Sony Coy on PSP Pricing Shuffle

"Currently we have no plans to cut the price of the PSP at this time" is a totally accurate statement, borne out by the fact that there has been no price cut today.

What appears to be tautological – the repetition of the present tense in ‘currently’ and ‘at this time’ is actually very precise but deliberately confusing. The ‘currently’ means just now and the ‘at this time’ means ‘in the short term’, replace ‘at this time’ with something like ‘today’ or ‘this week’ and you’ll see what I mean. The only thing to wonder about is the timeframe defined by ‘at this time’.

I hope this price cut is a reflection of how well the PSP is doing within the market & not a knee jerk reaction to the success of the DS. I find it a real concern that Sony have this amazing product & cant seem to believe in that or work hard enough to market it properly. Just slashing money off it in a desperate attempt to bring focus to the PSP is de-valuing a thing of beauty (i know it's great for us consumers!!) I just cant believe when u read all these things about the death of the PSP & how it's going under!!, i defy anyone to hold a PSP for the 1st time & not smile & drool like your holding your 1st born!, if the PSP is in trouble (how!, i;ll never know) then if i was Sony i'd take a serious look @ this problem, because the PSP in my eyes is an un sinkable ship, because if this can hit an iceberg!.... well u know the rest.

The problem isn't with the PSP sale rate, at least outside of Japan, it's with the software attachment rate. Before any certain mods decide to jump in about how well PSP software is selling in the UK, internationally the software sales aren't so hot, especially when compared to DS sales; this is evidenced by EA's recent change of focus to DS software away from PSP software, stating that it seems like people want games that are fun to play, over amazing graphics.

Dude, PSP is the games industries current Titanic, and it has been sinking from the iceberg strike for a long time now. As sweet and sexy as the PSP console is, there is now hiding from the DS wherever you go globally.

Sony are bad at pricing their consoles, it's that simple. Even I thought they'd get the PSP pricing right, but alas no. A year after the PSP and DS were out, it was cleaer enough to me that the damage has been done, which I reckon can't be reversed in Sony's favour.

It'll be two years this xmas, both have been out (in japan but it all counts) and there is no sign of Sony turning the tide, and it won't til PSP is at an £100 retail price and/or the games get better. With the way Sony cut prices, we'll be waiting four years or so and that is far too long. Sorry, but I told you all this would happen.

I could understand previous consoles going under (my DC, N64, and GC to a degree), but if anyone can't see this is now happening to Sony (hey i own a PSP too), you a hard snap to wake up and smell the coffee. I also own a DS and can see this handheld stuff clearly is not Sony's forte.

Ofcourse, enjoy the PSPs sweeter games (the good ones, official and import) but it's gonna be second place til MS join the party perhaps. Get used to it, it's all about the DS now.

I dare you to play ten of the best games on both DS and PSP, and then tell me PSP is better for games. Go on, just try it and look really silly.

Everything supports your position except for one thing tiny thing. The sales figures.

PSP is doing very nicely in terms of sales, and no matter how much you, and others, try and ignore this... it's still a fact.

Tyrion keeps detailed figures, and he could perhaps give more detail...

if the cut the price, all they need is some must have games and some decent battery life and im sold!

and joji, im sure that in the uk the psp has been whupping the ds the entire time, and its not doing badly elsewhere

i'm not arguing that the DS isn't storming the handheld market, (dont care about figures, i'm talking games & game play) it is!!, but i dont see how a console like the PSP, which on paper should sell itself, is considered to be failing or dying off? & if it's a price thing then how come they are selling so many PSP's? Apparently the sales figures for the 2 are fairly similar? (i may b wrong) i think what the DS & Nintendo have got right is they making games for the DS?, not dodgy ports from it's big brother. It's just such a shame as the PSP is f**king awesome, maybe when the PS2 is FINALLY laid to rest they can concentrate on making the titles the PSP so richly deserves.

I'm not sure THAT's true. Nintendo has way more experience in the hand-held market and better games... the original DS was fugly, but the Lite is fine...

But PSP ain't tanking either.

I played a home NEoGeo once, years ago, when it cost like 600 dollars. I did indeed drool and marvel at its wonder. Then i went home and happily continued playing my genesis. Cause it was a similar experience at a much better price with way more fun games.

Now i'm not suggestign the psp is nearly as drastic a difference as the Neo was(200 bucks a game was a big issue) but there are certainly some undeniable similarities. Same holds true for 3D0, jaguar, lynx, 32x and any number of other "bigger is better so its worth the cost" systems that have come and gone. Now this is a sony sytem of course so its was never goign to bomb nearly as hard as those i listed but when a system goes from "oh man this thing is gonan destory nintendo, and once they loose the hand held market theyll be gone for good! maybe MS will buy them bla bla bla..." to "DS is the greatest! psp sucks and Wii is gonan own all" in a matter of about a year, well, i consider that a horrible failure on sonys part. Especially considering their incredibel talent for marketing in the past.

I doubt it will die, i dont think it will be phased out but i do think that it has more than failed to live up to its potential. Personaly i imagine part of the reason it has seen so few decent games is because sony is really hoping to leverage the ps3 in its favor with cross platform linking games and things to help sell both systems. This could be a great idea, but, if the ps3 fails to perform in the long term then it may end up pulling the psp down with it if its most notable games are best when played with their console counter parts.

