sell-out, with games staying in the top ten for a few weeks to come. Nintendo have done the same with it's DS and suddenly it's all biased fanboy comments when normal, regular, non-insane Nintendo fans celebrate that fact? Get real. :P

Of course, this is not my stab one way or the other, I'm just trying to level out the rather unfair bashing that Nintendo fans have been getting here (although I have seen some of them being a little too... attached during the debate =F). Is it fair to say the term "Sony fanboy" is not used too often? And those casual gamers who play nothing but Sony are even worse than the Nintendo ones. Consider that. =/

Back on course, it could take a fair while for Sony to break through with PSP, let alone break even (on profits). It's got everything going for it at the moment (except for sales, but that's all inconsequential really), but thinking about it, Sony are stuck in a rut in Japan. I haven't heard a release date for the US, someone correct me if one has been announced - but it seems that Sony's taken a huge risk just to see it compete directly with Nintendo DS in it's homeland. In America, by the time the PSP arrives, nobody would have blinked at it really; Nintendo's got the crucial headstart there, where Sony's concentrated on only one region.

Europe is a different matter though - since we're always three years (exaggeration) behind the rest of the world, by the time the DS gets here with the PSP, Sony'd have been given a decent enough budget based on their initial sales overseas.

Wouldn't it have just been easier on Sony if they just waited a few more months in Japan and release it steadily with minimal problems? The delayed launch is almost as trademark as their artifical lack of supply for all PlayStation products for Sony. Hey, it worked on the Dreamcast (much to my anger - four years down the line and the PS2 still isn't worth it compared to SEGA's white box) =_=.

BTW, SCE don't have the financial support of the divisions of Sony that make the TV's, DVD's, Music, etc - much to popular misconception. They are a seperate division given their own budget. So whether they are part of a big conglomerate really doesn't matter between Sony and Nintendo with regards to funding.

A new year a new fight. Listen up people, both systems have there faults, DS is poorly designed and the PSP is lacking solid titles and availablitly.

Honestly, the DS's touch screen sucks I played with it and I can positivly say that its one of the dumbest ideas for a portable game system. Rememeber, how are you going to use the inaccurtate controls with only one hand? If all you are doing is drawing then it could work but rememeber you almost certainly need to use the other hand to push buttons and it is very very awkward to use. No to mention the fact that the system doesn't feel all that polished.

The PSP (all speculative information unless noted) looks to have an awkward placement of the trigger buttons and from what I hear the Analog numbn is tough to reach and is not accurate at all. The screen is a scratch magnet and the system uses UMD as a main storage device.

Not to say that one is better than the other, I feel that the PSP even with its flaws has the stronger uper hand.

Nintendo fan boys (lame as they are) have to understand that Nintendo has made a mistake this time around. Will they crash because of it? probably not but they learned a valuable lesson.

Most print and online publications have named the PSP the must have gadget of 2005 and many places are having problems with the large amounts of people wanting pre orders.

Now, for the Next Gameboy, I once believed that Nintendo could gain the top spot with there next system but I started thinking. If, and I mean if, Sony does accomplish the impossible and gets this system to sell at least 5 mill by the end of the year. Nintendo will lose the handheld crown they have held soo long. You may ask, WTF is he talking about? and I would answer, STFU....oops I mean this, Sony is going to sell this system as an entertainment hub. Their marketing is soo strong its going to fall like this, mothers and fathers will go to the store and see that the child wants a handheld system. The parents ask the clerk which system is better? the clerk will say well if you want your kid to stay quiet the longest the PSp has movies and games. All the movies will play super clear and you can use it as an MP3 player. Both parents will be like well lets get it for him its only a few bucks more.

after a few million people repeat this plan of action, the PSP sells record numbers. I remember when the Original PS came out people bought it for the CD capablity almost as much as games. same for PS2's DVD playback. People love systems that can let them do many things (but have to do all of them great).

so u think the touch screen sucks after playing with it for 5 minutes like every one else when trying? i have played with it everyday since launch and a touch screen is a welcome addition.

Wario ware rocks using it and so do the mini games in mario 64 ds. I also tried controlling mario 64 ds using touch screen and couldn't use it that well using thumb pad or just the thumb but using the stylus in your right hand and changing the controls to dual hand mode gave me the same feeling has using the analogue stick, took me around 20 minutes or so to get use to it but got there

I am probably the only person to prefere the touch screen over the d-pad when playing mario 64 ds, people just ain't giving it the time because they just go back to using the d-pad after 5 minutes of trying. The ds is far from poorly designed and is a solid piece of kit as with psp no doubt, yet to try it to see for myself though

Sorry forgot to mention the fact that the ds is very light unless you have only one hand the ds is easy to use on the move with the stylus while playing mario 64 ds and this was while walking! obviously people ain't giving the control method enough time