PSP Doubles UK DS Record

Staff 25 Comments 672 views Infendo

The PSP sold extremely well over the weekend in the UK, around 185,000 units. That’s double the record set by the DS back in march of 87,000 units. Hype or high European interestin the? Either way, that’s a lot of units.

[Source: 24×7 Updates]

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25 Comments

  1. Weren’t those sales for the entire week, not the weekend? The DS sold 87,000 units in two days if I recall.

  2. The article says “over the past weekend.”

  3. Great. More ammo for the arrogant arses at Sony of Europe.

  4. Hey, no one said hype doesn’t work. However, while all these systems were being sold, the software still was mediocre at best. This isn’t fanboy talk either, just look at Sony’s own numbers comparing game sales to UMD sales. They can spin UMDs outselling games as PSP being an “enterainment hub” til their faces turn blue, but bottom line is still that the thing has no content.

    Maybe that will change, or maybe this thing really is a glorified Atari Lynx as I said before, who knows really. All things considered at present however, the Brits are still without quality games (on the whole) for the system they snatched up in record numbers last week.

  5. IMHO Lumines looks really nice, but besides that I agree with everything you said JB…
    On the other hand I expected the PSP to sell well at least in the first month.
    But most PSP owners I talked to are like: “It’s soooo nice! But I barely switch it on…”

  6. Its ok, they have a long way to go to catch up. ASlso Sony has a history of telling the media how many units they shipped (hope to ship? lol) rather than what stores actually sell.

  7. Listen, even if Sony sold one more PSP than DS in the same time frame, you can bet they’d spend millions promoting that one single PSP. This, so far, is a classic case of 9 out of 10 Londoners now have a PSP (but they don’t tell you they only surveyed 10 people). Did anyone actually say PSP woudln’t sell after being delayed 5 months? No, I think not.

    Also for firther reference: Summer movies in the US. Any of them any good? No. Any of them make tens of millions of dollars in the opening weekend? Of course, but how many people actually saw Stealth and liked it?

  8. I read a couple of interesting articles on this:
    First over here in Germany Sony said they sold all 80,000 PSPs. But they didn’t say that a single gamer bought a PSP. They sold them to stores, so maybe that’s what they mean here too.
    Second: Why did the UK get over 100,000 PSPs more than Germany ? I think that’S really strange…
    Third: A comment at Joystiq said that the UK was going to get 150,000, where do the extra 35,000 come from ?!?

    I think that news is kinda strange..
    We’ll see….

  9. I wouldn’t be worried, I’m not. The PSP saw very acceptable sales the first week in Japan and the US, but look at it now. Sales are slippin into nothing. Considering what a huge deal Sony’s been making out of it, as well as the cost and all the doo-hicky’s in this thing, look at the global picture, and you’ll why Sony should still be concerned. And instead of how many units it sold, why not take a gander at how much money sony lost on each one of those PSP’s. They still cost around $400-$450 to produce, and obviously they can’t sell a PSP for that price, so there selling at a loss of profit.

  10. As a proud owner of a PSP, I sure hope the thing sells. Check back when Liberty Cities or a Final Fantasy game hits the shelf and check the sales records then.

  11. It’s not surprising. PSP is cool and a lot of people want to be cool.

    I just failed in convincing my cousin not to sell his DS to buy a PSP. Come on Nintendo, we’re dying for some more DS games here in Australia. I’m sick of all those TBAs in the release date list on the Nintendo of Australia website.

  12. The PSP only has games that are exact copies from the PS2 versions and they don’t have as many games as the DS has.

  13. Game systems aren’t supposed to be good by looking cool. Game systems are supposed to play games!!!

  14. I’m just pointing out the appeal of the PSP. I’d estimate 60% of people buying the console are just doing it because it’s a cool little gadget. Even if most of the games will only keep you entertained for a few hours.

    You can’t deny that it’s a cool gadget though. Even if it is outselling the DS.

  15. Final Fantasy is way overrated, and Liberty City Stories is a port of GTA III, only the boring, repetitive missions are different. Of course, that’s not to say consumers won’t line up in droves to buy them, because, as can be proven by science, people are stupid.

