If Sony acts properly they can make this system hold their empire up. It's the best performing out of it and the PS3 (PS2's not counted in this since its on the slow decline from 6th gen dominance). Sony may not win markets per se with the PSP but they can use it as a bargaining chip to stay in the fight. From what I hear the library's improving so it can only go up for the PSP if Sony plays their cards right. John Lucas

The PSP is doomed....get a grips folks!?!

The PSP is more popular now than it ever has been.  It's sold near 22m WW in 2.5 years in Japan, 2 years in the US and not even 2 years in Europe.  Yes the DS has sold double, but the DS is a handheld unto it's own.

Why are developers announced PSP specific titles then?  Why does is seem that there are more PSP games being released now than mostly any other console?

The PSP is now at a level financially, that it can compete with the DS; I can only see PSP sales getting better.

As for mobile phones taking over from the PSP....what tosh!  You may be able to play video and play music, but I seriously doubt any mobile phone (N-Gage) included, can seriously compete with the PSP and DS for that matter, on a gaming level.  And if your company has invested in games for the mobile industry that will supercede the PSP, then you'll be waiting years and years for returns.

I think so people just cannot allow the PSP it's own space.  It's been a success in my eyes considering what the PSP was marketing as from day one.  Maybe there's a little jealousy in there, because games are now cropping up that DS owners want on their own system. 

First the PS3 is doomed and now the PS3 is doomed... Neither are doomed and the PSP has a really good lineup this year.

Totally agree. People like to imagine complete and utter victory, and total and absolute loss -- it makes you feel righteous and powerful. For people who want Sony to fail (read: fanboys) statements such as: "Proportionately, Sony may lose market share this generation" have neither the sonorous ring nor the emotional satisfaction that comes with a statement like "Sony is disgraced and they lose and no one likes them anymore." 

 Unfortunately, that's not the way it works. The PSP may not be the powerhouse that the DS is, but it's doing quite well in its own right. It has a solid lineup of games and a strong base. It's not going away, and Sony hasn't doomed itself: the system is making a profit for them. 

Is it less popular than the DS? Yes. But again, this isn't black and white -- the DS isn't experiencing complete victory over its competition. The PSP makes a tidy profit, and there will never be a point where the DS controls 100 percent of the handheld marketshare. I know this answer is less exciting, but it's also the truth.  

Just some more info:

Since the PSP RRP was reduced a week ago in the UK, there has been a 60% increase in sales.  Although I don't have actual figures, it's positive news again for the PSP.

Doomed....aye right!!! 

20 million for the PSP actually isn't bad at all. It has already sold GameCube numbers in two years time. The bigger issues for the PSP is software sales. For whatever reason the average PSP owner is buying far fewer games than the average DS owner. Actually if you look the PSPs software to hardware sales ratio it's the worst for any major system that I can recall, even conciderably worse than was that for the GBA. You can explain that away with it having other features, and with the emulation factor, but that's really the 800 pound Gorilla in the room. The PSP was supposed to be the hardcore gamer's handheld, but the software sales don't reflect that at all.

That truely is bizarre.....I cannot understand anyone going to extreme of purchasing a PSP and only buying 1 game.  I have 17 games for the PSP and love most of them.....and I'd expect to have another 5-10 by the end of the year.

Even if you bought the wrong game and hated it...surely you'd get another totally different game to see what it like considering you've spent around £180 for it????

Gamers are the wierdest sort. 

how much profit is sony making on its psp? are they going around on their profits?, hands up for everybody that were not thinking that psp would outsell ds when it first was announced, I know I surely thought so. when poeple say that psp is actually doing well, they are just rationalising, saying that they didn't think that sony would beat nintendo directly on the portable market, that's bullshit. you all thought, me included, that nintendo would be defeated, knocked out, just like what happened at the stationary market, it didn't happen... stop rationalising, psp sales suck, and if I were a sonyfanboy, I would really think so to.

The success of the PSP is a lot like the Gamecube. The Gamecube didn't lose money but many consider it a 'failure' simply because it got walloped by the PS2.

In terms of profit, I think the DS is absolutely destroying the PSP. Not only do I think Nintendo is making more on average per per hardware sold, but they are also making more profit on each software sold because they produce more first party titles. I'd guess that a first party title nets double the profit as a third party title.

So it's like a quadruple whammy win for DS.

1) Higher profit for each hardware
2) Higher profit for each software
3) Much more hardware sold
4) Much more software sold