PSP outsells DS in US by 1 million
In a report published Jan. 13,
the The Mercury News says the PSP outsold the Nintendo DS in the US by more than 1 million units during 2005, this
according to their own research. In contrast, the DS managed to sell out in Japan. Here's
how the site breaks down the US sales numbers:- PSP - 3.63M units (35% marketshare)
- DS - 2.43M units (23.5% marketshare)
- GBA - 4.26M units (41% marketshare)
[Updated: "next-gen" portable being that the combined marketshare of the DS and GBA equals 64.5% assuming Mercury News data is accurate. Our apologies.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chimpy @ Jan 19th 2006 3:00PM
Wow, this seems like total crap for two reasons:
1. Sony usually trumpets how many systems that they've SHIPPED, not technically sold.
2. The last three months of the year, at least where I live, there were hardly any DS's to be found anywhere. I saw countless PSPs everywhere.
JRM @ Jan 19th 2006 3:03PM
WOW!!!!!!!! This is a surprise, and I'm very skeptical at its legitimacy. why are their numbers so completely different to the other gaming publications? And what the heck is Mercury News Research?
Chris Clark @ Jan 19th 2006 3:05PM
The problem is, is that up to this point people have been measuring total sales of the PSP vs. DS when the numbers were uneven, considering that the DS came out 5 months before the PSP. Now that we have a calender year to measure, the PSP is truly coming out on top as far as sales.
Oh, and despite a short period of lackluster games, the PSP also has a selection of great games + multifunctionality vs. great games. I'm not a fanboy either way, in fact I think both are good systems. I just feel that the PSP has always been a little better.
Spiza @ Jan 19th 2006 3:07PM
I think a more interesting figure is games sold. The xbox didn't sell that many more consoles than gamecube did, but I believe the sold many more titles. They need sells figures on total games sold, now that would be interesting.
AJ @ Jan 19th 2006 3:07PM
Yes, but the PSP launched in 2005. If you did the first 9 months of each system, the DS would have sold more.
nick @ Jan 19th 2006 3:07PM
This is completely, totally wrong. Here in San Francisco I spot the DS constantly in public now. I never see PSPs. The DS has the groundswell of buzz and support.
Another case of mainstream journalism getting gaming wrong.
Sigh.
Chris Clark @ Jan 19th 2006 3:09PM
Chimpy, all things being equal, the PSP was not even out for the first 3 months of the year. So even if this is so that the DS was nowhere to be found at the end of the year, these numbers balance out.
cbisquit @ Jan 19th 2006 3:12PM
Odd given that nintendo reported about 4 million in DS sales in the US in 2005 according to http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/news/international/nintendo.reut/
I could see if this was maybe a rounding error but 2.43M is a pretty huge margin of error for "about 4 million"
Chris Clark @ Jan 19th 2006 3:12PM
AJ, no one I've seen have compared the sales figures for their respective first X number of months. I've only seen figures that are "up to this date" or now for the "Calender year 2005". Where are these numbers, let me know.
Kevout @ Jan 19th 2006 3:12PM
Only 2.5 million DS systems sold in the US throughout the whole year? Yeah I don't believe that at all
josh @ Jan 19th 2006 3:13PM
Sounds like PSP sold more in 2005, but DS may have more total sold... 2006 will be the year that decides the victor, no matter what the numbers are at now.
Jeff @ Jan 19th 2006 3:14PM
These are some meaningless stats without any context. How did Mercury News conduct this "research"? And why should we believe them over, say, everybody else in the world, including Nintendo and Sony themselves?
Varian @ Jan 19th 2006 3:14PM
The Mercury News also is not listing their source for this information. Is it the NPD numbers? Which numbers are they using?
