Any numbers for the US PSP launch yet?

[overclocked]

How many unit´s were avaliable at the launch, i guess there sold hot but any guestimates about the demand? Oh btw how many PSP has Sony said to send too US before the EU launch(sometime in juli i think).

 

[Ty]

Well you know it's funny. Someone here mentioned that it wasn't selling out super crazy at one store. Then a guy at work found a KB toy store that had 4 of them. The 4 came from another KB toy store because no one was buying them there. /shrug. So to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if sales were decent but not spectacular like the DS (I'm sure the higher pricepoint hurt it).

 

[see colon]

http://psp.ign.com/articles/599/599156p1.html

looks like the first day was mixed. gamespot reported that sony shipped 1 million psp for launch day, up from a previous allocation of 500,000.

i think cost is a prohibitive factor. most people think of gameboy (and associate it with "toy console") when they think of portables, i think it'll take a week or two for the people to see the units and the games and realize how "home console" they are. sony kinda shot themselves in the foot not shipping demo kiosks to retails beforehand, i think. i wasn't really interested in the psp until i touched one. i guess that means nintendo was right afterall (touching is good), lol.

 

[Paul]

ony kinda shot themselves in the foot not shipping demo kiosks to retails beforehand, i think.

They definately did, there was no reason for them not to have kiosks in your local EB for example.

That being said, I'm loving my new PSP

 

[mckmas8808]

Yeah as a Sony fan and lover to my new psp, Sony totally screwed up with not putting psp kiosks in stores. Their should have been kiosks in every EB, Gamestop, Best Buy, and Walmart. And the price point did kinda hurt too. The biggest reason why a person seems not to be buying the PSP is the price or the fact they don't even know what it really is and what it can really do.

I can see the PSP picking up sales in a couple of weeks just like it did in Japan. In Japan the PSP is selling about the same amount units as the PS2.
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INSIGHT

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I wonder if Sony are deliberately keeping things low-key in some areas because they can't supply enough hardware for a huge buying extravangza? From the sounds of that IGN report some areas people don't know what PSP is or why they might want it, where as other areas it's gone in a flash.

How well are Sony going ot be able to ramp up production in future? When they're trying to maintain supplies in 3 1/2 continents they're going to be stretched thinly if demand gets as high as PS2.

Perhaps the high price was a deliberate "turn off too many early adopters, maximize profits on first sales" strategy, with a price drop (or PSP only pack) at $200 earmarked for 6 months down the line?

 

[mckmas8808]

Damn Shifty your a smart person. Thats a really good point. And in fact I think it was IGN that had an article saying that this is really a soft launch for the PSP. They were stating that the real sales and big things will come to the PSP come this holiday season. So I guess will should expect bigger things around November, December time frame.

And think about it Rockstar and others are still not even showing their hand yet. Midnigh Club 3 comes out for the PSP April 12th, yet will still haven't even seen the first screenshot. GTASP comes out I think in May yet no videos, screenshots, or even a little news about it.

This is pissing me off, but I think there is a reason for it. I could name probably 20 games that are in development that we have NO idea what it will look like. Plus the fact Sony didn't even show the PSP to America's stores before launch also seems to add to this "soft launch".
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Cheap Vaporizers

 

[see colon]

if they were low on units why did they have 1 million units shipped to reatil locations on the first day? originaly, sony planed 500k units but delayed the EU launch to make more units available for NA. nintendo, by comparison, had 550k DS's available for launch, and similarly initialy announced 300k units would be available for launch. and nintendo still had kiosks (with 2 DS's per kiosk) in pretty much ever EBgames and gamestop i've been in, and quite a few larger retailers as well.

 

[jvd]

I can tell you that gratis shipped out 6k free psps on launch day Offer centric shipped 1k free psps and phree sites shipped 800 .


Thats all i know , and i also know that our store was sold out before they came in but some of our strip mall stores in the area didn't even sell any but i mean we have 15 gamestops with in a 15min drive .

