The PSP software problem is a damn shame. Q-Games just announced they will not be making any more pixel junk ports to PSP because of piracy:
Q-Game head Dylan Cuthbert has stated that he doesn’t think the company will port anything else to the PSP, telling Kotaku, “We thought the psp-go and the psp-3000 were safe but a rip “that works on psp-3000s” went up on the torrent servers the day after we released PJMD.”
Q-Games decided to release the game as digital-only, but not to avail. “Seeing it up on torrentz the following day was very depressing,” states Cuthbert.
I haven’t really been following the handhelds that much, but is piracy the primary reason why games don’t sell well for the PSP? It makes little sense to me that so many people have the hardware but very few ever buy software for it. Do at least a couple of games every month sell well?
No, pretty much nothing sells on it, at least here in the US. In Japan some stuff does quite well I believe, like Monster Hunter for instance, which is a sales monster.
The PSP is easy to hack + it’s region-free.
Also it’s a machine for hardcore teenage gamers / young adults mainly since the casual folk roots for the DS.
Of course it gets pirated to hell and back.
Same thing happens on the DS but there is (still) enough “cattle” that buys games to make up for the losses.
Did you really describe the honest people as cattle?
He did. What’s the reasoning there intruder? That it’s so easy to pirate games for it, only cattle would be foolish enough to actually pay for the games? :)
Speaking only from personal experience, I only know a couple of people with handhelds, and they have both a DS and a PSP, and they hardly ever use either of them. When they do use one though, it’s usually the DS because it has games like crossword puzzle games and other little things like that, which the stylus-style control method is ideal for.
I’m still amazed at the huge number of sales for the PSP though. If nothing else, I guess maybe Sony made a lot of money by just selling the hardware? Or is it like the regular console model, where you start selling the hardware at a loss and try to make your money back through software sales?
I think the unit itself is profitable now, so they’re making money on the hardware whether you’re buying the new digital only model or the one that uses UMDs.
It definitely seems to be the piracy machine, though.
I’m surprised that the piracy problem is that bad for the PSP, but I definitely recognize that it’s not difficult to do so. Mine is hacked due to the versatility you can get out of the unit, but I’ve got a library of 20-25 UMD’s. Of course my DS library is 40-50. I just tend to find more games I want on that platform.
Most people who hack the PSP aren’t doing it for the versaility and surely aren’t buying UMDs when they suddenly don’t have to anymore.
That’s why it was really important for Sony to do one of two things… figure out how to make the hardware profitable and/or find a way to force people to buy the games.
The PSP Go! solved number two (at least until someone somehow cracks that) and the newer iterations of the PSP with UMDs solved the first. So I think they can sustain the business now, but still don’t see a lot of developers supporting it anymore than they have up to now.
So Bill Harris predicts that the PS3 outsells the 360 through the holidays. Me, I’m skeptical. Every time in the past that the PS3 has gotten a bump in an “event” month, it’s gone back down the next month.
Maybe this time is different, and the $299 is the magic price point at which the hordes of PS3-wanters are going to come piling in by the millions. But I think it’s more likely that it’s just a small bunch of people who were waiting for the bump, and that they’ve mostly been sated, so sales will return to trend.
I think Bill Harris is right. What makes this bump different is that it feels like the launch of a new product. It’s the PS3 Slim, not the <spiderman font>Playstation 3</font>. And I think it will do well this holiday season.
But I also like Bill Harris’ other point that the Wii Price drop had a huge effect on numbers for the four days of September that were included in the NPD period, so October through the holidays is going to be huge again for the Wii.
This Mo. Last Mo. Title Publisher
1 Aion NCsoft
2 1 The Sims 3 Electronic Arts
3 Champions Online Atari
4 2 World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack Blizzard Entertainment
5 Aion Collector’s Ed NCsoft
6 4 Mumbo Jumbo Assortment Mumbo Jumbo
7 3 The Sims 2 Double Deluxe Electronic Arts
8 6 World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest Blizzard Entertainment
9 Reel Deal Slots Treasures Of The Far East Phantom EFX
10 8 World Of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment
11 9 Spore Electronic Arts
12 Grand Theft Auto IV Rockstar Games (Take 2)
13 11 Starcraft: Battle Chest Blizzard Entertainment
14 Zuma’s Revenge PopCap Games
15 13 World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack Blizzard Entertainment
16 Batman: Arkham Asylum Eidos
17 19 Reel Deal Slots Adventure Phantom EFX
18 10 Nancy Drew: Ransom Of The Seven Ships Her Interactive
19 17 Civilization IV: Complete Ed 2K Games ( Take 2)
20 The Sims 2 University Life Collection Electronic Arts
Thanks to Gamasutra for digging up the numbers for me.
NFS Shift didn’t even make it into the top 20? Ouch. Then again, Undercover didn’t make it onto either list, and Shift at least made it onto the console chart.
