We showed you the offending EB Games ad. Then, DS Fanboy rather maturely copied the story from us, refusing to partake in a fanboy mudslinging battle. (And thankfully, no one tried to impersonate me in the comments! Thanks, guys.) It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of sensationalistic spin DS Fanboy will put on this rather silly "debate" from G4's Attack of the Show. While we wait, check out what the editors of our rivals, Kotaku and Destructoid, had to say about the future of the handheld battle. While they complain about the lack of good games for our system, let me point out that I am exhausted from having reviewed seven games in the last week, many of them being quite good. I guess silly things like "facts" don't bother the most opinionated of fanboys.













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-21-2007 @ 12:38AM
Hater 2000! said...
Yeah pretty much what i thought.Thanks for lisenting and sorry for forcing you to watch that crap..sorry for that.
Also you arent the only one.Metecritic SEZ PSP>>DS in Games.Is more the publicity like PhoenixRA.Is not like PRA is teh Coolest but the publicity is all,check pokemon.Valve would kill to sell the same amount as pokemon Diamond.PRA is still good but Text adventures are quite lame after a while.
Anyway is funny how many PSP is teh d00med archives exist and it still sells.Underdog FTW.
Again sorry for forcing you to watch the attack of the show PSPfanboy.
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2-21-2007 @ 12:59AM
Silver R. Wolfe said...
These two were looking at this very well. Sony did try to do too much with the PSP, though it has been a good outing overall, especially against the handheld giant that Nintendo is.
I do tend to agree more with what Kotaku said, over the Destructoid fellow, simply because he seems to look at the whole situation more objectively.
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2-21-2007 @ 1:40AM
Darren Tilley said...
Wow, that Robert Summa is an arrogant idiot. He keeps talking about the PSP in a past tense as if it's already dead.
Sure the DS has sold 35 million units. A lot of those are the lite edition. Since a bunch of people bought both, I'd estimate that the actual userbase is closer to 30 million.
The PSP has sold 20 million worldwide. In terms of comparison with the DS, it isn't fantastic, but it's still pretty good. But when you look at it as a standalone figure, it's a success. That's twice as many units as Xbox 360s have sold in a similar timeframe. That's only 2 million less than the SNES's total userbase when it was laid to rest. So was the SNES a failure?
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2-21-2007 @ 1:43AM
Tristan said...
The other guy seems to be so negative in regards to the PSP, the current games are so good now
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2-21-2007 @ 1:57AM
Saigon said...
It's so transparent that Rob guy doesn't even like psp, it was pretty much only the other guy making logical points.
Ok, xbox didn't sell even close to as many units as ps2, so does that make xbox a failure? No, Microsoft carved out niche of the console market and expanded upon it with 360, and hopefully sony can do the same come psp2.
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2-21-2007 @ 2:13AM
Brandon said...
I think people tend to forget something that the Kotaku guy managed to point out. Sony is the ONLY company in Nintendo's 18 year reign of the market to even manage to be competitive. No other system (and there were many) has even managed to make a dent. Sony has not only manage to sell, but coexist with big N. The games are getting good, more and more of them garnering 9's (more by quantity than the ds).
The Sony hate train is also having its effect on the psp as well. Even mediocre titles on the DS are presumed to be better than good PSP offerings, just because its on the DS. I've personally heard store employees downplaying MGS:PO in favor of a fare less acclaimed game on the ds, just because apparent DS is "the" handheld. And yes this was EB.
Sony just needs to be more singular in its psp marketing. The other aspects of the system should be marketed as bonuses to the primary experience of gaming. But their current approach of advertising all of the features equally only confuses the buying public as to what its for.
Also many in the internet community take the DS phenomenon in Japan as a window into what occuring in the rest of the world, its not. The ds vs psp sales are far closer everywhere else in the world, and in many places its a dead heat. I have three non gaming friends who want a psp this year beacuse of its versatility, their only gripe is the price. If sony just dropped it, they would alleviate alot of their woes.
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2-21-2007 @ 3:40AM
Strangler said...
"The Sony hate train is also having its effect on the psp as well. Even mediocre titles on the DS are presumed to be better than good PSP offerings, just because its on the DS. I've personally heard store employees downplaying MGS:PO in favor of a fare less acclaimed game on the ds, just because apparent DS is "the" handheld. And yes this was EB."
its because microsoft and nintendo have teamed up and microsoft even makes games for the ds now, with their combined pwoer and money they basically infiltrated news groups and gmaing mags and ahve put a type of viral amrketing like sony did by paying fanboys to post on message boards and perpetuating the myth the psp is just a port machine. Microsoft is so rich they might even combine forces with nintendo in the future and make a console for both of them and become partners or something.
and regards to marketing, i really think the psp is not doing as well as it could is becasue it lacks a mascot. They need to make Daxter its Mascot by featuring more commercials with him and putting him in more than just one game. All succesful systems have a great Mascott.
atari agrees with me btw:
http://www.cyberroach.com/jaguarcd/html/mascot.htm
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2-21-2007 @ 4:27AM
G-man said...
Ignorance is harming the psp's image. People are still asuming that it has no games or great games for that matter. Theres too much of a negative mentality all over the net that its almost hard to get a clear message across. Fanboys can be partly to blame, but also the media too. Hell they were talking like the machine was already dead when its still selling fine.
The ds is a good handheld no doubt, but some people simply refuse to believe that the psp has made some accomplishments and gained a foot hold in what was once a difficult market to get into. Its a shame that the view given is that they can't co-exist, one has to be the winner and the rest aren't allowed to be 2nd or 3rd.