At any rate, i'm not psychic so im lookign forward to seeing how this turns out. In the mean time ill be quite happy with my 360 DS and soon to be Wii.

___________

Here beginineth the lesson.

I have accurate figures for Japanese hardware and UK software sales, both of which I have data going back to the launch of the DS in the respective territories. Neither set of data paints an unpleasant picture for the PSP.

Japanese Hardware Sales
The PSP has, since the launch of the DS, sold 3,798,982 units, which is an average of 43,666 units per week.

In that time (88 weeks), the PSP has been responsible for 18.97% of all hardware sales and 24.05% of all hand-held hardware sales.

In the last week I have data for (w/c 31st July), the PSP outsold everything else combined, except the DS lite, but including the DS phat - accounting for 19.97% of total sales and 22.55% of hand-held hardware sales.

UK Software Sales
Since the launch of the DS (75 weeks ago), the PSP has become the 4th best platform for software units sold, behind the PS2, PC and Xbox. PSP software sales account for 6.82% of the entire market (Xbox is 9.13%, DS 4.75%) and 41.24% of the hand-held market (DS is 28.71%). This is despite PSP software only being available for 51 of those 75 weeks.

There have been three weeks when Xbox 360 software has outsold PSP (none of which were the 360's launch week) and nine when DS software has outsold PSP software. The DS weeks are the week before the PSP hardware launched due to a few games being available before the console and the eight since the launch of the Lite.

Last week, the PSP accounted for 9.36% of total software sales and 36.84% of all hand-held software sales.

Additional - US Hardware Sales
According to this page the lifetime sales to the end of June in the US, as collated by NPD, are as follows.

PSP 4712061
DS 5187240

Conclusion
None of the above data point to the PSP being a gaming Titanic. It is a solidly performing platform that has carved out its own market and managed to keep hold of that market.

The only thing that has put any form of dampener on the performance of the PSP is the DS which is a flipping phenomenon. At least it is in Japan, elsewhere it is slightly ahead of or slightly behind the PSP.

Look at it this way - the PSP has claimed at least as large a share of the hand-held market as the Xbox has claimed in the the console market. Nobody would call the Xbox a gaming Titanic, now would they?

Here endeth the lesson.

Discuss.

The PS3 & PSP link i hope only extends to the PSP being used as a gizmo add on, they need to understand the diffrence between the PS3 games (home console) & PSP games (handheld), the Handheld gaming experience is completely diffrent, That's why games like Splinter cell dont essentially work, u dont have the time on the bus to sit in the dark for an hour watching a guards patrol patterns, Sony makes some games for the PSP!! no more handheld ports of home console games! it doesn't work!! (with a few exceptions). p.s that doesn;t mean i want more tetris style games!, or do i want to stroke the belly of a virtual dog!..

Cheers for that Tyrion.

That came as a bit of a shock to me! Although I knew that the PSP wasn't tanking - I honestly didn't realise that it was doing THAT well.

Good point made about the Neo Geo and its over priced games, and buy the time it did reach europe (as Neo geo CD) it was already too late in the day for it. do well to learn

This is a lesson in bad over pricing that Sony would do well to learn from.

Sure Xbox wasn't a Titanic because it's still in it's last real sales year, five years after it came out. In this regard MS have done well, even with 360 on shelves now. To say the same about PSP in only two years when its doing badly in incomparison is a joke. It might be shifting PSP units in your figures, but if that's the case what games are selling compared to music and video use?

I'll be buying Ultimate GnG and Ridge Racers 2 next with much glee, but what else are folk buying if they are buying PSPs. Or is it just a good media player where its games influence is lacking?

Matter of fact, I'd probably go so far to say that the PSP's done a better job in comparison. And not just because the XBOX did poorly in one territory and great in the others (while the PSP has been consistent in its success I'd say. Even though the Japanese are going mental for DS I wouldn't say the PSP is the handheld equivalent of the XBOX there).

Nintendo, beforehand, practically owned the entire handheld console market worldwide (save for perhaps, Wonderswan in Japan for a few % I'd imagine). Sony being able to grasp that much market share in such a short time against, basically, a monopoly is much better feat than some give Sony credit for. Bear in mind it was largely fanboys (and IGN) that reckoned the PSP would sink Nintendo for good. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Sony were very vocal on the matter were they?

Microsoft perhaps had it easier because it was then a three-way split - despite the PS2 being the clear winner after the Dreamcast did the splat, with Gamecube and XBOX launching Microsoft had a better opportunity to compete. For if it didn't beat Sony it could have at least made a mark on beating the its nearest rival to second place worldwide.

Mind you, the fact that Sony has a massive following for gaming and Microsoft didn't probably debunked all what I said, but dammit, I'll.... dammit.

I think I might have said Nintendo were going to get shafted if they were going to put the (old ugly) DS up against the PSP... And I stand by that.

Clearly the DS Lite has evened things up a little in terms of visual appeal of the hardware... But they still have a serious battle on their hands... It's not been the walkover Nintiboys would have you believe. And proclaiming the PSP as a Titanic is just miles from the mark, as Tyrion has admirably demonstrated.