PSP Not Sell As Well as Expected?

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:41 pm

Verbatim from Dallas Morning Sun.

Sony Corp.'s PSP portable video game device that went on sale last week seemed an instant sensation, marked by midnight launch parties at stores and lines of eager gamers huddled in rain and cold to get their hands on the system.

But while Sony is touting the rollout as a success — and many retailers did sell their entire stock — the event might not have been the complete blockbuster that was expected.

On the launch day last Thursday, Sony officials tentatively claimed a total sellout, as did many stores.

But some local retailers said Monday they were surprised at relatively lackluster interest on launch day and still have PSPs sitting on store shelves.

Internet message boards over the weekend were dotted with comments from gamers around the country reporting similar stockpiles.

Greg Peterman, a store manager for the Super Target in Far North Dallas on Coit Road, said he expected gamers to line up Thursday morning before the doors opened.

"We weren't hit like that," he said. "We thought we were going to be. But it didn't really happen."

Mr. Peterman said he still has several PSPs for sale.

"I just don't think it was as popular as people thought it was going to be, with people already having PlayStation 2s," he said.

$250 system

The price may have dampened casual gamers' enthusiasm.

At $250, the PSP is $100 more expensive than Nintendo's new handheld, the DS, and some gamers had to pay even more than that to get their hands on one.

Austin resident Paul Branson said he purchased a PSP on launch day from a Fry's Electronics store near his house. But he couldn't buy the PSP unless he bought a "bundle" that included two games, as well.

"I was thinking $249 plus tax, and when I walked out of there, it was $368," Mr. Branson said.

Still, most PSP systems seem to have sold.

Dan DeMatteo, vice chairman and chief operating officer for Grapevine, Texas-based video game retailer GameStop Corp., said his company has exhausted its supply of PSPs, aside from a few unclaimed preorders.

"We're talking to Sony, trying to find out when we'll get more," he said. "We probably won't know until the end of the week."

GameStop is the largest game retailer in the country, with more than 1,800 stores.

But Mr. DeMatteo wasn't surprised a nongaming retailer like Target, which caters to a more general audience, didn't sell out its allotment.

"That's not an impulse purchase," he said. "The people who wanted to get this thing were teed up to get it and had the money."

"I would expect, though, as the early adopters now have them and are showing them off and people are seeing it, that it will have traction," Mr. DeMatteo said.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:45 pm

Yup. Greg and I visited Circuit City last Saturday, and there they were, sitting in wait of someone who would purchase them. Not collecting dust, but they weren't flying off the shelf either.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:44 pm

Does that mean a price drop coming or less ebay scammers?

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:50 pm

The PSP's selling pretty darn well if you ask me:

Launch Estimates: 500k
CNN reports strong but not steady sales analysis.
by Nix

March 31, 2005 - Most game system launches are followed up by wild boasts from the publishing company on the sell-through rate and sell-out status of the hardware (even the humble but hungry Gizmondo made headlines for its first 800 sales.) Game industry followers watching the PSP's launch, however, are still waiting a week later for official numbers (or even boastingly exaggerated sell-through-as-sale numbers) on how the system did its first week in America. PlayStation Portable's launch in America comes in a quiet time for retailers, and although many expected Sony's handheld to carry enough momentum from the PlayStation brand name to push units out at sell-out rates, estimates of launch sales indicate sales that are good for the season but still short of past PlayStation successes.

As reported by CNN, a survey by the American Technology Research of 150 retailers nation-wide estimates that between 475,000 and 575,000 PSP units sold through in the first seven days of the system's release. Distribution is approximated to be close to SCE's 1 million units shipped in North America, with 250,000 to 300,000 of inventory left on shelves through in the launch period (the remaining stock out of the one million, we assume, either unaccounted for in the distribution channels or held for restocking.) Out of the retailers polled, 1/3 had sold through its stock, with remaining stores having as little as three units left and as many as 100 still waiting to be sold.
Analyst P. J. McNealy states in the report that mainstream stores like Wal-Mart and Target received more inventory than expected, and many locations have left-over systems from the large stock. Specialty stores like GameStop and EB are reported to be through their stocks entirely (many of these stores had already sold through their incoming stock before launch day due to extensive pre-order campaigns.) Toy stores and electronic shops, however, are also reporting inventory in various locations.

