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NEWS

Handhelds Dominate Japanese Sales

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

July 30, 2010

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PSP-3000 remained the bestselling gaming hardware in Japan during the week ended July 25, while the DS line of handhelds continued to lead overall platform sales.

PSP Slim & Lite shifted 28,747 units, ahead of DSi XL’s 24,189, but combined DS sales came in at over 47,000, versus total PSP sales of 29,500.

Meanwhile Wii continued to outperform PS3 as the top selling home console, perhaps boosted by the software chart-topping performance of Wii Party, which beat off competition from Marvelous' Fate/Extra for PSP during the week in question.

Hardware sales week ended July 25 (previous week):
PSP - 28,747 (26,786)
DSi LL - 24,189 (25,884)
Wii - 21,092 (22,239)
PS3 – 19,420 (19,473)
DSi - 18,202 (16,318)
Xbox 360 - 6,056 (5,936)
DS Lite - 5,059 (4,895)
PS2 - 1,475 (1,507)
PSPgo – 831 (1,155)

Source: Media Create
Japanese sales history

ikaruga's picture
On July 30th ikaruga said:


I still do not understand why the PSP is not home to some great original games like the DS. The vast majority of the PSP library is just toned down PS2 games or 100% conversion games from either PS1 or PS2. There are of course some major exclusive and new (version) games on it (like Ghosts and Goblins, Castlevania chronicles, Final Fantasy 7 crysis core and dysidia and the God of war games and a few more) but they pale in comparison to the DS.

What exactly is the developers glitch and neglect the PSP is beyond me.

Alex Walker's picture
On July 30th Alex Walker said:

Patapon, Lumines, Echochrome and Loco Roco say hi.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by those games paling in comparison to the DS. You mean in volume, or quality. Because if you're arguing quality, I'll see you outside.

ikaruga's picture
On July 31st ikaruga said:


And that is the problem. There are too few of them and for some reason there seems to be a clear lack of sheer quantity on the PSP. Now the quality is there of course but quality is not something DS lacks either. Its like the DS has some sort of honey on it and all the bees just go there. At least i would expect even for more "traditional" games (like the FF remakes, Castlevania, Dragon Quest etc.) to appear also on PSP at least which is clearly not the case.

NGTO1's picture
On July 30th NGTO1 said:

Qualty or not Alex, there is something about PSP software that isn't drawing sales like its DS counterpart. Maybe the two screens and touch screen is allowing more original gameplay ideas, maybe it's the price of the PSP, or maybe it's just the Nintendo brand especially in the hand-held sector?

Alex Walker's picture
On August 1st Alex Walker said:

So you meant quantity then? TO be perfectly honest, there are more than enough quality titles out there on the PSP. I'd argue that where the DS has it beat is when it comes to shovelware - this is where the DS starts to rocket ahead in terms of the sheer number of titles available. But do the 4 billion Imagine titles available make a solid argument for the DS from a players perspective?

The PSP has had some huge established names on it. Metal Gear Solid. Grand Theft Auto. Wipeout. Tekken. Both Final Fantasy and Castlevania, which you mention have graced the PSP.

That the PSP has disappointed in software sales for all but a few games isn't in question. But to suggest that developers haven't put their games out there is a disservice. They have. People just haven't bought them.

WazWii's picture
On July 30th WazWii said:

A few important things here. DSi LL is doing very well. A nice niche Nintendo found there. The other thing I was thinking was how the 3DS does not look all that different from the DS. Will this hurt Nintendo as the DS is about pretty much a 5 year old design? I think it will. Anyway on the whole it seems very competitive between Sony and Nintendo in Japan with Nintendo just edging it now.

NGTO1's picture
On July 30th NGTO1 said:

A quick look at the numbers it looks like the PSP is doing fairly well compared to the DS, but afer adding all the different DSs up it really is getting pounded by the DS. At least the PSP is doing better than it is in NA.

WazWii's picture
On August 1st WazWii said:

Well there are three versions. But also there is the little fact that just recently they received large price-cuts in order to make way for the 3DS. Year to date (end of June) figures below:

# DS –1,326,136
# PSP – 1,184,652

Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/japan-ds-ahead-of-psp-for-2010-tot...