Gaining sales numbers for North America is extremely difficult. NPD has lately been very unreliable, yet journalists still quote it as gospel. To give you an example of how far off the NPD numbers were, look at November. It was so bad that NPD had to re-release numbers again. Look at NPD's report on PC Gaming. They say it is falling by 14% where, in actuality, it is still solid if not growing. NPD does not factor in PC gaming's online sales or smaller flash games. Online sales for PC now overcome retail sales. Yet, by relying purely on the NPD, one would think PC sales are 'plummeting'. Not everything is sold through retail stores (think online).
Also, from what little I know, the NPD numbers do not cover major retailers such as Wal-Mart or even 50% of all retailers. Much of the 'missing data' is statistically sampled in. Is this accurate enough? I don't think so.
The easiest solution would be for game journalists to demand actual sales numbers from the companies. No more 'units shipped' garbage.
In other news, Reggie in his last interview said that the Gamecube was actually #2, ahead of Xbox 1. Xbox 1 sales have sharply declined since the release of Xbox 360. But looking at the available numbers I could find, apparently the total Xbox 1 units (that we know of) are actually SHIPPED while the 20 million or so Gamecube numbers are actually SOLD.
The games industry is a complete mess when it comes to measuring sales data and marketshare. We are comparing sales to shipped, some retail data excluding online sales, and some companies reveal some numbers while not giving others. NPD says console gaming has the most money in sales this year. But NPD did not mention that the new systems, Xbox 360, PSP, and DS, are much more expensive than their previous systems. Has the number of gamers actually increased? Or are we simply spending more money?
Anyone with a business background care to crack at these enigmatical video game industry sales?
Alex K. @ Jan 19th 2006 3:15PM
I'm also skeptical. The PSP started out with a lot of hype, and it's wearing off. I would think that every day the PSP would sell less and less.
Really, we all know that the PSP has an incredibly large selection of lousy games. Even Americans know that.
And if the PSP is selling more for it's multimedia functions...then how are they in the same market? That's like Apple is selling more iPods than Nintendo is selling DSes. Well, yeah, they aren't even in the same market.
Not to say the PSP and DS aren't in the same market now, but if the PSP continues with it's gaming decline which I see going on, it could eventually just be seen as a video player with gaming as an add-on feature. Same reason why everyone bought PS2s, cause they were cheap DVD players.
ZaBlanc @ Jan 19th 2006 3:17PM
That seems wrong to me. Everyone and their mother is gobbling up DS's. I'm really shocked by that figure. DS games are flying off the shelves, PSP games are barely on them in the first place. :-)
If this is true...it says to me that most PSP users loving the IMD functionality, not the games. If that's the case...are these two devices even competing?
I don't know anyone going gaga over a PSP game. Really.
Calviin @ Jan 19th 2006 3:22PM
I have a problem with this ending:
"If accurate, Americans seemingly care more about multi-functinality while the Japanese appreciate a large selection of both proven and experimental games on a portable. That is at least on the surface."
because it is not accurate with the numbers they give.
PSP - 3.63M units (35% marketshare)
DS - 2.43M units (23.5% marketshare)
GBA - 4.26M units (41% marketshare)
GBA 4.26M > PSP 3.63M > DS 2.43
GBA is not the multifunctional device they refer to...
Ryan @ Jan 19th 2006 3:27PM
#3, would you care to enlighten us as to the PSP "great games" you are talking about? Counting software sales, the DS blows the PSP out of the water. There is no competition. In fact, there is a quite sizeable portion of the PSP populous that own zero games. So really, it's a question of multi-functionality vs. great games, and in my book, the DS is a much better video game system. The PSP is definitely the coolest piece of high-tech gadgetry out on the market, but as far as games go, it's just a piece.
Me @ Jan 19th 2006 3:33PM
"I don't know anyone going gaga over a PSP game. Really."
Russ Carroll @ Jan 19th 2006 3:42PM
?