McNealy describes the launch as "solid but not spectacular." He also writes off a lot of the concern for the launch as a result of the slower, out-of-season launch period. The Nintendo DS was able to sell through a similar 500,000 units in its first week at retail, although exact comparisons may not fit -- the DS was launched during the 2004 holiday frenzy, but it was also released in carefully portioned numbers and was difficult to find on shelves for much of the period and beyond.

Numbers for PSP game sales were not mentioned in the report. Tie-ratio of games sold per system will be an important figure for Sony and Third Parties to look at, as the health of the game sales will be critical to the system's continuing life no matter what the hardware numbers are. It is unknown how the multimedia functions of the PlayStation Portable will factor into buyer's purchasing activity -- the multimedia features of the PSP are considered by some to be a distraction away from the games waiting on shelves, although success with DVD playback on PS2 have shown that getting the hardware in peoples' hands is a success that can be capitalized on later with games catering to the mainstream entertainment enthusiast.

Official numbers are still being tallied, so if you are running a gamble riding on how the launch sales end up, there's still time to raise your bet.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:17 am

I have yet to even see a PSP around here, and the local EB was telling someone that it may take as long as mid May before they have them reliably in stock. Oh well, thanks to a nice bit of trade-in credit, I went ahead and grabbed a DS today, along with Yoshi's Touch-and-Go. I'll wait until I actually even see a PSP (I've not even seen a demo unit yet) to comment on it.

Darkcomet72 · Post by **Darkcomet72** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:29 am

Hmmm.... PSP's are very easy to find everywhere I go, and this is coming from a city that dosen't even know Nintendo exists!

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:42 am

I like to point at the fact that the N64 was "Selling like hot cakes" according to Howard Lincoln back in 1996, and then fizzled out. The DC had also a hot launch, and now look at it.

However, I have to agree with the posts presented somewhere on this forum, that Nintendo seems to be taking a very passive attitude regarding this, and simply seems to be waiting for their franchises to do the work for it. This is the same attitude that got Sega in trouble in the days of the Saturn, IIRC.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:26 am

Re: Sega's franchises on the Saturn: What franchises? There were a few scattered Virtua Fighter games, the Panzer Dragoon games, a handful of sports titles, and Sonic R. You need to at least release some titles for your franchises before you can expect the franchises to do anything.

stoneroses · Post by **stoneroses** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:43 am

Here is my take on it / predictions:

The thing is launching in March, not in the traditional Q4 timetable so sales will be a bit muted. 500,000 is respectable. I see it gaining momenteum with each killer app that comes out. E3 will show us the vision of the future for the system (gamewise) and a PS3 with some sort of PSP compatabilty like a UMD drive or something. Perhaps a non-bundle version will be announced at E3 as well. Sony delays GT4 for a holiday release. I see the PSP turning into the must have toy of the season.

The only thing I am not sure about is the "vision of the future" part. Perhaps Sony will show us the same stuff we have seen previewed before and there is the posibility of the PSP getting overshadowed by all of the systems being shown for the first time.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:36 am

Vexorg wrote:Re: Sega's franchises on the Saturn: What franchises? There were a few scattered Virtua Fighter games, the Panzer Dragoon games, a handful of sports titles, and Sonic R. You need to at least release some titles for your franchises before you can expect the franchises to do anything.

That's what I meant. They were betting on those stale and old race horses. Sony meanwhile smoked them with fresh releases such as Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Jet Moto, Warhawk, etc.

Diabollokus · Post by **Diabollokus** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:01 pm

I'd buy a psp if the price wasn't so dam high. I can't believe i just read 348$ for handheld thats insane. How strong is the launch title line up if I recall the dreamcasts was as strong as brick wall.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:34 pm

I think Sony is going to have a hard time selling this as an IPOD killer, as it is too cumbersome to transfer music, video and pictures to it. The IPOD gained prominence because grandma could use it as she did aerobics; the PSP will never have that working for it. Parents are always going to go with the DS over the PSP, if not for the games, simply on the price. I think when push comes to shove, the PSP will be a success but will not down Nintendo.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:07 pm

Specineff wrote:
Vexorg wrote:Re: Sega's franchises on the Saturn: What franchises? There were a few scattered Virtua Fighter games, the Panzer Dragoon games, a handful of sports titles, and Sonic R. You need to at least release some titles for your franchises before you can expect the franchises to do anything.
That's what I meant. They were betting on those stale and old race horses. Sony meanwhile smoked them with fresh releases such as Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Jet Moto, Warhawk, etc.

