PSP To Interfere With Nintendo's Market?

Of course not, fellow Nintendo gamers can relax. As you probably know, the Sony Playstation Portable will be released on September the first in Australia, for a cost of $429 Australian dollars. Many gamers believe that the PSP is the way to go, that the PSP is the console which will give Sony dominance in the portable gaming market. If you're one of those people, allow me to tell you that YOU'RE WRONG, VERY WRONG.

Firstly, here's some old info on how the Nintendo DS went in terms of sales in Australia. Simply, it has sold like water. When it was first released, the DS grabbed the title of the fastest selling gaming console ever, here's the article:

Biggest weekly launch figure on record

Australia, Melbourne, March 2nd 2005 After it first week on sale the Nintendo DS has broken all current Australian launch sales records* for fastest selling console.

From Thursday 24th February to close of business Sunday 27th February the Nintendo DS sold through a staggering 19191** units to consumers eager to touch the future of gaming.

Nintendo Australia also reports that Super Mario 64 DS and WarioWare<: Touched! were the two highest selling games across all formats.

We are ecstatic at the success the Nintendo DS has shown during this launch period. This is a huge result and we are delighted with it, says Rose Lappin, Director of Sales and Marketing, Nintendo Australia. We look forward to continuing the drive with some strong titles still due for launch and the great support we have received from both retailers and third party publishers.

This momentum is sure to continue with a strong lineup of quality first and third party titles still to come. Titles like Project Rubd, Polariumn and Pokémon Dash from Nintendo, along with Rayman. DS and Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Chaos Theory from Ubisoft, Robots from Vivendi Universal and The URBZ: Sims in The City and Need for Speed Underground 2 from Electronics Arts.

With such a positive initial reaction and such brilliant and innovative games to come, Nintendo Australia expects this sales trend to continue.

Nintendo DS continues to sell at a rapid rate globally, with Nintendo on track to meet its objective of a 6 million unit ship figure by the end of March 2005.

As you can see, the DS sold almost TWENTY THOUSAND units in its first 3 days of launch, and had 6 MILLION UNITS shipped to Australia at the end of March, Australia has a population of about 20 million, so that's over 1 in 4.

But then again, the DS and PSP cannot be fairly compared since the PSP will not be around for another fortnight. So lets take a look at sales in Japan, where Sony's console has already been selling for months. Here are some recent sales statistics:





Now this is laughable, the PSP is selling less than half as much as the DS, which is selling more than the PS2. The gap between the GBASP and PSP is much closer than the gap between the PSP and DS. And this is only Japan, where the DS DIDN"T sell like crazy when released, I can guarantee the differences will be greater here in Australia.

Now of course, there will always be a few clueless Sony fanboys who will blindly stumble into Sony's deathtrap of a console. Well annoying fanboys, read this before you go and have fun with your little PSPs next month. Why is Sony's PSP a deathtrap? I'll explain below.

Firstly, and obviously, the DS has many more features. There are two screens, one a touch screen, voice recognition, wireless multiplayer, Wi-Fi internet play, backwards compatibility, surround sound, more durible game cartridges and a better design. The DS's design allows room for two screens, and fairly large speakers, and still keep the console a compact and portable one. I'm sure you are aware of the PSP's flaws, especially with the popping UMDs and defected square button. Plus, the PSP's screen is unpretected when the console isn't being played, and is free to be scratched, while the DS snaps shut after use to protect both screens. There could be dead pixels, and Sony won't refund or exchange the console unless 5 or more dead pixels are found, while Nintendo will refund the DS if you see a single dead pixel (during warranty period of course).

There has been many cases where the UMD pops out if the console is twisted into a certain position. And problems with the square button include the game not responding to a button, the button not bouncing back after press, and the button being harder to press than usual. Next flaw, the control stick, or shall I say, stud. I've read many complaints about the stud being bent in a bad position when the PSP's being carried around.

Another advantage the DS has over the PSP is innovation. People are developing a Linux OS for the DS (dslinux.org) so it can run as a PDA. Imagine a PDA that has two large screens and can play N64 quality games, for less than $200.

A further advantage is the DS's movie playing capabilities, there's the Play-Yan, or the unofficial movie player. The movie player plays compressed movie and music files straight off a compact flash card. As you know, CF cards cost half as much as the PSP's memory sticks, and the movies are only about 1/4 the size of the original video file. This is a much smarter alternative for the PSP's movie playing capabilities, where memory sticks are expensive, and UMD movies cost even morer than DVDs. Plus there is the problem with the battery life, the DS can play 9 hours of movies non-stop, while the PSP can't do half as much. The movie player can also play basically any media file, while the PSP can only play a few types.

But even after knowing all this, some people (cough* Alex) still believe the PSP to be the better choice? If you're one of them, mind telling me WHY? Is it because of the PSP's larger screen? Well the DS has TWO 3 inch screens compared to the PSP's 4.5 inch, and so they're exactly the same size, trust me I've measured my DS with Sum's PSP. More games? Lol no, the DS's backwards compatibility with GBA games already gives it a 700 game boost at release. Plus there are over 100 games in development for Nintendo's latest portable.

So it's the graphics? Is that it? Well in case you didn't know, Nintendo's Game Boy haas had many opponents in the past, all who offered better graphics and power in their consoles. Two examples are the Bandai's Wonderswan and Sega's Game Gear. As you can see these consoles barely scratched the Game Boy sales, and have now ceased to sell. The Game Gear had GBA quality graphics, and it was the first portable console to have colour. It was up against the old, fat Game Boy with a 2 inch black and white screen. It got hammered.

Alright, so maybe Sony's a smarter company than Bandai and Sega. But even so, the diferrence between the power of the DS and the PSP is only very marginal. The DS is a very powerful system, comparing to it's predecessor, the SP. The Nintendo 64 was 3 times more powerful as the PS1 (processor wise), and the DS could play games in better quality than the Nintendo 64. Nintendo have proved again and again that graphics are all that important, but some ignorant companies like Sony have dismissed the point.

Anyway, to sum it up. The PSP won't have a chance to gain dominance in sales in Australia. The DS is selling madly, and Nintendo are still manufacturing games for the GBA SP. Plus, with the anticipated GB Micro due to be released at the end of the year, and the Xbox 360's launch at around the same time, Sony should just pack up and leave.

If you're a Playstation fanatic and have been offended by my comments, sorry, but I'd like to hear you prove me wrong. If there's anything I've said that you disagree with, please feel free to give me an email, I'll even post it up here in the blog for others to hear your opinions :), and for others to see me cut you down in my reply ;).