A relative succes. I think they got the amount of succes the product deserve, actually. It's a nice machine, but it doesn't come close to reaching the greatness of the DS.

Kasz216 said: When was the firmware cracked anyway Looking at FIFA for example FIFA Soccer (05) .11 due to no europeon sales FIFA 06 .57 FIFA 07 1.03 FIFA 08 .81 Grand theft Auto Vice City - 2.44 Mil San Andreas - 4.78 Mil

 The FW was cracked in 05 , but it became rampant ( and usable for most ) only at the beginning of 06 . Untill then dozen of showelware games where announced for the PSP , and then , afther Sony just couldent handle the issue with FW updates there where far less games announced . The best example of sales going down is what you showed : GTA : LCS is the best selling 3rd party portable game this gen , while VCS could only sell half . 

NFS : MW sold nearly 2 million copys on the PSP while Carbon still didnt hit the million .

Madden sales went down for 3 years , even though hardware is going up ( stillf far better than on the DS true) .

Smackdown ... well I dont know its still selling .

There are some differences  , but most of them came last year when the S&L came andmany new addopters came . So yeah , I balme piarcy for the lower sales of yearly franchises , especially when Madden 08 for the PSP often appeared as top downloads on torent sites ...

Well, money is made on each console sold, so it's selling for a profit. Therefore, yes, the PSP is a success.

Sony's Financial Reports state that higher than normal PSP sales were the reason for the profit last quarter... Well, the PSP didn't sell too much software between Oct. and Dec. 07. We all know this, so Sony has to be making a profit on each one sold, especially with the revision, the slimmer model, smaller components, less material used, etc. So if each PSP is sold at profit, then yes, it's a resounding success.

Also, let's take a look at the Japanese charts and ask if the PSP is a failure or not.

the PSP had brought us one of the best and most wel designed handheld games of the last years; Crisis Core..

so you can say what you want,
but the PSP is a handheld for guys like me
cuz I'm not playing Animal Crossing, Brain Training, FFIII, Math Training and New Mario Bros. on the NDS.. hell no..

just give me Crisis Core, Wipeout, Echochrome, Tales of Rebirth, Suikoden, Tactics, God of War, Pro Evo and Wild Arms..


so just like the Wii and PS3
the NDS and PSP also have different libraries that appeal to different people..

Sky Render said: In business, the ultimate goal is to make a profit. In that regard, it doesn't matter if you sell only 1 unit, as long as you get a return off of it; that's still better than selling 30 million and taking a loss. Which is a part of why Sony and Microsoft's business models are so very scorned by businesses at large. To sell something at a loss in hopes of making up for that loss in the future is something that only a firm with a lot of capital to spare can risk. And is the PSP profitable yet? Has it made up for the losses it incurred early on? I haven't seen any reports stating such, but I would be interested in seeing them.

I didn't realize that Sony took such massive losses on the PSP.  I mean it's turning a profit now, and has been for some time, right?  Do you know what the initial loss rate was?  Do you know when it went from loss to gain?  Does ANYONE know what the gain rate is now? 

hunter_alien said: Kasz216 said: When was the firmware cracked anyway Looking at FIFA for example FIFA Soccer (05) .11 due to no europeon sales FIFA 06 .57 FIFA 07 1.03 FIFA 08 .81 Grand theft Auto Vice City - 2.44 Mil San Andreas - 4.78 Mil The FW was cracked in 05 , but it became rampant ( and usable for most ) only at the beginning of 06 . Untill then dozen of showelware games where announced for the PSP , and then , afther Sony just couldent handle the issue with FW updates there where far less games announced . The best example of sales going down is what you showed : GTA : LCS is the best selling 3rd party portable game this gen , while VCS could only sell half . NFS : MW sold nearly 2 million copys on the PSP while Carbon still didnt hit the million . Madden sales went down for 3 years , even though hardware is going up ( stillf far better than on the DS true) . Smackdown ... well I dont know its still selling . There are some differences , but most of them came last year when the S&L came andmany new addopters came . So yeah , I balme piarcy for the lower sales of yearly franchises , especially when Madden 08 for the PSP often appeared as top downloads on torent sites ...

Madden slaes went UP. It went down in 08 and that was it... note that Madden sales in general were down in 08

NFS Carbon was just a bad game.

On average most games sales have gone up.

Even then if they didn't, you couldn't argue it was piracy without knowing how many people who got PSP's still use their PSPs. How many still use them for games... and how many people that used to buy games now use them to pirate... and how many of those people planned to continue to buy games instead of pirate them.

A number of Slim sales after all are likely people upgrading their PSPs.

How many of those people.. just bought PS2s. Or DS's. Or just thought PSP games weren't worth the money anymore.

How did the entrace of the DS effect software sales? And the DS catching on and userbase growing.

Looking at the montly and yearly charts this trend you think exists just doesn't present itself. Honestly it's just a lot easier to say "This game is canceled because of piracy" then "This game is canceled because it wont' sell enough."

Reason being, then the people are mad at the pirates and not you. 

"Piracy" does not have anywhere near the effect on software sales that the industry wants the public to believe.

Just look at the music industry. If what they're saying about downloads were actually true, then all the major record labels would have gone out of business years ago considering that almost anyone can download an artist's entire discography in mere hours at the most.

Downloads are nothing more than a scapegoat.

Sullla said: The best way to describe the PSP is a modest success that fell far, far short of Sony's expectations. The goal with the PSP was not to "break into" the handheld market and get creamed by the DS. Sony created the PSP to destroy Nintendo's dominance in portables, with the intention of driving Nintendo out of business. Remember, this was back in 2004, the height of Sony's domination of the gaming market. The PS2 was destroying all comers, and the GBA was seen as the last bastion of hope for Nintendo, which Sony was going to sweep away just as they had taken over the console market. The PSP had ALL of the third party support, extensive multimedia capabilities, and Sony was able to leverage their motion picture division into releasing movies on the platform too! Every analyst thought it was over for the DS, which would be steamrolled with ease. So you have to keep some of those expectations in mind when evaluating the relative success or failure of the PSP. I seriously doubt that Sony would have been happy with the current situation of the PSP, if you had told them where they would be four years down the road. Neither would the Sony fans of four years ago. When you spin things around and make statements like "of course the PSP is a success, no one ever beats Nintendo handhelds", you're reading history backwards from the perspective of the present. That doesn't mean the PSP was a failure either; it's just been a very modest success. In no way has it come anywhere close to the goals it was supposed to achieve. Saying that the PSP must be a success because it turned a profit is a little like saying the Gamecube was a success because it also turned a profit. True in one sense, while missing the larger point.

 

This makes a lot of sense. It's actually kind of funny--replace Sony with Microsoft in that post and Nintendo with Sony, and you've got the sixth generation of consoles .

 

Yeah, I'd consider the PSP a success, in the same way that you might have considered the original Xbox a success--it successfully established itself in a monopolized market.  There are differences, however--the original Xbox had a respectable attach rate.  While the PSP does in fact have a quality games lineup now, people aren't buying it (with few exceptions).

Let me put it this way: If the PSP was as successful as Sony (and everyone) predicted, Nintendo would very likely be out of the video game market right now, as the DS was all that held them together for the last year of the GameCube's life.

A Bit of both...

Sony's goal: Beat Nintendo At their own game (Handhelds)