According the NPD numbers I see the following:
Dec sales - system - [total year sales]
1.120.000 PlayStation Portable [3.630.000]
1.070.000 Nintendo DS [3.810.000]
Certainly per month the PSP outsold the DS, but I'm curious as to the source of the numbers in the article. Nintendo's claim of 13 million doesn't add up if you use the article's numbers.
Top Rope Suplex @ Jan 19th 2006 3:43PM
"If accurate, Americans seemingly care more about multi-functionality"
Sorry, but it seems more like Americans care more about price than anything... seeing as the GBA is appearantly the best selling portable right now... even with two superior machines...
I'm quite honestly suprised.
Me @ Jan 19th 2006 3:44PM
Wow this new comment setup sucks... Anyways, this isn't units shipped for PSPs, because this is a tally by Mercury, not Sony. So the numbers are all equally compared, meaning all are actual sales.
For PSP games, personally I play them a lot more than my DS games. Animal Crossing is the only DS game I play past the first 3 days of owning it. DS games get stale fast. So while they might be "great games", they're way too short with little replay value. I just prefer not to take my PSP into public areas because I hate gawkers or people that start talking to me with "you spent $300 on one of those?!?". I bring my DS to the laundromat / movie theatres or whatever so I don't get attention but can still game. For roadtrips with friends I bring my PSP for videos/music/games.
As for good games on the PSP, I still play Lumines and Wipeout Pure on a regular basis... I can't say that for any DS game 9 months after it's release. Also, newcomers that I play a lot are Infected, LotR Tactics, Kingdom of Paradise, GTA:LCS, and the imported Taiko Drum Master and Star Soldier. Oh, I play Namco Museum a fair ammount as well.
Software sales for the DS are a lot better because it's a lot harder to bootleg games. Its as simple as that. PSP you buy a gig stick(now they come packed with one), and all you gotta do is throw the downloaded image on your card and you're gaming for free. The DS homebrew kit is a lot more complex, requires stuff specifically for doing that, and that discourages a good majority of pirates... Not to mention pirates are usually tech whores, and lets be honest, PSP is the superior system technically speaking. That functionality part.
Now that games won't run off of cards (due to size increases and relying on newer firmware DLLs), software sales are slowly rising on the PSP. They have firmware loaders so you can load any new firmware (up to 2.60) on your mem stick and not your PSP, allowing you to play any newly purchased game without giving up your homebrew enabled PSP... So people are definitely a lot more willing to buy new PSP games.
Long story short, 2006 will make it clear that both systems rock(to different people), and both will continue to do amazingly... Up until they launch the PSP2 and DS:Ultra or whatever next-gen form it will be.
Chris Clark @ Jan 19th 2006 3:45PM
Well, SOCOM, Grand Theft Auto, Prince of Persia, Lumines, Burnout Legends, Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix to name a few. I know what you'd say, some of them are ports right? Well, none of them that are ports are of games that are 10 years old.
As far as the word "better" what do you mean? Technically, the graphics are more advanced, the discs hold higher capacities, the screen is larger and in my opinion the widescreen aspect is superior. Gamewise, the DS is great but that's all it has and nothing else. This is fine, but I'll take the system with games and functionality.
Also, no one is measuring the sales of the system + games here. If they do official numbers, post them and then use that as your argument. For now, the topic is systems and according to this independent source the PSP has won, in a year in which it wasn't available for 2 months.
Chris Clark @ Jan 19th 2006 3:49PM
Russ, the 13 million figure that you heard from Nintendo may be global sales figures in total, not necessarily yearly sales figures in the US alone. That's just a guess though, I'm not entirely sure.
SuicideNinja @ Jan 19th 2006 3:49PM
Again, the DS is capable of Video and Music *cough* MOONSHELL *cough* or even the Play-Yan. Several people are working on a browser for it; we'll see how they do. And there is no firmware to worry about. Multifunctionality? PFFFF. Games!
Doesn't the PSP average 2-3 UMD movies per 1 game? Actually, it's worse than that I think.
