Don't throw out your handhelds: there's a lot of life left in them. According to an analyst at DFC Intelligence, the ever-expanding market for both DS and PSP will help allow it to beat the current generation systems: "Under the right scenario, by 2011 the combined installed base of the DS and PSP could exceed that for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360," noted David Cole.

While Nintendo will be responsible for much of the growth of the handheld industry, Sony is certainly not out of the game--they will "establish a solid position in the marketplace" (if they haven't already). Cole reminds investors that "existing console game publishers have found it is possible to make over $100 million in revenue from a single PSP title based on the right franchise," a figure that's not to be scoffed at.

Ultimately, PSP's success will be determined by a number of factors, with Sony's support for the platform being key. Sony said they're working on exciting new things for the platform at GDC--hopefully, it's true.

[Via GameDaily BIZ]

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.

Here's some food for thought: what if the DS didn't have a four-month head-start ahead of the PSP? Both systems have had at least 22 months of sales in America. Looking at cumulative sales, this chart from VGcharts.org shows that the PSP has sold more than the DS in their first 22 months of sales. Certainly, Japan is a completely different story ... but does that really matter for gamers in the US? Americans love their PSP ... even if the video gaming press doesn't want to admit it.

Not even a Sony fanboy can avoid admitting that the Nintendo DS is selling at a much brisker pace than the PSP. Regardless of our second place position, I still find it interesting to see what Japan thinks of our favorite handheld machine. "What Japan Thinks" has a report from over 7000 Japanese individuals on their gaming habits. Here are some of the highlights:

• Only 10.7% of people surveyed have a PSP, compared to Nintendo DS's 32.3%.
• 14.7% of PSP owners use it every day. (Do you?)
• Although both the PSP and DS are portable, the number one place the system is played is at home: 94.2%. Personally, the subway is where I get most of my PSP playing done.
• Brain training games are easily the most popular kinds of handheld games, coming in at 54.6%
• A shocking number of people have not used any of PSP's non-gaming features: 43.1%
• 25.2% of surveyed individuals want a PSP in the future, versus the DS's 59.4%.
• Only 20.3% of people want a PS3. Only 15% want a Wii. (But 17% want both.)
  

Make with these numbers what you will. While it may be easy to say that "PSP is t3h d00m3d!!1" I think that a 25% desirability rate is still very high. It's certainly higher than the number of people that wanted Gamecubes or Xboxes, both of which have lived fairly great console lives. Can Sony increase the PSP's desirability by focusing solely on games? Are you like the Japanese: do you not find value in PSP's non-gaming functionality?
[Via Japundit]

People that try to avoid the flame war between the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP always jump to one conclusion: both are great systems, each with their unique capabilities... But it looks like the 0x89 development team is trying to blur the lines between the two systems by giving the PSP touch screen support. What?! In quite possibly the most ambitious homebrew modification to date, the team will allow you to attach a device to the PSP's USB connection and control the XMB and specially programmed homebrew applications. PSPTouchMe as it's called will not only give you touch screen capabilities, but it'll provide a new, completely customizable XMB that's far more flexible than Sony's official one. Look at their video support: avi, mpeg, mpeg4, wmv, avc, pmp. Most impressive.

I wish the best of luck to the programmers: it'll be a truly amazing feat if they can pull this. If they're able to complete this project, tons of PSP owners will be able to understand that touching is good.

[Via PSP Hacks]

Sony-hating Joystiq once talked about the new gaming Oreo: a DS Lite placed into the Value Pack PSP sock. When a junior high school teacher from 4 color rebellion (Disclaimer: it's a Nintendo blog) tried putting a PSP in a DS carrying case, all he did was make his students sad. One child even cried.

You see, my students had become accustomed to playing with the ever-present DS lite. After class, some girls came up as sasked, "Can we play Mario?" I explained that I didn't have my DS with me, but one girl pointed to the case and its DS logo. I opened the case and watched their faces fall as they saw the PSP. I asked, "Would you like to play with this instead?"

They replied, "No."

The blogger goes out to point that he was surprised by this response, considering how the much-better graphics of the PSP didn't attract the kids at all. "To these students however, it is not an end-all multimedia device. It is just some shiny black thing that doesn't play Animal Crossing." As amusing as this story is, if Sony wants to extend their reach, they somehow have to steal part of the lucrative children's market.

There are motherf--in' PSPs on this motherf--in' plane filled with motherf--in' snakes.

Okay, admit it: you're secretly part of the phenomenon. You've probably spent days Photoshopping funny snakes and plane-related posters, and you've spent hours blogging about it. Well, the day of reckoning is here: the Snakes on a Plane movie is finally out. Our sister site, DS Fanboy, has some interesting video game-related snippets from the film:

Kenan Thompson's character Troy is shown throughout the movie as a video game junkie...how? He sports a black PSP model, yelling and screaming at the machine. Later, in a brief shot, an eight year-old is shown occupying himself idly with a (phat) Nintendo DS.

Good Burger-star and SNL regular Kenan's love of the PSP shows how at least in the public image battle, the PSP is a long way ahead of the PSP: Nintendo and the DS, for better or worse, is still "t3h k1ddy."

Okay, that's the end of this incredible non-news story. Like my DS Fanboy colleague, this really was nothing more than a thinly veiled way for us to bring up the movie. The movie's out now, and is rated R for Retarded Restricted Audiences.