PSP overtakes 3DS in weekly Japanese hardware sales ranking

@geoff0011

I'm glad I'm no betting man, because if there was one gaming device I would have been sure to be a instant success it would be the 3DS.

@geoff0011
Not really that weird. PSP beats DS almost every week in Japan.

"That was a fun couple weeks, now back to Monster Hunter." - Japan

@Pure Black World Tendency 3D fad is dying a quick death this being no exception. This will be Nintendo's first big failure in a long time. Apple will be the dominant handheld for the next decade.

@Jack Kevorkian

I will hold you to it Jack Kevorkian. I can easily win bets with people like you.

@Jack Kevorkian

Jesus, you spew this same rant at every opportunity.

We get it. You hate the 3DS and love Apple's products.


Let's move on.

@Jack Kevorkian, Haters gonna hate I guess. Why are you so biased against Nintendo? At least the 3DS is selling more than the abortive PSP Go ever hoped to sell.

@therandomizer I love Nintendo but do not like the 3DS. I think its a bad product. I am very disappointed in them.

So I root for its failure. It will fail relative to the DS/Wii/Apple.

I have Pokeman White running now :)

@Jack Kevorkian, the only reason I come here is to see how much your posts fail. You said, "So I root for its failure. It will fail relative to the DS/Wii/Apple". Uh-huh, so you consider 144.5 million DS sales to be a failure? Then I guess the

@Urethra Alfredo

What about those of us who dislike Apple products, but also think 3D is a stupid, pointless gimmick that needs to go the way of the Sega Activator?

@geoff0011

Not really weird - almost expected even. What most here do not realize, is that this marks the second week in a row the PSP has outsold the 3DS in Japan (see link below): this week, the gap widening considerably.

http://www.gamesector.net/2011/03/31/psp-topples-3ds-last-week-in-japan/

Here is Nintendo's problem, and I stated this before a couple weeks back - the 3DS software lineup is complete shite. Almost every game expected to hit the system until sometime in September are remakes of games that everyone has already beaten on another console . . . many of them from last-gen. Factor that with the price hike of the 3DS vs. the DSi, plus (for regular gamers) Nintendo's tendency to abandon core gamers about a year or two into a platform's life cycle, and consumer confidence is bound to erode quickly in the product. This would go doubly so for Japan, and society who shifted to predominantly portable and mobile gaming over the past decade.

It's the oldest lesson in the videogame business handbook - people buy game systems for the GAMES - not the other way around. And for a quick moment their, first with DS and then with Wii, Nintendo did manage to shift things around a bit. But that was always ever going to last so long, and then the emphasis among consumers is going to go squarely back to, "what can I play on this thing?" Or even, "how much entertainment value can I get out of this thing?" In either instance, the 3DS comes up short. Most of the current games are remakes, the hot new games like Kid Icarus, that everyone really wanted to play, won't be out until Q3 or Q4 of this year, and all that may be excusable in the short term as we wait for new games, if you could use the system for some other form of entertainment device. But it does not have a cellphone built into it, and it makes a terrible PMP. The 3D cameras would have been cool, if they were not 0.3mpx each. Videochat? Maybe, but the camera is still 0.3mpx.

So once you get past the point that there is not a lot to play on the system, and of what is there, most of it is rehashed from last-gen, there simply is not much else you can do with the system. In the West, that may still fly. Most Western gamers still game primarily on our home consoles. So we are more likely to allow these serious missteps on Nintendo's part to slide until we are happily playing Kid Icarus later this year. But in Japan where they have pretty much left console gaming behind in favor of portable systems . . . well, the sales results are speaking for themselves - a month after launch, second week in a row, PSP is outselling 3DS.

@Fullmetal Salchemist

Then take your index finger, rest it on the 3D slider switch found on the 3DS' right side, and push it down.

Oh my God. What do you know? The gimmick you abhor is gone!


If the 3DS was nothing more than the original DS tech with a 3D screen, I'd understand the bitching and moaning...but it's not. It's significantly more powerful than the original DS, so if you don't like 3D, don't use 3D.


Just enjoy the bad-assery of games like Kid Icarus in two dimensions.

Sheesh...

@gordeaux
Apparently people do not like your comment. I thought it to be a humorous jab at the "It Prints Money" status of the DS.

@gordeaux The very fact that this disaster happened disproves God's existence (at least an omni-benevolent one)

@NathanDTS If you're saying God doesn't exist, you are very much wrong. God is real. And God didn't cause the quake to happen, we did this to ourselves.

@NathanDTS
While I personally don't believe in any kind of higher power, I've always understood the western (or rather occidental) idea of God as being omni-benevolent but leaving earthly things up to the human population (concept of free will and all that). So basically theologists would argue that mankind brought this upon itself and it doesn't disprove God's existance or God's love for mankind (or creation altogether).

Stop right now before this goes any further. Please, no religious discussions.

An article about the 3DS sales and we're talking about whether or not God is real. Really?

@gordeaux

You saying god is a Sony fanboy?

;)

@(Unverified) Downvote me all you want, but I am sticking to what I said. It does say in Scripture to test all spirits to see if they are of God or not. So I guess I know where you stand.
But this is Japanese Hardware Sales and wow the PSP overtook the 3DS. I wanted to get the Piano black PSP 3000 over where I live in the US and man they've soldout. Not to keen of the silver though

@NathanDTS Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry.

@Morph156 You sir, get a gold star.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

I'm an Athiest, so I can't say anything about God, but if he did exist I could only believe he would be a Sony fanboy.

