PSP anyone?

even the software is starting to sell now...it's definately a crazy market, but they don't forget about consoles that are behind.

Monster hunter was the selling point for it, and i think Sony should fight hard to at least make it multi-plat for Wii/PS3 on that monster hunter game. but either way, they don't forget and consoles that are dead last can make a big comeback and PSP is the one to look at.

The FF XIII stuff will still really help

So it will sell roughly half of the leading console there when all is said and done. That's what most people have been predicting for the Ps3 there.

Psp isn't selling software any where near where it should be. Its attach ratio is under 2(in Japan). But you are right about PS3. All it will take is 1 game and it may change the PS3's future just like Monster hunter did for the PSP. What game could do it. We will have to wait to see if it happens.

The problem is the price. If the PS3 were affordable, more people (around the world) would be buying it.

But the questions are:

Will the price drop fast enough?
Will the PS3 still have a feature advantage at that point?
Will it matter?

No, no, and no.

Sony is very happy that they own part of the movie disc format for the next 10 years.

The PSP didn't make a comeback.

If the DS stopped selling ANY UNITS right now, and the PSP's numbers reached 100,000 a week consistantly, it would take it 2.5 years to catch the DS.

At its current pace, it wouldn't catch the DS for 25 years.

That's just in Japan. Not to mention the rest of the world.

The PSP will never beat the DS in Japan. Especially in software. The proven sellers are all from the action MMO genre. They aren't even first party.

If you're suggesting that the PS3 take the PSP strategy, then you're suggesting that Sony wait around until the Wii saturates the whole market, and then move in with a slim model to take advantage of the console boom the Wii had undoubtedly created.

If Sony can keep over a third of the console market in Japan by the end of this gen, it would have been a success for the PS3, I think.

The PSP did make a comeback.  It went from being half dead to being the top selling device in Japan week to week.

It doesn't have to beat the DS for it to have made a comeback.  By that logic, the 360 would have to at least beat the ps3, if not the Wii, to make a comeback in the region, something you must consider to be possible as shown in your post.

What is the PS3? Did I forget about something? Must be the Japanese flu I caught some days ago.

@OP: The console Monster Hunters have never been that popular. The PSP ones are so successful because of the local wi-fi play between friends.

Tbh, I think that a slim ps3 + FFXIII will have a similar effect on the ps3's sales in Japan as MH had on the PSP.  It won't have quite as large an impact, but it will have a substantial one.

@Makingmusic. If I'm not mistaken the console Monster Hunters were all released pre-handheld MH? In which case the success of a console monster hunter released now is a big unknown.