Sony PSP starts to outsell Nintendo DS in Japan

[Jome]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/26/psp_vs_ds_sales/

Sony PSP outships Nintendo DS
By Tony Smith
Published Wednesday 26th January 2005 15:45 GMT

Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) is beginning to outsell the Nintendo DS, Japanese weekly sales charts reveal.

According to the latest sales figures, for the week commencing 16 January, some 64,600 PSPs were shipped to retailers in Japan, over 10,000 more than the 53,500 DS consoles shipped in the same period.

Of course, Sony has a long way to go to overtake Nintendo's total sales of the DS. The DS launched some weeks ahead of the PSP, and with a much greater number of machines in the channel ready to sell.

And don't forget that the figures cover shipments to retailers, not sales to end users. Shipping product is (relatively) easy; selling them less so.

Last week, Sony Computer Entertainment chief Ken Kutaragi said the company had shipped 800,000-odd PSPs since the handheld console's 12 December 2004 debut. Today, Nintendo said it had shipped 2.84m DS units since its late November launch, though that figure covers both the US and Japan. To date, the PSP has only been officially available in Sony's home territory.

Nintendo now expects to ship 6m units of the console by 31 March, well above its earlier forecast of 5m units, the company said today. ®

[Sikotic™]

Nobody wants that candy ass DS.

My brother got one. The shits wack IMO. Maybe it just needs better games and more people to get it, but it's designed badly. I mean the shits bukly as fuck, like the old skool grey brick game boys.

[Suffice]

wow, who would have thought...

[daWappla]

hmmm... I thought that if I should get one of those 2 handhelds then its gonna be the DS for one because its Nintendo with their Zelda and Metroid games which to this day always made me buy Nintendo consoles and for the reason that I really thought that that 2 screen idea was good... I saw a presentation of the DS and was impressed how they made use of the touch screen in the Metroid game... they also said that there could be games which work with voice recognition since it has a mic and that it could be used to control something...  I think thats pretty impressive.... of course they will have to implement those abilities into the games and I´m not too sure whether the casual gamer likes that idea or not...

... a few days ago I saw a presentation of the PSP and was also very impressed.. the most I liked the big screen and the smoothness of the graphics (Ridge Racers) .. and the first wave of games that are released with the launch of the actual console always tend to be , how shall I say, "crappy" - performancewise... so there is always space for improvement... so thats definatly a good sign... and you just gotta love that USB port which the DS is missing ....  on the other hand I don´t need all that multimedia stuff that comes with the PSP... I don´t plan to watch movies that go for 2 hours on that handheld... I don´t plan to use my handheld as a mp3 player... I got a cellphone which does the job for me..

.. so right now I still tend to go with the DS although I think that from a gamers perspective you can´t go wrong with the one or the other...

[Thirteen]

Nobody wants that candy ass DS.

My brother got one. The shits wack IMO. Maybe it just needs better games and more people to get it, but it's designed badly. I mean the shits bukly as fuck, like the old skool grey brick game boys.

speaking of designed badly

Gamers report PSP malfunction
Nearly 5,000 units are returned to Sony for buggy button; Kutaragi unapologetic about the handheld's design.
TOKYO--About 4,800 Japanese PSPs have been returned to Sony due to problems with the handheld's square button, according to a recent interview with Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi in Nikkei Business magazine.

Kutaragi acknowledged that the button is less responsive than the others, in part because it's so close to the PSP's 480x272 screen. Because there isn't enough room to put the square button's detection switch directly underneath, it's off to the right, making it less responsive--and sometimes causing it to stick.

Nikkei Business reported that, to date, .6 percent of the 800,000 shipped units have been returned to Sony for repair. Kutaragi was unapologetic about the issue: "This is the design that we came up with. There may be people that complain about its usability, but that's something which users and game software developers will have to adapt to. I didn't want the PSP's LCD screen to become any smaller than this, nor did I want its machine body to become any larger.

"The button's location is [architectured] on purpose," Kutaragi added. "It's according to specifications. This is something that we've created, and this is our specification. There was a clear purpose to it, and it wasn't a mistake."

Offering additional testimony praising the handheld, Kutaragi said, "I believe we made the most beautiful thing in the world. Nobody would criticize a renowned architect's blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It's the same as that."


By Staff -- GameSpot

[white Boy]

^ fucking idiots

[Sikotic™]

Fuck both handhelds if ya ask me/

[DAYUM]

DS does suck

[bui21]

you know sony will outplay nintendo anyday

[DreSnoop00]

the gameboy advance SP, i liked that one. it had a light, was compact and required no separate batteries...plus u cant go wrong when they offer the OG mario games

[Black_Smoke]

how much are they sellin the psps for in USD?

[MANBEARPIG.]

The DS is for Gamers the PSP is for trendy cats who sometimes play games.


The PSP has been mad rushed and there are even more concerns than that damn square button, the battery life is laughable too, that was the number one concern with it.  Im not hatin on the PSP but I am very happy with my DS so far