I was thinking about it the other day, and if Microsoft ever decided to release a portable that had Xbox games and Windows on it...I don't think the other two would hold up. I doubt they'll be doing that any time soon though.
Anyway, when some better games for the PSP come out this year, I expect the PSP sales to increase.
Vilhelm @ Jan 19th 2006 3:50PM
Hmm, somehow this just doesn't add up... if DS has sold more than 4 million units in the US from release up until January 4th 2006 and if only 2.43M units sold in the year 2005, it must mean that the first month alone (November 21st 2004 till the end of 2004) it sold 1.53M units.
This does not add up to what Nintendo said, they reported sales of 1.2M units in the US by the end of 2004.
This means that more than 300,000 units are missing! Where did they go?
mercatfat @ Jan 19th 2006 3:54PM
"For the love of god, please stop blogging here!"
I shouldn't need to point a giggle finger at this, but I will anyway.
Ross Miller @ Jan 19th 2006 3:55PM
Mike, #15, I can assure you, this site sucks - with or without Blake. By using Blake as an example, you are clearly not observant of the other crap written here by, say, Ross Miller, who sucks at least 3.2 times as much as Blake (it's been scientifically proven).
And as for purity, Joystiq is the game blog equivalent of the "hooker with a heart of gold" - we try our best, but every so often we gotta do some low-life work to get the job done.
By the way, this story is old. I totally saw it like 12 hours ago on some other website.
One_noc @ Jan 19th 2006 3:55PM
In Response to Nick:
I've never seen a DS in public here (Seattle), but I've seen at least a dozen PSPs. No foolin', and I've been looking for people playing on DSes too.
I've lived in San Francisco before, and its not the best spot test for what the rest of america is doing. ;)
Mmagic @ Jan 19th 2006 3:59PM
Well I can say one thing to the gaming bit , psp v1.5 hackable , can play Nintendo games, , oh my gosh! is that true, I can download movies and watch them, hummm yeah I think these are a little better numbers. if you look around yes you see more Ds's but look at who is carrying them , a younger age group, they take them everywhere , now look at the psp and who is carrying it totally different age group, they hide it more than flaunting it , I guess dont want that expensive thing targeted like the Ipods. I have seen more college students and techs with PSPs than DSs , and they are more interested in the multifunctional than the games . so would I believe these numbers? maybe , but they look better than the ones Sony released.
toolio @ Jan 19th 2006 3:59PM
This is disappointing, but believable. Walk into any big-box retailer (Target, Walmart, BestBuy, Circuit City, etc..) and you see Sony PSP marketing plastered front and center. The PSP titles are merchandised in a way that makes it appear they have an entire WALL of titles available. In reality, the few games are poor-ts and the rest are UMDs. It makes it really look like PSP has the market share and the content. So of course the PSP is selling in the US.
Compare this to the crumby Nintendo DS marketing. Typically it's off in a corner next to the Gameboy Advance stuff (in the kiddy gaming area). The titles are usually sideways in a rack and they are often mixed in with the GBA games. The whole thing looks like it is for the kiddy set and the selection looks sparse at best. It reminds me of the awful merchandising of Mac gear done by the likes of Fry's and Best Buy. Throw on the fact that our media here has a love affair with the PSP, it's hard for the Nintendo DS to be taken seriously by thy Tweenie - 30something gamer.
My suggestion for Nintendo. OPEN NINTENDO STORES IN MALLS AROUND THE COUNTRY!! Take the approach Apple took. Their reseller channel never seemed to do them justice so they took the entire cult-of-mac and made it into a retail experience. Nintendo has started down this path I guess, but I think they should really take a page from Apple's book and use the Nintendo store as a place hold cult-of-nintendo events, gaming tournaments, meet the characters, meet Nintendo game designers, play all the games, etc. If you visited an Apple Store this past Christmas, you'll see clearly the strategy works. They've effectively killed their retail channel, but then why would you want to shop anywhere else?
recklessgemini @ Jan 19th 2006 4:00PM
I saw knew this day would come and I knew this was going to be peoples (or should I say fanboys?) response.