  16. You really cant compare one week sales to one weekend sales.

    The DS sales number was for 2 days of sales the PSP was for a entire week.

    Hype sells but word of mouth will stop the initial strong sales, Misery loves company of course people who bought the thing are going to say its cool, they are trying to substantiate there reason for purchase.

    After a while people will realize it is a waste of money cause a portable DVD player is cheaper and makes mroe sense, and a Ipod cod one third the price if you compare memory to cost, and a DS has more and plays better.

    What people hae in the end is nothing mroe then a 250 dollar battery discharger.

  17. I agree, there is little to no value in the PSP. More than a battery charger, it’s a bank account drainer. You’ve got to buy your memory sticks and your new games every week when the ones you bought last week are too boring to play anymore.

    If/when Apple announces their video iPod, there will be even less reason to spend your money on the PSP.

    It just stings me every time I see a salesman in EB telling some uninformed customer that they shouldn’t bother with the DS, the PSP is the way to go. What a load of wank.

    Anyway, I’m out.

  18. battery charger = battery discharger

  19. I think some of you are being too bias here, i own both a DS and a psp, and i honestly, atm could not pickl a favourite. Maybe that will change once we get our nintendogs release in europe…but the psp is a kool gadget and smacking it down with pathetic reasoning is stupid.

  20. Sony are deceiving gamers with hype. People who buy a PSP do not realise how absolutely pathetic it is until they play it. Here’s a run down:
    – Console for twice the price of a DS
    – Battery life less than half of the DS’
    – Limited features (unlike touch screen voice rec etc)
    – $80(au) for one game
    – $300(au) to buy a 1gb memory stick for movies
    – UMD movies about twice the price of the DVD equilivent
    – UMD’s popping out. Though Sony claims the problem to be fixed it hasn’t. A friend of mine who bought a PSP a few days ago has already experienced several pop outs.
    – Flaws, concerning the square button. They cannot fix flaws without enlarging the console or decreasing screen size, and Sony refuses to do either.

    I reckon that many people prefer a PSP cause they do not know of the DS’ movie playing capabilities. The Play-yan and Movie Player both play movies more efficiently than the PSP, as in cost, battery life etc.

    I’m looking forward to retailers in the UK receiving 185,000 complaints in the next week :)… ok that was a LITTLE exaggerated, lol.

  21. I have been living in japan for 3 years now but to hear that Eb game store clerks are telling people what they should or should not buy is a very saddening, What makes them know what is best i thought the customer was always right.

    If I ever go to EB games and here them say something like that I will request to speak to there manager immediatly that kind of Biased opinionation is nto good for them or the people buying it, does eb games not want to sell it or something?

  22. Don’t get me wrong Howzy22, I think for what it is, the PSP is a nifty little gadget. But it’s really no more than a natural progression in technology… Sony just looked at the GBA and said “let’s make it more powerful and give it a bigger screen” and fair enough, they’ve done a good job of that, and good on them for it. But anyone could have done it… I imagine the portable Xbox isn’t far off.

    Where is the creativity and imagination in that? I’ve controlled portable games with buttons and a cross-pad for years, but thanks to the DS now I can experience a new more involving way of gaming. Sure, it doesn’t work all the time, but when it does work it’s brilliant. Plus we now have some games in our library that just would not have been possible without the DS.

    It’s like Limp Bizkit vs Radiohead or Independence Day vs Being John Malkovich. Slick & Cool vs Creativity. They both have their merits (maybe not Limp Bizkit), but in the long run creativity wins… in my books anyway.

  23. I have friends who own the psp and they were very exited at first, but with the lack of good games they just use it as a music/movie player. I feel that sony should really get the good games to poeples hands before the psp turns into an over sized, music player, unificient battery movie thingy (i couldn’t find good words for it =P ) of mass uslessness thing.

  24. Those numbers are for the first four days of the PSP, and the first two days of the DS. Funny how media tends to forget these ‘little’ facts.

    And yes, poor library, poor selection, an over-expensive media device that sucks batteries, etc.

  25. and don’t forget that now cracked games are easy to obtain,so this ‘ll be a huge boost for PSP

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