I have gotten sick and tired of hearing people spew the absolute bullshit about how Monster Hunter 2G saved the PSP. It gave an incredible, and amazingly well sustained boost to the system, but did not cause the level of sales people attribute to it. The game like any other "system seller" caused a large spike followed by a relatively brief period of sustained sales before leveling off to the exact point it was at before. Don't take my word for it though, lets look at the charts.

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS&reg1=Japan&cons2=PSP&reg2=Japan&cons3=X360&reg3=------&start=39453&end=39628

The above chart is weekly PSP sales in Japan for this year. You might notice a fairly large spike right in the middle of it. That would be the release of the latest Monster Hunter game for the PSP. The intresting point for me is that the sales 2 months before, and 2 months after are roughly the same. The second bump prolonged the increased sales, and was likely due to another big PSP game being released.  Perhaps it was the first Monster Hunter game that caused it.

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS&reg1=Japan&cons2=PSP&reg2=Japan&cons3=X360&reg3=------&start=39089&end=39628

Here is a fairly long term chart for weekly PSP sales in Japan. The first giant bump was the result of the first Monster Hunter game being released. Notice that it again that sales returned to the level they were at prior to the release of the game. You might notice that second, much larger spike in sales that did cause a sustained increase in PSP sales. Let's zoom in on that and see what is up with that.

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS&reg1=Japan&cons2=PSP&reg2=Japan&cons3=X360&reg3=------&start=39320&end=39628

Here we have a zoomed in graph at the above mentioned spike. September 15th saw one huge new release for a Sony portable console. That release was the PSP Slim. Notice how sustained sales go up from their previous low and to the recently sustained highs. It is selling at the almost the exact same rate after that release as it is today. It has been selling at that rate for all the inbetween months as well save for the normal boosts from big games and holidays.

Some of you may be wondering why I included the DS in that list. The reason is people seem to think market saturation of the DS has increased PSP sales. As you can see in the second graph though that is simply not the case. The PSP's boost in sales happened well before the decrease in DS sales due to saturation. The DS and PSP both had sustained amazing sales for 2 or so months before the DS fell off and the PSP kept chugging along.

The short version of this is the PSP Slim is what has caused the complete turn around in Japan. No one game has ever, or will ever cause a permanent increase in sales of a console. You need a wide selection of good games to sustain your sales, and have an attractive system at a reasonable price point.

there is NEVER a single factor that caused any phenomenon. It's always a combination of a few factors working together.

Did Wii win all because of Motion sensor singlehanded??? No, it won also because of their good first party game and Nintendo brand name, as well as the low price.

To say that MH didn't save PSP (or deny that it didn't help) is absolute, to quote the OP, bullshit

Yep. Slim helped a lot. The Monster Hunter bump was pretty good. The 2seg-tuner is a huge seller.

I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Shame that there aren't more on the site who could give a Japanese perspective, for I'd love to hear it. Like any region, the console that is considered the most hip and popular is bound to sell the best. The DS, like you said, is saturated. It sells on its library but its appeal is greatly lessened. The PSP, with a new slim design and the phenomenon of the Monster Hunter series, is now, I'm guessing, considered to be quite hip to own.

Hell, for that matter, few games have ever motivated more people to buy a system beyond a week or two of boosted sales.

you are forgetting the pokemanz!

crap wrong system

Well written, and you're totally correct.

Please refer to chart 1. It shows the PSP sustaining 60k a week before and after the release of Monster Hunter 2G. Graph 2 shows that it was sustaining 60k a week long before Monster Hunter 2G came into the picture. MH didn't save the PSP. The PSP saved the PSP.

If you have some evidence to contradict this then please post it. Please don't post something with no facts to support it at all after I have clearly shown it is wrong though.

 I would never deny that Monster Hunter has helped the PSP. The increased sales are clearly the result of the PSP Slim though. Monster Hunter 2 was released and the PSP stayed at 30k a week. PSP slim is released and the sales become a sustained 60k. Monster Hunter 2G is released and PSP sales remain at 60K. Monster Hunter has a huge boost for PSP sales?

there are TONS of evidence against it. Mostly things a diagram wouldn't be able to show (at least single diagram wouldn't show)

Things invovling

*a slow fall off of a console after re-design.
*slow world economy
*slow summer season.

To completely deny any credit MH have on PSP is like showing single diagrams saying GTAIV boosted Wii sales. (when in fact, we know it was strong supply that did the trick)

Really??? The title of the thread is "

Monster Hunter 2 did nothing for long term PSP sales in Japan."

that sounds awfully like "deny that MH has helped the PSP"..

no?