Nintendo doubles up Sony's PSP, ships 100 millionth DS handheld
By Darren Murph 
posted March 12th 2009 12:27AM
posted March 12th 2009 12:27AM
posted March 12th 2009 12:27AM
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DS stands for Doubled Sales.
...and PSP stands for Profit in Sony's Pocket, as it started out at an outrageously high price. They may have sold only 1/2 as many, but the profits each company has amassed from their products must be fairly close.
Especially if you count peripherals, as the PSP uses all sorts of things that need to be purchased from Sony only.
A lot of people criticize Nintendo for not catering to the "hardcore" gamer, but rather to the general "casual" audience. Well, look what it's done: both of Nintendo's machines (the DS series and the Wii) constantly top the sales charts, and usually by a very wide margin. In Japan, the person-to-DS ratio is so high that it's likely that every Japanese will have one in no time. While what could be called the hardest "hardcore" system, the PS3, has always fallen to the bottom of the pile, despite being technologically superior by far. It's the games that make the system, and if the games only appeal to a certain demographic rather than the general populace, then the system isn't going to do well.
Sony has always blamed piracy for hurting its revenue on the PSP, but look at the PS3, which is the only system to have virtually no piracy, and look at the DS series, which has a lot more piracy than the PSP (since its games are so small and easily downloadable, and the DSi doesn't break piracy like the the new PSP3000). Peripherals bringing revenue? About the only peripheral you actually need for the PSP is the stupid memory stick, and you can buy that from companies like Sandisk. The headphones can be bought anywhere, as long as you don't need the remote function. Camera? Mic? Who uses those? GPS? I've yet to meet a PSP user who has any of these. As for the pricing, the DS uses cheaper components, so it's cheaper to make, and so sells for less, and usually the profit doesn't come from selling the system to begin with.
Your days are numbers! They are also words!
Man, the fanboys these days are sure going way down in IQ.
@Who?
You think they have made roughly the same? I think not, they've been prized about the same most of the time and I am pretty sure a lot more games have been sold for the DS
Mario Kart DS is one of the best games ever. It's no wonder that the price hasn't dropped from 34.99 for years now. Talk about margin.
@who - with the amount of (expensive) technology Sony packed into the PSP, I very much doubt they've made anything even slightly approaching Nintendo's profits on the DS - they were probably making a loss on each system when it launched. That's even if you don't take into account license profits on each game sold - I suspect software sales are an awful lot more than 2:1 in Nintendo's favour.
PSP's been an impressive success in even approaching Nintendo's sales for a handheld system though - it's far from a failure.
i wish dsi had two less cameras and cost $40 less
basically i just want the ds store
maybe they'll make a DSi Lite
:P
I wish engadget would just give props where its due instead of constantly bashing Sony.
Why Sean? Does it hurt your feelings?
@MrEpicHero
ye it's killing us all inside that you have no idea what a kinked demand curve is.
But will it blend? That is the question.
fuck you
lol genius.
A year 'til it hits 150 million, I'm guessing.
There's no way, man... not the way the economy is going, and judging by past performance...
I bought one this weekend so their is a small canche I bought the 100 millionth SWEET!!!!
Wow, cool. But you totally missed where the h goes by a few spots
-P)
pretty sure you'd have to have bought it on march 6th. says so on the graph.
I did
owned.
maybe the "psp2" will change things? we shall see...
Not really, there was a time when most people thought NOONE could bring out a competing handheld system against Nintendo.
There was also a time where Nintendo was at the bottom of the console heap. The video games market is not that consistent.
owned? Not at all...
DS is FAR cheaper. It makes sense.
Most kids just MUST have a portable console. Most grown-ups don't. My gameboy was my life. Right now, I guess I can go for a Gaming Desktop + PSP2 combo...
PSP is just too old gen for me. I could pick up a DS lite on eBay and hack it for DS roms...
hot damn!!!!!!!!!!100 million.,!!!!!!!!!!i seriously gotta bow down .some sick numbers..no wonder sony looking at revamping their psp,.,.,success equals sales......
punctuation misuse,!!,!..!!!
I thought they stopped making PSPs a couple of years ago. They're not still making games for that thing, are they?
Wonder when Nintendo will consider a successor to the DS? What would it be like? Surely they couldn't go back to their Gameboy line after the tremendous success that is the DS.
i thought the ds was a gameboy.
Gameboy was epic.
I would get a DS successor, but since they announced the hardly improved DSi in a big "hoopla" last year I think that won't be before another good 3-4 years....
Only sold that many because they made 3 versions and when your crazy you need to get the latest and greatest! Crazy Japanese...
PSP did the same, but in the end the upgrades aren't really worth the price. Nice, but my 1000 does just fine. I'll have to get the new version if it really is special.
Thats right, SONY shipped one billion, but only sold 50 million.
Over-confidance on brand name is whats bringing them down.
Once SONY becomes an 'I am' instead of a 'I was' they'll top the charts again
Both the DS and the PSP are successes, no need to flame. I own a PSP because I enjoy the features and are probly older/more of a gamer than the target DS audience. My parents have the DS, good for them, it's a good device. Let's all try to be nice
Sony used to be on top. Now they're an also ran.
When exactly were Sony 'on top' in handheld gaming?
Accuse PS3 of being a failure if you like, but PSP is a success story for Sony.
I'm surprised by the Sony numbers, actually. I wouldn't have guessed they'd moved half as many units, considering the DS is almost ubiquitous. And at a higher pricepoint. Urrrm, good job, Sony PSP division ... whoever you are.
AFAIK, "sell-in" refers to units shipped to retailers, while "sell-out" refers to actual units sold to consumers. Sony refers to the "sell-in" number, which means that a comparison between their numbers and Nintendo's is correct, and not comparing different things. Engadget is getting it a bit wrong by selling that Sony actually "sold" that many units. It's actually not strange, since if you consider the month-by-month actual sales figures of both handhelds, it would be quite improbable that the DS could only sell-in 100 million units while Sony sold-out 50 million, since on a month-by-month basis, the DS constantly outsold the PSP, many times by a factor of 2 to 1 or more.
So, AFAIK, you're wrong.
PSP was a success, Sony did a great job of gaining market share in the portable handheld field
No your wrong, PSP outsold the DS here in the US when it came out for a while... I dont know the exact figures but you could check wiki.
I guess what you mean by me being wrong is that the DS didn't beat the PSP *all* the time, which is true. There were a few times when the PSP outsold the DS, usually when a new version came out or a very popular game was released. However, for the vast majority of the time, it beat the PSP, and in some months, it outsold the PSP by as much as *5* times, and the cumulative result is very clear. I don't know what your point is, other than to argue syntax. Go ahead, do a search on "npd ds psp".
I'm betting before sony reaches 100 themselves the big N will be going for 200!
This is because PSP has made a good game in months. Though the same can go for the Wii.
Sorry thats supposed to be hasn't made a good game.