Go Figure: Sobering Numbers For The PSP

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 came out today for the PSP: did anyone notice? There doesn’t seem to be too much buzz about this game, which is hardly surprising given the latest figures for Sony’s struggling portable game console. According to NPD, Sony sold 100,100 PSPs last month. That’s 1/4^th the amount of Nintendo DSs sold and a 42% drop from January 2009. Amazon.com’s sales charts support these troubling figures. As of a few hours ago, here are the sales ranks for some PSP products in Amazon’s videogame department, which includes all gaming hardware, software, and accessories:

PSP-3000: #125
PSPgo: #413
PSP-3000 Gran Turismo Bundle: #596
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3: #338
God of War: Chains of Olympus: #183
Resistance: Retribution: #339

The PSP-3000’s ranking on Amazon isn’t that terrible: the highest ranking Nintendo DS—a Cobalt Black DS Lite—currently sits at #110 on the same chart. The newer PSPgo, though, isn’t moving much. On the PSP software side, the just-released SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 is getting trounced by the 2-year old GoW: Chains of Olympus (albeit selling at a bargain price of $12.23) and neck-in-neck with the 1-year old Resistance: Retribution.

I’m not trying to rip the PSP here. I’ve been rooting for it ever since I pre-ordered one at Gamestop back in 2005. Both the 3000 and the Go are well-designed pieces of hardware despite the controversy over the relevance of the UMD format. The PSP is selling better over in Japan and its life-date-date sale figure (over 56 million sold worldwide) is nothing to sneeze at. But even raving PSP fanboys have to admit the numbers are really ugly. According to numerous reports, a PSP-4000 is in the works. Will it offer enough to save Sony’s portable game business?

Trying to Be Optimistic About a Google Music-Streaming System

The Wall Street Journal’s Amir Efrati and Ethan Smith are reporting that Google is working on a consumer-electronics system designed to stream music–and, eventually, maybe video and other media–around the home. Their story doesn’t have much in the way of detail, but does say that Google’s brainchild might be akin to a lower-cost version of Sonos’s excellent-but-pricey music-streaming products. Absent more details, there are several ways to respond to this sketchy bit of news.

http://codkazuo.wordpress.com codkazuo

If the PSP-4K is going to stand a chance, it has to move away from reliance on the UMD format, but retain backwards compatibility,. Something like the Gameboy Advance, be a step forward, but not killing off it’s own back catalogue, which is still a decent selection.
http://loonyboi.com/ loonyboi

The PSPGo would have been a great system if it was something other than just a PSP without a UMD drive for significantly more money.

I’m fine with ditching UMD, but they have to back that up with a reason to buy a new system, since the older ones can run UMD-less games as well with a decent sized memory stick.

The next PSP *needs* to have a touch screen, a second stick and an accelerometer. Not having those in the PSPGo made it worthless from day one…it was basically just a PSP that couldn’t play 90% of PSP games.
http://www.technogasms.com Technogasms

I wrote a post on this last week after the rumor surfaced that the PSPGo might be relaunched.

I really think that Sony needs to turn the PSP into a dual purpose device by making it compete in the web tablet realm as well as the gaming world.

http://www.technogasms.com/2010/02/08/how-to-make-the-psp-relevant/