Next-Gen discusses the PSP's recent turnaround.

[hunter_alien]

naznatips said:

Gazz said:

naznatips said:

Gazz said:
AM I the only one that thinks the PSP and DS both service a different crowd? ( a small percentage of hardcore gamers aside that is) In my book the DS always seemed the more casual handheld and the PSP the more "serious" one.

Comparing sales between those 2 always seems so irrelevant to me.

As someone who has both, I can say with certainty that you are completely incorrect. The 3rd party support on the DS means it gets many more 3rd party core games than the PSP does and of many mroe genres. You don't think Sony wants Contra, Dragon Quest, tons of new Square games, Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, etc. on the PSP? Of course they do, and those are "serious" games as you call them. They absolutely compete directly for the same gamers, and the DS absolutely has more of them, and because of that gets more big games.

The PSP has a list of games that other companys would like too. There's an call of duty on the PSP, they have their Jax, tons of racing games, strategy and a load more of games like God of war which tons of companys would kill for. I am not denying the DS doesn't have enough games or any fanboy crap like that.

I have both the PSP and DS too, I just really think the DS adresses a completely different market then the PSP does and these handhelds don't compete with eachother, but complete one another. Both have their pros and cons and having both gives a gamer the best of two worlds. I still believe that comparing sales is irrelevant.

You are very misinformed. Monster Hunter Freedom was released in February of 2006. Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd was released in May of 2007. Assuming development began a couple months before the release date of MHF, MHF2 had a 1.5 year turn around. Dragon Quest IX was announced 2 and a half years ago on the DS, and has a 2008 release date. It's going to have a 3 year turn around.

Comparing sales (and games) between the DS and PSP is absolutely relevant. Just as it is to compare between the Wii and PS3. Also, calling it the same as comparing the GBA to the PS2 is ridiculous and ignorant. Dragon Quest VIII was a PS2 game and by all accounts Dragon Quest IX is even longer and deeper with online co-op. It completely blows Monster Hunter away in series popularity in the "serious" market, and the only hardcore RPG more popular than Dragon Quest in Japan is Pokemon, which is of course also on the DS.

The DS is not just beating up the PSP in hardware sales. It's obliterating it in Software sales. Core games are selling signifficantly better on the DS than they do on the PSP, and it's clear that there are many more core gamers who own DSes from the software sales alone. Firmware doesn't make anywhere near the difference people think it makes. The PSP is simply being purchased by people who don't buy a single game for it.

I love my PSP, but there is a gigantic difference in 3rd party support for both core and casual games between the PSP and DS. It's comparable to the difference in 3rd party support from the PS2 to the Gamecube, but the roles are reversed. Their markets are the same. The difference is the DS has a second market (casual) along with its core market. It outsells the PSP on both types of games though, so that's really irrelevant. Saying you can't compare the two is like saying you can't compare the Wii and PS3. Of course they compete with each other. That's ridiculous.

 Ummm , lets see the slae of Madden , NFS and FIFA ... oh and what about PES ... they all are core games , and they all selll batter on the PSP ... on the other hand I do agree with your comparison in software with the GC and PS2 ... there is a similarity amongst them , just that the PSP will sell more just because of numbers ...