Sony on DS : No Impact On Sales

[Fats]

Sony on DS : No Impact On Sales

With Nintendo's DS stealing the limelight recently, thanks to the launch of its Lite model, coupled with the machine's meteoric success over in Japan, Sony's PSP been somewhat stuck at the sidelines of late - despite a slew of quality games in recent months.

Now, speaking to Joystiq.com, Sony's senior PSP product manager John Koller has addressed the issue of PSP's place in the market, commenting on how he feels the success of the DS has affected Sony's own handheld ambitions: "There has been no impact on sales", Koller assured, "We have had steady sales since before the DS Lite and to today. Looking at it objectively they've had a very successful launch, obviously, and I think they're seeing a lot of Nintendo loyalists jump back in the market and there's a lot of retail initiatives to trade in your old DS for a DS Lite."

Koller continued, "If you look at the numbers, they did very well in June. But, if you look at our numbers since launch until now, we have outsold the DS by approximately 900,000 units in North America. Statistically speaking they had a holiday head start on the PSP, so in terms who have sold more overall has been a back and forth."

Comparing the difference between Sony and Nintendo's approach to the handheld market, Koller suggested, "They live in the gaming part of our competition and they have made a sharp turn to sort of the shorter Brain Age-type of games, which I think has been really successful for their consumer. I think they cater to more of the younger consumer whereas we cater to more of the older one, 18-24 target. We've had the longer, deeper software titles whereas they have gone shorter and more kid friendly."

Of course, Sony's PSP USP - if you will - has been the handheld's extensive multimedia capabilties, with Koller confirming the machine was always supposed to be about more than games: "It always was multifunctional. There was the appearance right at launch that it was going to be pigeonholed into just a gaming machine. We didn't necessarily want to go down that route. Gaming will always be at the heart of this. But, this has other benefits then just being a gaming system."

However, Koller acknowledged this jack-of-all-trades approach could damage the PSP's image in the long-run, with success boiling down largely to the way the machine is marketed: "We've learned lot of things. The first thing was how we market the product. You don't want to be all things to everyone because then you're nothing to no one. So, we've really tried to make gaming the heart of what we do and added many multifunctional elements to differentiate ourselves from the DS or the Video iPods."

As for the future, with UMD support from major Hollywood studios starting to dwindle, Koller explained the company is increasingly looking toward the internet for content distribution, "The UMD situation is an area we have been adapting to all along. How we operate in the download area is key. That's ultimately where we want to be as far as overall content like music, movies and games. We want to be in a place where a target consumer can easily access content to put on their Memory Stick. That's not to say we wouldn't want to continually utilize UMD, because we do. There's a tandem marketing push there."

Source

[Xerxes]

if you look at our numbers since launch until now, we have outsold the DS by approximately 900,000 units in North America.

For Real!!?

[Viper]

I don't think so.

US Sales per NPD.
        PSP        DS
YTD  1,078,097  1,370,357
LTD  4,723,869  5,187,347

[GoofsterStud]

Originally Posted by Xerxes

For Real!!?

It's real.

[SuperLuigiBros]

Its Viper's word against GoofsterStud's.

Ill go with Viper.

[MaceSin]

Heh, even if Sony had any lead in terms of the PSP is North America it wouldn't last much longer.

[the poe collector]

the arrogance

is why Sony pisses me off

[Xerxes]

Viper thats US sales; he is talking about North American sales (Canada, US, and Mexico). So the PSP might have an edge in North America not the US.

[GoofsterStud]

Read the quote.

Since the DS had a head start of 4 months, the PSP have outsold the DS by around 900,000,since they are quite even in sales now.

That means that since the PSP and DS were on the market at the same time, the PSP has sold 900,000 units more. This means that overall the DS counting it's head start has about 400,000 units on the DS. (North America)

Point one!

Proof. Look at the monthly hardware sales, the PSP has beat the DS every month in sales in the US!

Point two!

Don't forget Canada is considered 10% of that market!

By the way, thanks for the neg rep!

[Viper]

It sure has outsold the DS every month in the US....oh, except for Sept '05, Oct '05, Nov '05 and June '06.

Yes, it outsold DS in the 2005 year but the DS is leading this year and overall. Sounds like Sony is just picking out the one area that the PSP had a sales lead in and twisted it to sound like it's overall.

Xeres, if the Candian and Mexican markets somehow had a 600,000 sales lead for PSP, which is what it would take for PSP to lead NA, that would be a well known issue as that is a very huge figure for those markets.

Technically, Sony is claiming 8,170,000 in NA yet only 4,723,869 have been sold in the US. No way in hell has 3.4 million been sold to Canada/Mexico when Japan only has 3.6 million sold.

There is something damn fishy going on with the way Sony announces figures. Many are suggesting Sony reports how many were manufactured and not how many sold to retail which means they could warehouse a few million and not lie.

[Shade Valkyrie]

Originally Posted by John Koller

Comparing the difference between Sony and Nintendo's approach to the handheld market, Koller suggested, "They live in the gaming part of our competition and they have made a sharp turn to sort of the shorter Brain Age-type of games, which I think has been really successful for their consumer. I think they cater to more of the younger consumer whereas we cater to more of the older one, 18-24 target. We've had the longer, deeper software titles whereas they have gone shorter and more kid friendly."

He first mentions Nintendo's success with Brain Age before going about Nintendo going mostly for kids - Brain Age is a title that appeals mostly to older gamers. Sony have this amazing ability to frustrate people, especially me. *sigh*

[Ivory_Soul]

Who cares. I own both systems (bought the DS used on purpose though so Nintendo wouldn't get a tick in sales) they are both great for different reasons. The DS really is only good for quick unique gameplay frills that I know of. The PSP has everything else. I just wish people would stop the fanboyism and look at both systems and appreciate each one. I on the other hand use my PSP all the time. I have since launch.

[Viper]

I don't think any of us are saying one is better than the other. I'm merely correcting a sales number fallacy.

[Lucent Beam]

I think they cater to more of the younger consumer whereas we cater to more of the older one, 18-24 target. We've had the longer, deeper software titles whereas they have gone shorter and more kid friendly.

That sounds more like what they want the reality to be, rather than what the reality actually is. But whatever.

And just to point this out:

Originally Posted by Ivory_Soul

(bought the DS used on purpose though so Nintendo wouldn't get a tick in sales)

I sincerely hope that that isn't the real reason you bought a DS used, rather than for the purpose of saving money or some reason other than not showing up as having bought a DS.

[psx_warrior]

Who cares if the ds is outselling the psp? They both have sent ngage to an early grave. Compared to ngage, the psp is a runaway hit.