By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales Discussion - Is the Playstation Portable doomed?

PinkPoop said:
Sony is not in the games business, they are in the consumer electronics business. They will not "fail" as a hardware developer.

If they are not in the game business, then why are they in the game business?



Around the Network
Blue3 said:
ngg12345 said:
I have a question, have you said one positive thing about the ps3, or psp?

 Probably the kid is so poor he cant afford either of em.


Actually, I own every single Sony console. Just because the PS3 and PSP are not perfect, does not mean that I do not own them.



mrstickball said:
I think the question is "what did you expect?" Just because Sony came in, and took the console market from Nintendo, I don't believe the handheld market is the same. As you said, I believe the #1 reason is price. Although it's a great value at $200 or the new price tag of $170, it's still friggin' expensive for a portable gaming device (regardless of extra abilities). I believe Kwaad showed a random poll awhile ago, showing that if the NDS and PSP were the same price, about 50% of people would buy a PSP vs. a DS - a stark contrast from where it is now (it's around 2:1 or so). Games like Vice City Stories and LC Stories did fantastic on PSP. MHP2 in Japan is the highest selling game of the year. It proves that games on PSP can do fantastic. The big question is when are devs going to really mean business? FFT should end up around 400k units in Japan when everything is said and done. IMO, if the PSP wanted to gain some ground vs. the DS (not that it could ever win) they should: #1. Lower the price to no more than $150, or a comparible rate worldwide. #2. Develop more unique titles, and exclusives such as God of War (coming out), Gran Turismo, and other major titles. With the PS3 floundering, PSP sales could give Sony a much-needed boost if they played it smart. #3. Stop advertising it to the 13-17 y/o crowd. Try to explain it's obviously superior multimedia features and abilities instead of just one crowd, it's obnoxious. #4. Coerce new developers via great middleware to port their games to PSP, or create new games on the platform. IMO, you can do so much with the platform if the devs cared (which most don't). If Sony could offer some sort of special abilities to port very good games (like Kingdom Hearts, FFXII, ect) over, it could do really well. Not that Sony really would do it. The PSP could easily sell 50-60m units w/w before it releases a 2nd PSP. However, it will have a hard time when there are no games for it. MHP2 showed that there are TONS of people that'd buy a PSP if there was any relevant software for the system. There is none of that software outside of porn. Sony needs to up the ante, and even consider making a next series title on the PSP exclusively.

 Don't forget, if portables such as the Gamegear and Atari Lynx were the same price as the Gameboy, then Nintendo would have lost the crown as portable champion.



ssj12 said:
mancandy said:
PSP not doomed. UMD for movies DOOOOOOMED!!!!

 actually UMD isnt a complete failure. Most advertisements for movies being released on DVD mostly contain a "for UMD" stamp too. Plus its only majorly selliing poorly in the US. In Japan they have UMD Burners and its selling a lot better there. 

Doesn't really mean anything. All that means is Sony is trying to make UMD succeed in those commercials. Obviously they are going to advertise it. Not only that, but it has been a while since I even saw a commercial with "UMD" mentioned. Truth is, UMD is not Sony's future.



psmcx said:
Um in short no the psp is not doomed it actually has great first party support, The ps2 ports are stopping ( and going to the wii but no one complains about that on this site), And 20 million worldwide is =exactly where the GBA was at this same time. plus with the recent price drop sales have picked up well (even though it probably wont pass the ds), i mean yeah UMD is a failure but so was GBA video. And beside for the rest of 2007 the psps has an undiputidely better line up than the ds ( Gow, GT, Castlevania, Parrappa, Jean D Arc, FF 1 and 2).

I keep forgetting about Gameboy Advance Video. It's cool how the Gameboy Advance can play movies, but it did not succeed. It did worse than UMD. At least people know what UMD is. More people never even knew about Gameboy Advance Video.

Well, it is your opinion that the PSP has a better line up of video games than the DS in 2007. I personally don't like Castlevania or Parrappa. And what is GoW? I keep thinking "Gears of War" but that would be impossible.

Well, maybe PSP sales might pick up in the future. It has been about 2-3 years since the thing has been released, so it's about time it starts doing better.



Around the Network
a.l.e.x59 said:
ssj12 said:
mancandy said:
PSP not doomed. UMD for movies DOOOOOOMED!!!!

actually UMD isnt a complete failure. Most advertisements for movies being released on DVD mostly contain a "for UMD" stamp too. Plus its only majorly selliing poorly in the US. In Japan they have UMD Burners and its selling a lot better there.


Doesn't really mean anything. All that means is Sony is trying to make UMD succeed in those commercials. Obviously they are going to advertise it. Not only that, but it has been a while since I even saw a commercial with "UMD" mentioned. Truth is, UMD is not Sony's future.


 thats true, especially since the PSP2 is rumored to support mini blu-ray discs that hold 14GB single layer 28 dual layer.



PC gaming is better than console gaming. Always.     We are Anonymous, We are Legion    Kick-ass interview   Great Flash Series Here    Anime Ratings     Make and Play Please
Amazing discussion about being wrong
Official VGChartz Folding@Home Team #109453
 
That Guy said:
20 million is not considered a failure. Unless you're a Gamecube. I would even go so far as to consider it a hit. When we compare it to DS, sure it didn't "win," but if its profitable and it has a loyal fanbase, then I consider it to be successful.

True. Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Xbox were not successful compared to the Playstation 2. Like I said, all consoles are good, and all can appear to be successful, depending on what you compare it to, and how you view it. Xbox compared to Dreamcast is successful, but fails miserably compared to Playstation 2. Dreamcast is successful compared to Atari Jaguar, but  not compared to the Gamecube. Sega Gamegear is successful compared to Atari Lynx, but not compared to Gameboy. Even Atari Jaguar is successful when compared to Apple Pippin, but when compared to Playstation 2, it's Game Over. And well... for Apple Pippin, I guess it is still a marvelous piece of technology. So at the end, it all depends on how you view the consoles, and what you compare it to. Playstation Portable is not a success if compared to most of Nintendo's portables, but, is a success when compared to Nokia N-Gage and Gizmondo.

Also, Gamecube sold a little bit more than the Playstation Portable, but not too much more. In due time, the Playstation Portable should surpass the Gamecube and Xbox, which is actually kind of sad.



ssj12 said:
a.l.e.x59 said:
ssj12 said:
mancandy said:
PSP not doomed. UMD for movies DOOOOOOMED!!!!

actually UMD isnt a complete failure. Most advertisements for movies being released on DVD mostly contain a "for UMD" stamp too. Plus its only majorly selliing poorly in the US. In Japan they have UMD Burners and its selling a lot better there.


Doesn't really mean anything. All that means is Sony is trying to make UMD succeed in those commercials. Obviously they are going to advertise it. Not only that, but it has been a while since I even saw a commercial with "UMD" mentioned. Truth is, UMD is not Sony's future.


 thats true, especially since the PSP2 is rumored to support mini blu-ray discs that hold 14GB single layer 28 dual layer.

Well, that's if there is going to be a PSP2. If it would support Blu-Ray Discs that hold 14GB, that would probably send Sony back further. It would just cost more money, and more people would dismiss it. PSP is already stronger than the DS, yet is losing. What makes Sony think that by adding more power, they will get more sales? In fact, for Sony, it's the other way around. The more power they add, the worse they do. Sony could have micro Super Blu-Ray gems (yes, the CDs are replaced with gems) that hold 500,000 GB per layer, 128 quadruple layer, and still lose to Nintendo in the portable department. At the end, it's all about the games.



Firstly - no matter how well the PSP does (from here), Sony will consider it a success - and many industry figures will consider it a failure. So it depends how you look at it.

...

A have a few thoughts on the situation:

 - the PSP will always have a market as a "non-gaming" device. It does have a lovely screen - its best asset - and this alone, should keep sales going for a long time. Consider that it also plays music, videos, great for homebrew, lots of quality games... and it should have legs.

 - I always thought that a PSP that uses CARTRIDGES would be an incredibly awesome device. The memstick is a little like this - but games are not being "released" on it (maybe this is why it is so good for warez). But Sony is too heavily involved in disc medium to do this (and too proud). If they would have released the PSP with cart only, it may well have won this generation (or got a lot closer). {battery, loading times, more compact games, etc}

 - The design & price of the PSP make it hard to iterate the device. Its expensive, so people are less likely buy an upgraded version. And apart from a touch screen (that may be problematic design-wise) Im not sure what they could put into a PSP2. Apart from tinkering, Sony can't really release an improved model for another 3-4 years.

 - I work at a company that makes premium mobile titles (phones). My boss made a strategic decision a year ago not too support the PSP - purely because its going to get HAMMERED by mobile devices (i.e. N95, etc..). There are already a heap of mobile devices out there that do exactly the same things that the PSP does - PLUS a heap more will be coming out shortly. A lot of them are more expensive, but like everything, price will drop over time (etc). Within a couple of years, there will be little point to owning a PSP rather than a decent phone. The last real advantage the PSP over mobile is quality game titles. This will help the PSP for a while, but once the new "N-gage" (series of Nokia devices) is out for a while - the PSP will be overwhelmed (game-wise).

...

To conclude - the PSP still has good life in it yet. Sony may need to keep dropping the price, but that should drive sales for a couple of years to come. The biggest  threat is actually coming from the mobile (phone) industry - and Nokia. Once the new N-gage platform hits, it won't take long before some awesome games arrive. And within a year (two at most) after this arrival, the PSP will start to be swamped. Once this happens - its game over for the PSP. No company will prefer to develop for the PSP, rather than N-gage/mobiles  (lower dev cost, significantly higher install base, no limit to lifespan, huge amounts of growth to come).

 



Gesta Non Verba

Nocturnal is helping companies get cheaper game ratings in Australia:

Game Assessment website

Wii code: 2263 4706 2910 1099

For me the psp is doomed IF they make loco roco 2 for the ps3. I heard rumours that this is true. Anybody have a link for news on this?

Sure it would help the ps3 I bit, but loco roco for me is by far the best psp game and jumping from psp to ps3 would mean the psp losing its only credible up coming game.



call me Aaronbunny!

Wii code: 6993 4542 2457 6182. plz add me Im a wiily gd friend