Is the PSP dying?

[joeorc]

mai said:

RageBot said:
I blame piracy.

That's what I've been waiting for =)

 

@alanshearer

Though I'm not sure if "dying" is a right word, but what impur1ty said, all platforms are pirated. My take on this...

 

There's a common believe that piracy is source of the problem. I believe it's not, not entirely. Piracy is an effect of a bigger problem, not a cause. Usually people reffering to PSP demography, when speaking about it's piracy.

According to John Koller's interview he gave to Wired this year, 40% of PSP demography are teens 13-17 y.o. (he didn't specify the details, but I suppose those're likely males), that's basicaly all info on PSP audience to date from Sony themselves afaik. Some people say this demography is likely to pirate since they have ability and knowledge to pirate and aren't fully independent financially, thus explaining relatively low PSP attach rate btw. That's a reasonable argument (but again some claim at the same time that "hardcore" buy more software - I'm confused)... but if PSP piracy is due to it's demography, therefore this rule also should work with other platforms, but it's not.

According to last year's Nielsen research X360 dominant age group are male teens 12-17 y.o. (>30% time spent playing among all age groups), in other words pretty close to what Koller said about PSP demography. And despite being heavily pirated, X360 is an impressive software seller, it's attach rate is considerably higher than PS3 attach rate (and we all know the latter platform has no piracy at all).

The problem with PSP is in something else than just demography that's "likely to pirate", X360 is doing well having the same people on board. What're those problems? I don't know. I assume overcrowded console market. Nowadays developers and customers have a wide range of platforms to choose from, like Wii, DS, X360, PS3 etc. PSP is literally like a fifth wheel, last choice of a developer to put a game on it, and last choice of a customer to buy something for it (not the case with Japan, since the most relevant consoles in there are DS and PSP). Other consoles are eating up PSP potential software sales, to be more precise, I reckon, those're X360 and PS3, since their dominant audiences intersect with PSP demography heavily. People are likely to spend their free money on X360/PS3 rather than PSP, while DS, yet another great software seller, unlike PSP, has an ability to differentiate oneself from home consoles with it's best-sellers aimed at wide range of ages and both sexes, unlike PSP once again.

I pretty much agree with you on this, but also It may not be as bad as it seem's

1) the PSPGo help's in stopping some pirate software effect's

2) more 3rd party indie developer's see online software for the PSP as a viable market. thus the digital download software off of PSN will help keep the PSP a viable unit because even the psp1000 on can still download those PSN PSP game's.

not saying it will spike above the DS or anything like that, but for people thinking the PSP will get dropped will be sadly mistaken, more and more ps3 and psp interactivity in software is being used not just by Sony 1st party but also 3rd party is also making use of that function.

the PSP is far from dying In my Opinion. the way i See it support has increased for the PSP not decreased.