Wait is that right

3 in willowbrook , 3 on route 17 ... thats 6 ... 2 in garden state plaza , 1 in the bergan mall , 1 in hoboken , 1 on 46. thats 11. I know there is one more in fort lee , so thats 12. Okay 12 in a 15 min drive oh wait and edgewater thats 13 haha

 

[Acert93]

I wonder if Sony are deliberately keeping things low-key in some areas because they can't supply enough hardware for a huge buying extravangza?

But running out of units is great publicity. If they sold 1M units in 1 day they could claim they were overwhelmed by the demand and claim all kinds of records. It would be first page news and have a great buzz.

Publicity, good or bad, is good for business. "Low-key" is not.

From the sounds of that IGN report some areas people don't know what PSP is or why they might want it, where as other areas it's gone in a flash.

That sounds more like a marketing issue on Sony's part. While I think the PSP is a better device technically than the DS (I think dual screens is a gimmik... touch screen is nice though... for pda features!), I still remember people storming the local Walmart fot the NDS.

How well are Sony going ot be able to ramp up production in future? When they're trying to maintain supplies in 3 1/2 continents they're going to be stretched thinly if demand gets as high as PS2.

Kind of stinks when you have a killer device yet you cannot get it into customers hands. While I expect production to pick up, shortages can be a real downer. While I doubt this would carry on long, if production is still low come fall this could really hurt sales and give the NDS a boost.

Oh well, production shortages is one negative of going with a totally cutting edge system. We need to remember this when we talk about the home consoles. Yeah, cutting edge is great, but it comes at a cost and ability to deliver the parts.

Perhaps the high price was a deliberate "turn off too many early adopters, maximize profits on first sales" strategy, with a price drop (or PSP only pack) at $200 earmarked for 6 months down the line?

Supply and demand. PSP sold like crazy in Japan. If Sony sells all 1M PSPs in a timely manner then the high price point is worth it. 1day or 4 weeks, does not really matter. As long as they are selling what they have they will do great.

The price, of course, will always be a hitch. But the PSP is a high quality device so in that regards they should expect a premium. I also think Sony is going after the iPod type crowd also, not just the bargin Gameboy players. A 14yo who bought a GBA for $70 may not have the cash for a $300 PSP/Game.

In many ways Sony is going after a totally new market segment and that will require some effort to convince. My guess is that the PSP will ultimately be very successful, but if they have production issues and the price remains high this opens the door for Nintendo to get an even better foothold with the NDS that they can distract people long enough to bring out GB2.

And the competition and re-focus of big developers on handhelds will be great for everyone

 

[overclocked]

My guess is that the PSP will ultimately be very successful, but if they have production issues and the price remains high this opens the door for Nintendo to get an even better foothold with the NDS that they can distract people long enough to bring out GB2.

From the little i heard and read it seem´s the production is over estimation´s(from Sony´s side atleast). The demand from the public i speculate will rise alot at christmas 2005 as someone said there much games that we don´t know of yet that will make announce on E3.

One thing that i don´t agree with you/and some others on the forum is the fact that many don´t see NDS as a "REAL" nextGen portable from Nintendo but rather as GBA1,3 My friend has one and playing a little on it (metroidDemo) and some of the minigames on with the touchscreen i think i get a feel both on the gfx and the funfactor with the pengames. IMO this is a "real" nextGen portable from Nintendo.
Nuff said

 

[ims]

Well Lucklily my brother is on holiday in Canada atm . He phoned and said he picked one up, but the retailers were limiting them to one per household. Somehow bro managed to twist him into selling him 2. Good price too, seeing as he didnt have to pay tax. Worls out to about 140 quid for the unit itself.

Cheers

 

[Blade]

I got the PSP, and while it's sleek (even moreso than the DS, and much more powerful) I've gotta say it was a knee-jerk.

Why? The price. I'd be much, much more content if it were $200.