PSP launches

[unreal]

The PSP has finally launched in Japan, 10 days after the Nintendo DS at a discounted price of $189.
About 200,000 PSP's went on sale early Sunday morning in Tokyo, with crowds of thousands queuing up for hours.

IGN have a launch special page HERE


"Excitement over PlayStation Portable, with high-quality graphics normally only seen on a full game console, has been building for months with the Japanese press eagerly comparing it with the rival Nintendo DS, made by the company that brought the world games featuring characters Pokemon, Mario and Donkey Kong.

"With the DS you can only play games, but with the PSP you can also play music and movies. There's added value there," said Asuka Senaga, a 24-year old company employee who lined up outside an electronics retailer in Shinjuku at 11 p.m. on Saturday.

Senaga bought a car-racing game, Namco's Ridge Racers, to play with friends who also bought a PSP.

INTERNET CONNECTION
Equipped with a wireless LAN feature, the Sony machine allows users to play games with each other over the Internet.

Sony has displayed mannequins holding PSPs in stylish shops around Tokyo since mid-November to create a buzz around the product that goes beyond traditional game fans.

Ahead of Sunday's launch, fans bought 500 PSPs for about 30 million yen in an online auction on November 25 for victims of an earthquake in northern Japan in October -- paying a premium of up to 13 times the proposed retail price to get ahead of the pack.

Nintendo's defence of its strangle-hold on portable game machines has included an advertising blitz featuring pop singer Hikaru Utada. It set up sidewalk booths to capture the attention of passers-by as it also pushes to attract customers beyond its base of young game fans for the new machines, which cost 15,000 yen.

Retailers face likely shortages of both machines but Nintendo is likely to win the bulk of initial sales as it is able to ship more than five times as many units as Sony.

NINTENDO'S HEAD START
Nintendo launched DS in the United States on November 21 and in Japan on December 2, in time for the holiday spending rush, and has raised its forecast of shipments this year by 40 percent to 2.8 million units.

Sony has said it will ship just 500,000 units in Japan by the end of the year and it will miss the holiday season in the United States and Europe, where a launch is expected early next year.

Some American gamers are not willing to wait. Last week a Play Station Portable with one game was bid at $560 on eBay's auction Web site -- the price rising even though it was a Japanese-language version and the seller did not yet have it in hand.

Analysts have said the DS and PSP will capture different markets, with Nintendo keeping its grip on game fans and Sony reaching out to new consumers.

"The PSP is trying to create a completely new market beyond traditional games. I'm rooting for them, but it will be difficult," said Hirokazu Hamamura, president of game magazine publisher Enterbrain.

Nintendo would hang on to its 58.1 million users of its existing Game Boy Advance machines, who can play their old games on the new Nintendo machine, he said.

Sony has said it plans to ship 3 million PSP units worldwide by March 31 while Nintendo expects to ship 5 million units.

Industry watchers generally expect the two companies to hit those targets, but say the availability of attractive software will play a key role in determining who wins the sales war. "

http://www.reuters.co.uk

[Googeta]

OMFG DA PSP IS OUT IN JAPAN WOT11!!! WTF

[Marcos]

Sums up the situation

[Googeta]

:roll:

i dont think so 100,000 units at launch and the DS sold about 250000 at launch and 1.2 million have been sold now.

any way i think this is more accurate

Analysts have said the DS and PSP will capture different markets, with Nintendo keeping its grip on game fans and Sony reaching out to new consumers.

I think thats kinda bull**** , its the DS trying to reach out to new consumers

"Our efforts to appeal to non-gamers is bearing fruit,'' Iwata comments. "Shattering the belief that 'games are not for me' was a big hurdle.''

[unreal]

The DS wouldnt appeal to non gamers though, cause its a gaming machine, I dont see why any non gamer would buy it. The PSP seems to be marketing itself more of a multimedia device, like the comment from the store guy "With the DS you can only play games, but with the PSP you can also play music and movies. There's added value there."

[Marcos]

Originally Posted by Googeta

i dont think so 100,000 units at launch and the DS sold about 250000 at launch and 1.2 million have been sold now.

Sony had 200,000 units available at launch, all gone now.

It hasnt sold 200,000 because there was only 200,000 people wanting it, it sold 200,000 because thats all there was.

100,000 coming every week from now. If there were more units available it would have easily outsold DS.

Anyway...exciting times

[Kain]

Originally Posted by Marcos

It hasnt sold 200,000 because there was only 200,000 people wanting it, it sold 200,000 because thats all there was.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Googeta]

The reson it does appeal to non gamers is it has very simple interface. PSP will only appeal to People who own well PS2s and ppl who own ps2s are mainly gamers