It doesn't matter how many people you claim you see with the other. It doesn't matter how crappy or how small their gaming library is. It doesn't change the fact that the PSP is here to stay.
portnoy @ Jan 19th 2006 4:09PM
"If accurate, Americans seemingly care more about multi-functionality"
Hello!
How can you post this story and completely ignore the overall sales winner?!? The GBA!!! Based on the fact that the GBA kicked the crap out of both of them, I would say your assessment is false and completely unsupported by the numbers.
Its clear whoever posted this article had an idea in his head already or he wouldn't have been able to so completely ignore the results of the study.
Ryan @ Jan 19th 2006 4:17PM
There ya go, folks. Seatle hates Nintendo.
And yes, the comment system sucks. Between commenting and jumping to my email to confirm my comment, I barely have enough time to do work (which, if you must know, is exploratory surgery in one of America's premier hospitals).
And I was kidding about the surgery part.
Ptaaty @ Jan 19th 2006 4:17PM
I know the same number of people with both, but in public have only seen PSPs (seattle area, airplanes)
I have both, if forced to choose one on its own, would be the PSP. Since I have a vision:m for movies now, and could get some $$ for the PSP, I am tempted to sell it...hard to justify two portable gaming only devices. we'll see!
josh @ Jan 19th 2006 4:20PM
"DS games get stale fast. So while they might be "great games", they're way too short with little replay value."
Huh? You obviously aren't playing MarioKart DS. Me, my girlfriend, and our neighbor play this constantly, all from one cartridge, too. I honestly think the wireless download-and-play feature is the best feature on the DS (not sure if the PSP has this). The first time we got a 3 player MK game going with one cartridge... it blew my mind.
I will say that the single player DS games maybe have less replay value... I beat Advance Wars in two weeks or so, but still that was like 30-40 hours of gameplay AND I have yet to finish the Hard Campaign (got distracted by Animal Crossing).
BruteRules @ Jan 19th 2006 4:24PM
Either way you look at it, Nintendo missed out on 3 million in sales. Ask any sales person and that hurts. I own 2 DS's and like them. Plan on a PSP later when more kid games come out.
32_Footsteps @ Jan 19th 2006 4:36PM
Hmm... do I trust some media outlet I've never heard of before claiming the DS has sold less than 2.5 million units? Or do I trust CNN, which according to the link cbiscuit provided claims that Nintendo has sold 2.8 million in 2005 (taking 4 million and removing the 1.2 million the article claims were sold in 2004)?
Hmm, I think I'll trust the established news source with a history of strong reporting, thanks.
Zsavior @ Jan 19th 2006 4:40PM
One thing I do beleive is that the PSp has the slim lead in america, sorry but americans are far more shallow than the japanese gamers. Don't think so, just check the millions of post on any forum with "so called" gamers saying they won't play a DS because it looks bad. That compared to Some many non japanese gamers who are also adults on their way to work who don't give a damn how they look but have driven the ds into extinction in japan by buying them up in a purchasing blitz, and they arent even really into gaming.
That being said there probably in some truth in the post claim, we don't like it as americans to hear that japan is more about games than us, but are you going to really argue that is not true? I don't think the report takes into consideration returns, and broken PSP, or software sales as who is the leader just how many was bought. But we can't start acting as if the american gamer isn't just alittle more shallow than gamers or even non gamers in japan. It isn't bad or good it is just the way it is here in america. I am a DS fan myself, but if somebody buys the PSP for looks that is cool and those were alot of people. GTA Singled handedly sold more PSPs how long will they stay that way I don't know.
Stephen @ Jan 19th 2006 4:41PM
Sigh..can't everyone be more objective here?
I think it has become a trend to bash somethings to look cool on forums. It's kind of stupid.