Stale old race horses? Panzer Dragoon was a new series, so was Sonic R. Sega also had Fighting Vipers, Nights, and others. Ridge Racer was just a port, so if you're going to include that, you might as well include Daytona. The system never had a proper Sonic game, which was their key franchise. It's obvious they weren't betting on stale old race horses because they barely carried any series over to the saturn.

I'd blame the Saturn's failure on Sega's retarded "surprise" launch and all the problems that arose out of that, not to mention that compared to the saturn launch games, the PSX games looked amazing. I still remember the Game Players cover with Toshinden proclaiming it the greatest fighting game of all time and giving it a 98%

Nintendo is taking a passive attitude towards the PSP because the DS is 100 dollars cheaper, they still have the GBA which is over 150 dollars cheaper, they have a lot more games because of the compatibility between GBA and the DS and they already have a good installed base.

Stormowl · Post by **Stormowl** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 6:06 pm

i keep saying that the PSP is the next Game Gear. no one will believe me.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:46 am

Specineff wrote:
Vexorg wrote:Re: Sega's franchises on the Saturn: What franchises? There were a few scattered Virtua Fighter games, the Panzer Dragoon games, a handful of sports titles, and Sonic R. You need to at least release some titles for your franchises before you can expect the franchises to do anything.
That's what I meant. They were betting on those stale and old race horses. Sony meanwhile smoked them with fresh releases such as Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Jet Moto, Warhawk, etc.

I know Acid King's already replied to this with pretty much exactly the same thing that I'm going to say, but still... are you both on drugs? VF, Sega Rally, Daytona, Virtua Cop, Panzer Dragoon: all brand new titles, at least as far as home consoles were concerned. Games which were the first episodes in their respective series and only months old in the arcades can only be called "stale and old" if you're trying to rewrite the dictionary.

I don't know what the situation is in the US, but Nintendo have been anything but passive as far as the PSP is concerned in other territories. They're constantly pointing out how they believe the DS is superior and they've acknowledged that they've now got direct competition in the handheld market, whereas Sony's official line is to pretend that the DS doesn't even exist.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:02 am

500,000 isn't bad for a spring release and a pricey package at that. I predict word of mouth and the fall/holiday season will cause it to sell much better.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:05 am

@ Randy Dupre. Ok. I take my comment back. It's just that.. those ads showing a kid drawing some crap on a frozen window... don't seem to be that... effective, IMHO.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:29 am

On an almost entirely off topic note, is Ridge Racers really better than Daytona? I've been meaning to check it out.

jp · Post by jp » Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:11 am

I saw like, 20 units at my Wal-Mart tonight. I chuckled to myself as I recalled walking into the same Wal-Mart a MONTH after the DS came out and getting laughed at when I asked if they had one.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:03 pm

Specineff wrote:It's just that.. those ads showing a kid drawing some crap on a frozen window... don't seem to be that... effective, IMHO.

Ah, I've not seen those. Again, it's a different matter n Europe. Nintendo's marketing spend has traditionally been both miserly and misdirected in this part of the world, and the DS is the first time that they've ever really got the television advertising for one of their machines right. I'll try and see if they're online and post the links here, if they are.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:19 pm

Neon wrote:On an almost entirely off topic note, is Ridge Racers really better than Daytona? I've been meaning to check it out.

I think so, yeah, and I adore Daytona. Borrowed a PSP and a copy of Ridge Racers off a mate a couple of weeks ago and simply couldn't put it down - hands were glued to the machine for hours.

I love the Ridge series anyway, but this is by far the best episode yet. The only issue I've got with it is that the initial GPs are possibly too easy, but then I know the handling model and the tracks inside out, so I doubt that'd be a problem for people who haven't already spent months of their lives thrashing the hell out of them. Even if the PSP never had another game released, I'd be getting one just for this one.