@NathanDTS

I didn't mean to start a religious debate.

@Dance Mofo

Are you one of those... people who say the quake was "divine retribution" against the Japanese? If so, you should take a moment and look at your life and mindset, and think about where you went wrong. because you did. There's something wrong with you. People like you are some of the lowest evil in this world.

@Draco

Price point didn't stop the PSP initially.

Most likely it is the effects of the natural disasters.

@Draco Yeah, it could well be.
I'm still happy playing DS and I'm willing to wait for the price drop whenever that is.

I don't think this is anything to worry about per se but lets not kid ourselves they may not fly off the shelves until more killer titles arrive.

@sammo21 That's not bad psp does very well in japan especially this year i expect them to back and forth for a while until the 3ds gets it' killer lineup then they'll pull away.

@kvn7918

Yeah, but the PSP is over 6 years old. Hell, the PSP2 is right around the corner. That would be like the Xbox 360 launching and being outsold by the PS2.

Wait...wut?

@sammo21 The PSP does grat in Japan as opposed to the US and other markets where people are poor, like games, and know how to pirate.

The PSP has a more solid line-up of games in Japan, so it's no wonder it sold over the 3DS. I say, add up the sales of the DS consoles and compare it to the PSP, seeing how they are in the same generation.

Oh, and I wish we could see PSP sales to 3DS sales in the states.. no way it even came close.

@TCJJ really? I'd think the opposite.

@TCJJ

I really hope you're being sarcastic, because the above reasons you named for the PSP overtaking the 3DS are simply embarrassing.

The 3DS is performing slow out of the gate, like the PSP before it. It's price. Simply that, and nothing more. The NGP and the 3DS alike will both mostly likely suffer slow starts until future price drops, no matter what software you can get for the devices.

@Shockwave its price and the fact that 3D is a dead fad that lasted through Avatar and the 6 months preceding that movie.

If James cameron made the 3DS it might have a chance.

@Jack Kevorkian

blah blah blah blahh fad blahhhhh blahhh blahhhhhhh is all I'm reading.

@BLipp18
while it's capable of console style play via it's twin sticks, it's also much more suited to casual games with the multitouch screen and PS suite framework.

Power wise, it's quite interesting. It's built off tablet/smartphone innards, with a quad core arm and quad core powerVR graphics. Should help on cost and be a snap to develop for.

@Uncle Jesse

The DS sold well in the first couple months(here in the US) because it was released near christmas. I think it staggered a little after that but It picked up grotestly the next few years, especially around christmas season. Like someone said above, right now this state is nothing to worry about. This time next year, then maybe it is.

@Uncle Jesse

After the DS launched I was sure it would be a flop. Boy was I wrong. But really the reason to wait is that in a year they will change the design. The DS lite I think it what really changed the game.

@Dirty

Nintendo wasn't even sure about themselves with the DS. Remember then saying that it would be a "third pillar"?

I think the 3DS will be huge this holiday season.

@Dirty
I mentioned this in another post but I'll say it again b/c it's relevant. Everyone keeps saying there will be a 3DS "Lite" in a year or so and that's absolutely WRONG. Unless something changes, it's not going to happen. 3DS hardware designer Kenichi Sugino told Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, "We don’t have any short-term plans for creating a more compact version of the Nintendo 3DS like we did with the Nintendo DS Lite.”

There was a reason for the DS Lite: it addressed the poorly lit screens and heavy, bulky size of the original launch DS. The DSi addressed the DS Lite's lack of social/multimedia functions (which was during a time when App Store were steamrolling into PSP/DS sales) with the cameras, music playback, photos, FaceBook, and digital distribution via the DSi Shop.

The 3DS already does ALL of those things including the fact that the 3DS is exactly the same size (minus half an inch here and there) as a DS Lite. The only difference btw the two is the 3DS weighs about 25g more than the Lite. I'm not saying what Kenichi Sugino said is gospel but...the man created the hardware. If he says no short-term plans for a system reboot, I take his word.

@C1ph3rDivyne

I dunno, it seems pretty clear that Nintendo knows that when the put out a new hardware revision that they will sell units to people who have already purchased a previous version. Advances in technology mainly chips sizes and batteries will always allow for a smaller version of something. I would also imagine they would put larger screens on there. I'm gonna take their previous track record on this rather than an execs words. What might take longer is that the price is pretty high for a Nintendo product, so I imagine there focus will be in reducing per unit cost and lower the price. Thats my take on it, i guess the future will tell.

@C1ph3rDivyne

I have to disagree with you. Like all products, companies release multiple revisions so they can get your money. The DS lite was certainly an improvement over the original, but are you really going to try and tell me that Nintendo didn't plan for such thing even before the launch of the original DS?

Besides, looking at how Nintendo has handled the handheld market, is it really all that unbelievable that Nintendo will release some kind of revision to the 3ds?

@Vegeta has a ps3
Well, I agree w/you in terms of Nintendo's usual revision thing. I actually see what what you're talking about as well. The only thing I'm saying is that Sugino actually came out and made this announcement.

However, I'd like to point out that he said no "short-term" plans; not "We're not EVER doing a rerelease of the 3DS." There's a stark difference. It'd be different if they didn't say anything about a rerelease or not, then one comes out.

In any event, we'll all just have to wait and see. But I expect the 3DS as it is now to be around for a "short-term" while. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong (not necessarily trying to be 'right'). Just passing on the info as I read it. Cool screen handle by the way, hehe