Doesn't matter if DS or PSP sold more. Both are very successful. A real gamer should own both in my opinion.
DS is definitely a really great machine. I am glad Nintendo has finally moved on from GameBoy. DS has really solid games, but it has it's limits. The graphics capability could definitely be improved. The touch screen function definitely works really well on some games, but it's also really bad on some games.
PSP is pretty succesful for a newcomer against Nintendo. I am glad they bring in some competition. However, it needs to implement a free online service like DS. It also needs to more original titles like Kingdom of Paradise (it's really good in my opinion) and FFVII: Crisis core.
Brent @ Jan 19th 2006 4:42PM
it is hard to believe also because of the fact of pricepoint alone, meaning..
to get psp up and running with your so called "functionality" you would need the system $250 and tax, as well as a sizeable memory card, which we'll go with 512, so about $50 more (honestly I don't think anything less than a gig is worth it), plus one or two games, thats another $80, not inlcuding movies, or accessories, this comes to $380+tax well over 400 dollars.. im sorry, but paying 20ish for movies and a full 50 dollars for most games, this is rediculous.
I had a psp but seeing how there were absolutely no games i was interested in, besides GTA and the megaman games which are just remakes with new graphics, not like i mind, I enjoy that kinda stuff, but it definatly was not worth keeping around for that price, I mainly used it for emulation anyway, until I saw the gp2x which made me want to get rid of my then useless psp, (the only reason I would ever buy a psp again would be for lumines, which should be ported to ds, or SOMETHING else besides psp =) )
ok, back to multifunctionality. sure psp can do it all, but it does it all extremely mediocrely. im sorry, craploads of cash per game, with a really horrible selection of games (of course, in my opinion, and obviously most of the public), plus if you want to listen to more than 30 songs you have to spend over 100$ on a sizeable memory card, plus movies costing as much as retail dvds.
I can't believe the numbers, need more evidence + more reliable source.
or maybe they are true? =p
Jed Merrill @ Jan 19th 2006 4:48PM
DS has consistently been outselling the PSP on a week to week basis in the US for some time, though not by all that much. In Japan, it is more like 3 or 4 DS's to 1 PSP (depending on the week). In Europe, the DS is also ahead. If these stats are true for the United States, it is only because the PSP sales noted include six months of presales dating back to late 2004 as well as the launch itself where sales spike substantially compared to the rest of the year. Nintendo's launch is not included in their 2005 figures. So while these figures are possible (assuming Mercury numbers are for Sony "sales", not "shipped" as Sony itself reports for hype), what matters more is the weekly margin Nintendo is gaining consistently in all territories. Worldwide DS sales are more than double PSP sales. Also, Nintendo is still ahead in overall numbers in the US.
As for software, Reggie was not joking yesterday when he said the DS has a lot of million sellers and the PSP has none. In some cases, DS games have sold more than a million copies in both Japan AND the US and are nearing it in Europe. There is no questiona about whose software is more popular.
Mario Kart DS
Animal Crossing DS
Super Mario 64 DS
All 3 Brain Training Titles in Japan
Nintendogs
have all sold more than a million copies in one or more territories, and others like Wario Ware are not far behind. For the PSP, not even Lumines has hit that mark.
As someone who owns 2 DS's and a PSP, I have to say I find the older content of the DS very appealing as well. I enjoy Trauma Center: Under the Knife, the attorney game (for some reason Ace Ventura is popping into my head), and Sprung, among others. I am also pretty addicted to Metroid Prime Pinball, loved Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, and have great hopes for Metroid Prime Hunters WiFi. In unique RPG content, I kind of like Lost in Blue, and Lunar DS is well done so far. (When is Golden Sun DS coming out!!)
The fact that Nintendo has had so much success without Tetris makes the victory even more impressive. Tetris DS WiFi's upcoming release will only seal Sony's self-made coffin further, their biggest problem being the low profitability for developers making games for a platform with half the user base of the DS--and shrinking. Most games from here on out will be made for the DS, and thanks to its unique features, for the DS only.
