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HappySqurriel on 09 January 2010
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nitekrawler1285 said:
HappySqurriel said:
nitekrawler1285 said:
deathgod33 said:
raygun said:
Well, they only sold 500,000 of them LAST WEEK ALONE, and there's 55 million of them sold SO FAR, why in the hell would someone think it's a failure?


DS sales completely rape them. and besides, i think we can all agree that Nintendo makes the best handhelds and that job should remain solely with them.

Even if the DS sales rape the PSP it has been a profitable venture for Sony unlike the PS3.  Diversity in the  market is a great thing for consumers. Some people have different  tastes.  One could argue that the situation should be in reverse. Dump the hemoraghing system and focus on making the profitable one better and more appealing.

The real question is has it been a profitable venture for Sony?

Software has never really sold particularly well on the PSP even though it was more expensive to develop this software (than Nintendo DS or previous handheld software); and the hardware was (potentially) sold at a loss early on, with very large initial R&D costs (with more than modest ongoing R&D costs from the constant hardware revisions).

I'm not saying it has been a disaster for Sony, but I doubt many people would measure it as much of a success (in console terms) when you are looking at profit.

The PSP profit has allowed them to focus on the PS3 to the extent they have because we all know that PS2 profits are all but a drying well. It's selling less Software and even less Hardware especially now that this gen has come to an affordabe price range  Where do you think the PS3 pricecut is coming from?  

Improving the PSP is easier on all fronts. Software costs less to develop.  They have non hackable PSPs now.  The just need to give the attention of actual studios to it.  1st stringers.  It's profitable now hardware wise it would make a great time to focus on it.  

The one region where their development studios focus on the system it is a success.  They also advertise games there.  Paying studios to make PSP games would also be cheaper as well.  

Realistically, the PS3's price-cut probably came from cost reductions in the manufacturing process (The PS3 is over 3 years old now, and has seen several fairly major revisions so far) and the reasonable sales of PS3 software with higher per-unit revenue on PS3 software than off of previous Sony systems.

You've got to consider that given the sales we have on this site the PSP sells only a little more software than the PS2 which you claim isn't that profitable; even though PSP hardware and software has far more money spent on R&D and marketing.