DS Claims EU Dominance

Gamasutra reports that, at least in the EU, the Nintendo DS has the portable war pretty much locked up for the time being. 200,000 units of the DS Lite were sold in the ten days after its launch. From the article: "According to Nintendo of Europe, the Nintendo DS has now secured the lead in the handheld market in Europe, with sales of the format exceeding 5 million. No sales figures from Sony are available to compare directly, with only a "shipped" figure of almost 6 million for all territories bar North America and Japan." Interestingly, 136,500 units were sold in the United States in just the first two days after the handheld console's launch.

Hmm...

[another_fanboy]

Didn't Sony claimed the PSP would destroy the DS? I wonder if this is a sign of their upcoming ill fate...

That's what happens when you actually have games

[Orange Goblin]

PSP looks nice and all, but they missed out the "gaming" part...

Re:Hmm...

[Yvan256]

Nintendo is to the gaming world what Apple is to the computer world. Always seen as the "underdog" even though they're profitable, have excellent products, and really innovate.

Re:Hmm...

[chrismcdirty]

I used to agree with this analogy. But then I realized Nintendo doesn't (usually) rape their customers with a high entry-price.

Interestingly enough

[Daysaway]

Another parallel can be drawn from this. Proof that (Speed & Power) != (Fun). Developers love programming for the DS, over the PSP. The games are simpler, and the focus is drawn more towards fun.

Perhaps the future of the console wars does not rely on power as much as everybody thinks. I wouldn't be suprised in the least to see the Wii take the #1 slot in the next gen market (Even if it is a Gamecube++).

Re:Hmm...

[oahazmatt]

I wouldn't say it's so much of a sign of an ill fate for Sony so much as it appears to be poor planning.

Firstly, there is a difference in the two portable units, which is emphasized in the advertising campaigns. The Nintendo DS is a portable gaming system, whereas Sony has been marketing the PSP as a portable multi-media system in hopes of capturing a wider demographic.

Secondly, there is the content available for either device. Nintendo has many titles available for the DS, most of them exclusive to the device if not just the brand. Sony has a number of titles available for the PSP, but not so many original concepts or exclusive to the PSP alone. For instance, "Liberty City Stories" has just been released for the PS2. For those who may have been contemplating purchasing a PSP simply to play the exclusive PSP version of Grand Theft Auto now have more options, including to having to purchase a PSP to play the game.

Thirdly, there is a certain out-of-the-box quality that should be expected from a portable device. Every PSP owner I have encountered has taken the time to show me the capabilities of the device. Not once was the focus of the PSP it's own line of games, but other games it could play. PSP owners would show me the vast library of NES and MAME titles they had installed. However, when I asked if that was available out of the box, I was informed that it took some work to get the resulted library.
Not that I would think it would not take work, but if the existing game library (import titles or no) is not the focus for the device owner, there is a good chance that the device will not succeed.

I see the PSP hanging around for a bit, yet. There is still a chance for a comeback. It is an interesting machine, I have no doubt about that. It simply needs a steady line of original titles that are something more than what has already been seen on the device.

Re:Bo knows gaming

[American AC in Paris]

The most successful products are the consoles that treat their customers right.

As much as I like the sentiment, that just ain't always the case. Ask Sega about it.

comparison

[spykemail]

As far as the Nintendo / Apple comparisons go, I think it's safe to say that they are kindred spirits. While it's true that Apple lives off high-end high priced products, it's their quality, image, innovation, loyal customer base, appeal to the average user, and reputation for being worth it just for Apple's software alone that really make them successful. There are plenty of high-end computer makers out there, but none of them enjoy Apple's reputation.

Nintendo simply takes a different lane on the same road, one more appropriate (and more profitable) for their market. They do all the same things, except instead of producing high end high priced hardware they produce right down the middle. Apple could do the same thing if the computer industry only had 3 manufacturers and 2 of them were stupid enough to produce overly expensive boxes. The low end positions in the computer world are already taken, and require really high volume to maintain. So Apple naturally took the high end.

As for the DS, I'm not a fan of the direction handhelds are taking in general. Of course, I'm even less of a fan of the direction Sony is going so the DS is my natural favorite of the two. I'm honestly not sure how it has done as well as it has, other than relying on the reputation Sony got overnight when the Playstation became the "adult" that it is now forced to share with Microsoft (at least in the US).

The only thing that angers me is the color of the Lite. White sucks. There should be some sort of rule aginst only releasing one color (unless it's black).

Re:Hmm...

[ScaryFroMan]

But the NES isn't the only successful console. They came out with a slight majority vs. the genesis, and barely under a majority with the N64. And the gamecube did manage to beat the Xbox worldwide.

That's a big difference from Apple's tiny minority.

Re:That's what happens when you actually have game

[Anonymous Coward]

Ultimately, what keeps the games away from the PSP is that Sony didn't really understand what developers wanted when it came to handheld systems. Most existing handheld developers had been working on the GBA as their main platform and did not have the technological nor the financial resources needed to produce a PSP game; consider that you can make a GBA game for $250K-$500k whereas most PSP games require $2 Million or more to create the game. Constrast the PSP situation with the DS where Nintendo told developers they could continue to produce simple 2D games but Nintendo wanted developers to take advantage of both screens; this means that developers where given the choice whether to increase their costs or not.

The interesting thing to note is that both Nintendo and Sony are using the same strategies for their home console systems; one has to wonder what the outcome will be.

Re:Hmm...

[MemoryDragon]

You bring it to the point, the only really interesting thing on the PSP is homebrew stuff and Sony tries to prevent these things to happen by enforcing firmware updates for newer games. So every psp owner has to face the fact, either homebrew or commercial games, now many of those buyers simply stick with homebrew, which means a sure loss for sony, because it cannot sell newer games to this demographic. Only two things have prevented those people to switch to the DS which is way friendlier with homebrew (as of now only a plugin module on the top and an sd adapter on the bottom is needed), those two missing things are a snes emulator which works well and a mame port. Once this is done, you can say goodbye to the PSP as preferred homebrew choice. Sony with its own stupidity of shooting itself into the foot will take care of the rest.