That Rob guy just seemed so against the psp, it makes you wonder if he's ever owned one or done some research into its games. Either way i'm not too concerned, theres plenty of games to look forward to this year. Theres still alot of fight left in the psp if you ask me. (sony just need to drop the price and get some better advertising)
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2-21-2007 @ 4:50AM
ProPorn said...
There's a reason why Summa was fired from Joystiq.
And there's a reason why I don't read Destructoid.
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2-21-2007 @ 6:50AM
Mike said...
The fact that G4 is this story's subject means it should never have been posted as legit gaming news to begin with.
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2-21-2007 @ 7:07AM
locoroco said...
Kotaku is biased. :/ And has always been. Ever since running quite a few hate-posts about PSP games selling so low. I wouldn't listen to them about "opinion" topics at any point in time.
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2-21-2007 @ 7:36AM
Bored said...
The trend really seems to be that of viral marketing and spreading FUD. The good games keep coming out, but the MS/DS zealots just keep doing everything they can to discredit the PSP.
Kudos to Andrew for not playing along with this anti-Sony farce, despite also loving his DS as much (if not more) as his PSP.
Respect, man. Bloggers like you are our only hope of reliable news.
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2-21-2007 @ 11:56AM
navsimpson said...
It's an unpopular opinion, but I think Sony should do everything it can to market the PSP as a multimedia device first as much as a gaming device. For me, the multimedia capabilities of the system are the reason I like it, much more so than the gaming. However, having said that, I wouldn't use it to replace an iPod or similar device - it's precisely the confluence of gaming and multimedia that make it such a cool device.
I think the one big piece of the puzzle that's missing is an iTunes equivalent for the PSP. Yes, I know there's PSP Media Manager, but it's just not good enough and 'cool' enough to work like iTunes. If they created a new, seamless way to get content onto the device, including a music and movie store that was better than Connect, then they'd start to challenge their 'other' competition - Apple.
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2-21-2007 @ 12:22PM
bmac said...
Sony just needs to make their advertising focus on the games. Have several half minute spots with 5-6 seconds devoted to each of the games that have come out in the last year that have been great. Pull out at the end to show the psp in someone's hands, then do the flip to the name.
They need to focus less on making the system "cool", and just show what it does and has. The rest will take care of itself. Same with the ps3. Show the games, pull out on the tv, cut to the the system side with name.
There's no reason to even have a writer on this stuff right now, just show the product doing it's thing. No one I've had over to my house who has seen the ps3 running has been dissapointed, and no one I've handed the psp to wasn't left with a positive impression. Their product is great, they just need to show it instead of selling it.
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2-21-2007 @ 2:01PM
txa1265 said...
Re: #13. "It's an unpopular opinion, but I think Sony should do everything it can to market the PSP as a multimedia device first as much as a gaming device."
To me that is part of the problem - so much of the early press *was* about how much *more* than just gaming the PSP could do. It was such a mixed message that left consumers without a clear picture of why they should buy - because while it does many things, none of them are better than other multi-function devices such as PDA's. So the remaining focus was on the gaming, which didn't hold up well. Of course, there are better games now, but ...
Re: #3 "DS has sold 35 million units The PSP has sold 20 million worldwide.
That's only 2 million less than the SNES's total userbase when it was laid to rest. So was the SNES a failure?"
Couple of things:
- The SNES sold ~50 million ... >23 million US only.
- The '35 vs. 20' argument is somewhat misleading, telling me a few things:
> That regardless of anything the PSP has done very well. Better than any handheld in history.
> The real numbers divide like this - '17 vs 16' up through March of 2006, with the PSP having a lead worldwide at that point.
> The other half is '19 vs 3'. Think about that for a second - in the last 10 months the DS has sold 19 million units and the PSP has sold 3.
> The PSP was the #3 handheld in 2006.
Of course, those are generalities and the interview was a joke ...
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2-21-2007 @ 8:35PM
Johnny Lasley said...
Nice to keep these videos around to laugh at when the PSP is still alive and kicking in five years and Sega delivers on the greatest gaming experience you'll ever have on a home console.
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2-21-2007 @ 8:44PM
jac said...
I think i threw up a little in my mouth when i heard Robert Summa speak..
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2-21-2007 @ 10:19PM
Hater 2000! said...
ProPorn:
Rlly,Wow i think you just Burned Summa,you just won an archivement.
I didnt know it was a Joystiq Ex-Employee.Cool Fact your xbox wants me to tell you this:
"Archivement Unlocked:Burn any of the Bozos of Destructoid."
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2-22-2007 @ 2:43PM
Extinction said...
" because while it does many things, none of them are better than other multi-function devices such as PDA's. "
False.
It's game playing abilities are far better than every single portable in existance thanks to the large screen, processing power, and UMD (bitch all you want, and I know you will, but the space lets developers do a lot of what they can't on any other handheld)
It's movie playback abilities are far better than anything except some Portable Media Centers. And even most of them have smaller, duller screens. The UMD movies are better quality than anything you'll play on any other portable except portable DVD players.
Combined with Custom Firmware and homebrew, nothing tops PSP. Pimpstreamer (the ability to watch videos over wifi from your PC, even over the internet) for example tops anything other handhelds have.
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2-23-2007 @ 1:24AM
woodstock_15 said...
@3)
Yeah, this destructoid guy sounds like a real tool. He talks about the PSP in the past tense and thinks that it's only selling because of people hacking it. At least the Kotaku guy acknowledged the strengths of the PSP.
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