Sony is fortunate that the PSP has a life outside of games to fall back on. Eventually it may even be seen as not a game system at all, based on what I see happening in retail outlets.
Snake2k9 @ Jan 19th 2006 5:12PM
Who cares about DS, and PSP!
The Xbox 360 is on its way to becoming the main media center for the home, providing high definition gaming, incredible online features and now even streaming satellite radio.
nick @ Jan 19th 2006 5:16PM
I always suspected Seattle was different than SF...
Clint @ Jan 19th 2006 5:21PM
Nintendo lost in the USA. Get over it. PSP is doing great in the USA. Get over it. You Nintendo freaks are CRAZY!
Mullinator @ Jan 19th 2006 5:22PM
#39
I buy a "gaming" system to play games, I don't care about all these gimmicky (to use the word most ignorant Nintendo haters like to use) for media functionality.
Then of course if the fact that the PSP and DS are portable systems, last I checked the 360 isn't exactly portable, you would likely fry your testicals if you sat the system on your lap.
Truthinator @ Jan 19th 2006 5:24PM
This is total shit for many reasons. This is just the sales of the systems in 2005. Including PSPs launch window which was huge. But now the POS is been slowing down sense. Add DSes launch window (2004) into the picture and you add at least 2 more million to the figure. Making the DS still the higher selling portable, NERRR.
SuicideNinja @ Jan 19th 2006 5:27PM
To the person saying they can play "Nintendo" and download movies on the PSP firmware v1.5 like it is something special:
Um, you can play Nintendo, Master System, Game Gear, Super Nintendo, and Turbo Graphix 16 games on the GBA. You can download movies for the GBA. No console firmware to worry about.
They have this for the DS too, but since you think the PSP's "multifunctionality" is so great, just realize that for about $80 you could have got those abilities by purchasing a GBA and a flashcart.
Personally, I support homebrew for the DS more. You don't see Nintendo revising the firmware once a week. In fact, they've only revised ONCE. Wifi support is provided through games.
djSyndrome @ Jan 19th 2006 5:37PM
"The Xbox 360 is on its way to becoming the main media center for the home, providing high definition gaming, incredible online features and now even streaming satellite radio."
Which, last time I checked, couldn't be taken on the subway without a dolly and an external display.
Get with the program, we're talking about portables here.
Def @ Jan 19th 2006 5:38PM
The Mercury News is not the full title. It's actually the San Jose Mercury News, pretty big newspaper in the Bay Area. But I don't think they could have gotten the SALES figures if Sony didn't release them. Anyway, Nintendo's figure of 4 million DS' total is counting 2004, so the 2005 figure might be a bit less, considering it sold 1.22 million during the holiday season of 2004.
groovy guy @ Jan 19th 2006 5:43PM
Let me say a couple things here.
1) I have owned a total of 7 PSP's....yes that's right 7 fucking PSP's and every single one of them I returned because of rediculous dead pixel issues. And I know others who have done the same! These count as units sold, because I exchange my crappy PSP for another crappy PSP it's inputed into the computer as a sold item! I checked the receipt! So these figures of PSP's might be sold or shipped, it doesn't matter, with the frequent returns there is bound to be that many units moved!
2) I agree with previous poster's message about PSP getting more shelf space. There are so few games that they are using the UMD movies to take up space on the shelf. Without those movies the PSP would be in dangerous Game Gear territory. Come to think of it, that's all that the PSP ever has been. It is a modernized Game Gear with the same bad battery life, same poor software support and just added multimedia functionality.
I'm no fanboy on this, I gave PSP more then a shot at winning me over, but it failed miserably.
Returns MUST be factored into the stats on these machines since Sony refuses to handle returns, they make the stores do it and this inflates their stats.