PSP sales boost attempt #347: stealth attack

Sony has made numerous attempts on Nintendo's portable handheld crown with their PSP, but nothing really seems to stick, since DS sales numbers are just as astronomical as ever. Now Sony has taken to camouflaging their PSPs in an attempt to catch consumers unawares, thereby tricking them into purchasing the portable console. (Or perhaps they're trying to break into the notoriously tough hunting, camping, and peeping tom demographics).That's the theory anyways, because we're not really sure why somebody would pick one of these camo units up otherwise. Especially with Sony busting out a whole bunch of fruity PSPs and a silver edition alongside the camo version -- and of course there's always that incredibly pink version to consider. As far as price and availability, we're not quite sure Sony even plans to bring these things to market, but if they do we're banking on a Japan exclusive for a while before they come to the States, so hopefully we'll have ample warning. Be sure to peep the fruity and silver editions after the break.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

[Arno @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:43PM]

Meh... not for me.

[Patrick Stephens @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:43PM]

Me neither

[Benjamin @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:48PM]

I can't see the camo ones...


;-)

[Kamalot @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:48PM]

Looks amazingly lame in anything other than black.

[blackout @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:50PM]

it isn't that bad in white either

but i've got 2 of the black one XD

[Jason @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:07PM]

Um, more games for my PSP would be a much better way to boost sales. GAMES PLEASE!!!!

[shon @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:14PM]

well ive owned both systems. IMO, i'll take the psp over the DS lite anyday. But i dont think i fit into the DS demo, even though i tried. not really my type of games, and i just coulndt get over the crappy screen resolution, and lack of features. I love using the psp for the net on the go, as well as music, movies and photos. when the psp comes with that 4gig Hdd, ill buy another one. storage was my only complaint (and game load time kinda sucked too).. and btw, whats the point of that IR port if its not getting used?

[tehuberone @ Sep 23rd 2006 2:48AM]

The IR port is for homebrewers to make a universal remote.

[greg @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:16PM]

perfect for when charlie is firing at me.

[Esat @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:17PM]

Holy crap that looks chugly*

*cheap AND ugly.

[Drew @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:22PM]

Sony's tried every trick in the bag.... except releasing enjoyable games.

Discalimer - I just bought a DS today and love it. Best Buy was completely sold out of black and pink, but I wanted Apple white anyway.

[shon @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:18PM]

i loved my ds for a few weeks too. its deffinitely sleek and sexy *cough* Apple *cough*... and thats about it.

[Michael Moll @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:25PM]

When will they learn...

Actually, I like the fact they used primary colors since I would buy a red nano in a heartbeat, but it doesn't look as good as I'd hoped.

[trout-101 @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:45PM]

How about the following:

Sales Attempt #473: Lower Game Prices

I know it's complicated and stuff but just think about it. Pricing games $10 more than GameBoy/DS games is just not doing it.

Sales Attempt #845: More Games

Yes, it's that simple. Like a lot of people I bought the psp after seeing Grand Turismo on the relese list. So where is it?

[Dp462090 @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:51PM]

Reminds me of a first generation Gameboy, one of my friends had(it had a camo pattern around the screen, if remember correctly).

[grandmasterdibbler @ Sep 22nd 2006 5:59PM]

Yeah that's really gonna help now ain't it, maybe they asked if Sylvester Stallone could have one in the next Rambo Movie!

[BIG O @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:05PM]

Camo PSP iz hella ugly, you will neva see me with that, I'll take the red, blue, or silver fo' sho!

[Aaron @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:05PM]

I just can't see why they would release one of these when the standard black PSP looks so good. Although I prefer my DS, my (dusty) PSP looks better as a gadget.

[Roger @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:06PM]

Yeah, Sony only sold TWNETY MILLION units in a year and a half. Their sales suck... Oh, wait... 20,000,000? I guess that's not so bad afterall.

[Giga @ Sep 24th 2006 11:27PM]

FYI Sony has shipped 20 million PSP

[dave @ Sep 22nd 2006 6:07PM]

Just in time for FTB2 - W00T!

[PPC @ Sep 22nd 2006 7:16PM]

How about a clear one?

[Jordan @ Sep 22nd 2006 7:38PM]

Lol, clear... That would be awesome. I remember when I bought a clear game boy pocket back in the day.

[Mark @ Sep 22nd 2006 9:44PM]

theyre making a silver ps2 as well... comes out mid-october. its a limited edition ps2. (at least thats what the retarded sony rep told me when she came in the other day [best buy])

[T.H. @ Sep 22nd 2006 10:15PM]

@Roger, Sony did not sell 20 million PSP's. They shipped 20 million PSP's which is not the same as selling 20 million. From other places I've read, it's closer to 14-15 million sold (at the time of the last numbers update) while Nintendo has sold over 20 million Nintendo DS's. You are being fooled by Sony (among others) reporting shipped numbers as opposed to sold numbers. I can make 10 million widgets but have only sold 6 million of them. However, when I put out press releases, I say "10 million shipped worldwide!" and it looks good rather than "6 million sold worldwide!" The report was from the beginning of August and Nintendo has stated it expects to sell 7 million (not ship, sell) by the end of 2006.

