| leo-j said: @soriku Then I dont understand why? The psp cost more than the DS,and according to you, its games are not meant for the japanese. Maybe its that DS sales are dropping psp sales are holding steady. |
Hardcore gamers are not the reason PSP sales have taken of so far as core gamers buy a lot of games - PSP software sales are still far worse than they should considering the big Japan install base. And the PSP isn´t more expensive than the DS in Japan, at least not significantly.
There are several reasons why Playstation Portable sales are rising:
- The PSP is a multimedia device just as much as it is a handheld, therefore Japanese gamers buy it to use all of its features, not only games
- The Slim and Lite model caused many gamers to upgrade to the new version of the handheld, added functionality additionally improved the value of the new model for the already existing userbase
- Monster Hunter sells to the "Pokemon - audience": Think of it as a Pokemon "in small"; good sales, great legs - the game surely sold a lot of systems, just like Pokemon did
- DS has hit a point of saturation in Japan and (even more important) it didn´t see a single price drop during its time on the market. Of course the system will still sell well but it will never see its 2006 / 2007 sales again.
- Pirating is easy on the PSP and many people do it, even in Japan 
Add all of those reasons together and you know why the PSP is on the rise in Japan. Unfortunately it is too late now for the system to become market leader - even if its strong sales continue, DS software sales will always outpace it. Additionally Nintendo still has the possibility to drop the price of its handheld for the first time which would cause an increase in sales again.