Most telling...DS games vastly outnumber PSP games in sales numbers. I'm going to have to jump on the "psp needs to make more good games" bandwagon here. The PSP is not really a bad system. There are a few negatives such as it's slightly too large to fit in ones pocket and although people flog it for it's media capabilities, it sucks as a media player IMHO. And yes, I have one collecting dust for the last 8 months in the house while the last time I played my DS was a few days ago. Worse is it's lack of games built for the portable market. Most of it's "hit" games are merely ports from the PS2.

With all that said, the PSP has been the only system to ever chip away at Nintendo's stranglehold on the portable market. It has grabbed a significant share of the portable market but Nintendo has shown it knows how to counter the PSP and while the PSP grabbed an early lead, it's looking like Nintendo will be slowly but surely pulling ahead to a very comfortable lead.

[Roger @ Sep 23rd 2006 1:29AM]

T.H. - Don't be stupid. There isn't 5 million PSPs sitting on store shelves. I doubt that there is much more than 50,000 units in the pipeline, worldwide.

Also, the 20 million units shipped figure is from JUNE. Looked at a calendar lately? That was three months ago.

The fact is, the PSP is selling at a faster pace than the original Playstation, which reached the ONE HUNDRED MILLION unit mark at just under 10 years. And faster than the PS2, which reached the ONE HUNDRED MILLION unit mark at just over 5 years.

Sony has sold more PSPs than most consoles ever have. And there is what, just ONE game system that is selling/sold better? I think Sony is doing just fine.

[Mike Spreng @ Sep 22nd 2006 11:42PM]

uhhhhhhhhhhhh, *cough*ugly*cough*
what are they thinking?????

also quick question, how do i change my comment password?

[n3rrd @ Sep 23rd 2006 2:08AM]

Keep in mind, Roger, that there are more people gaming now-a-days; of course they are going to sell more, faster. Todays twenty million isn't as impressive as yesteryears twenty million.

And, besides, if Sony has sold more PSPs what does that say about the DS? In relation to consoles made by the same company, it may be selling quite rapidly. Compared to it's competition, though, it's starting to fall behind rather quickly.

[Uchiha Sasuke @ Sep 23rd 2006 2:33AM]

Meh, The only portable part of Sony's PSP is the size. As far as the games goes, PSP acts more like a home console with boot up time and loading crap. I own both the PSP and the DS lite but I only take the DS lite with me on the long bus commute to work everyday. Most DS's games are easy to pick up and go, while the PSP it feels like you have to go through some sort of ritual just to get to the menu. Madden 2007 and Valkyrie profile for PSP is great but before I could fire up the game my bus already reach the station.

[Robert Barbieri @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:32AM]

Woo! More colors... bleh :P

How about they focus on making actual games that don't suck hard (Wipeout was good but not that good)

And stop fucking with the homebrew community!!! Hell the GBA/DS community is kicking hard because (while Nintendo hates it) that haven't don't much to prevent it.

[yur @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:34AM]

damn shon why dont you just get on your knees for sony. yeah ive also owned the psp and have only purchased the ds (never opened the box, returned) but still its the psp games that suck big donkey balls compared to ds games. just letting you know.

[jonCHwong @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:14PM]

Wow if I ever get another PSP, I'm definitely going for that silver one

[Koclobster @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:26PM]

PSP is just going downhill

[Rivendale @ Sep 23rd 2006 4:26PM]

Actually, the camo move is pretty smart for Sony... The PSP is completely losing to the DS in every intelligent market. I don't want to be condascending, but in redneck/hick markets the PSP seems to still be the "cool" thing somehow and a camo color will obviously sell to them... I think that market is always about 2 years behind the times...

[Dp462090 @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:11PM]

"The PSP is completely losing to the DS in every intelligent market. I don't want to be condascending, but in redneck/hick markets the PSP seems to still be the "cool" thing somehow and a camo color will obviously sell to them."

Even if the PSP, has less market share than the DS; it still has a big part of the market share. They past 2.2 million units ship was in March, 2006 (and I don�t think there are millions of PSP sitting around); the DS has a little over 22 million sold as of August, 2006. I think they�re both doing very well.

Also, you can't just make up things; like your claim that the PSP sells better in "redneck markets," while the DS sales better in "intelligent markets."

[hey4 @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:10PM]

that thing, looks hella ugly

[Dp462090 @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:13PM]

Sorry about the typos, I was changing the structure of my post alot.

[AT @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:26PM]

Probably to go with their new/upcoming games.
I'd guess one of them is about boating/marine sport, and the other is like Ghost Recon (i think it was out for a while) or some other tom clancy game like that.

[james34 @ Sep 23rd 2006 5:33PM]

iraqi soldiers would want a camoflauging psp. yep.

[Jesse @ Sep 23rd 2006 11:17PM]

Ughhh.. just give me the white one already!

[HeavyReaper @ Sep 24th 2006 12:26PM]

The Camo is indeed ugly, I have to agree with the others on diversity of games. PSP Needs more titles, not more colors

[steve @ Sep 24th 2006 4:38PM]

why not lower the price of the handheld,
lower the price of the games,
release more games,
and allow the new firmware to do some homebrew action

[Kamisamanou Burgess @ Sep 29th 2006 12:26PM]

I love the PSP. Especially the "Ceramic White" Japanese Models. I also think they have some awesome games. My problem with the Nintendo (insert model name here) is that the games always sport weird perspectives and controls. The Playstation Portable is just that, a portable version of a home console, which is why I love it so much.