PSP hardware sales rise, software sales stagnate
However, in spite of significant growth in hardware, software sales stagnated. The PSP sold through 55.5 million software units, a growth of approximately 1% from last year. In spite of a slew of major new releases, like Crisis Core, software sales on PSP simply don't perform as well as they should.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
5-14-2008 @ 12:14PM
Draco said...
Damn Piracy!
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 4:05PM
pixelator said...
Damn false apologist excuses!
More, diverse and better games. Only a good selection will incite people to buy the games. Other than GoW and FFVII, nothing out there within the past few months has even piqued my interest. I can't be alone in that.
5-15-2008 @ 10:03AM
vahdyx said...
I'm to blame, but not game piracy. I bought my PSP pretty much for porn on the go and movies and music. The web browser is great and that's pretty much it.
I usually play games on my PS3, but I'll go buy a game today.
5-14-2008 @ 12:20PM
Duff_B said...
I know that Sony must be trying, but I wish that they could put a stop to people copying the games and piracy... I have never felt more anger towards piracy until it started to endanger new games and content for my beloved PSP.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 12:31PM
Jamma said...
As bad as piracy is, it's not the only reason for worse software sales.
many people i know have bought a psp for remote play and PSN purposes, and perhaps only got a couple of actual games.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 12:45PM
Azazeal said...
I'd love to be able to blame it all on piracy, which will be making a huge impact, but since I got my PS3 all my games budget has been going on that and I've not bought a single new PSP game, though I do still use it at work every lunchtime.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 12:46PM
ViagraFiend said...
how do they expect to increase their sales when they only come out with 1 game a month?
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 12:58PM
Brian said...
I would say another problem is that we all know how poorly software
sell, and as a result, know that price drops will occur in the near
future. This is not the same as the DS where debut titles are still
on shelves for $34.99.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 1:15PM
strike said...
Can developers not put something into their games which makes it impossible to upload the game onto the net? Im not too computer savvy, but it should be doable, right?
Reply
5-27-2008 @ 1:51AM
mario said...
ya know,to copy a psp people most likely use CFW or a ''hacked'' psp because they have access to the UMD files
so they can easily connect to the pc copy the files and host a website that give ''back-ups'' then people download it for free and they don't buy the actual game anymore.
5-14-2008 @ 1:47PM
mljachko said...
think about it, do you think hw would sell this good if pirating psp games isn't that eaasy?
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 3:20PM
Zippon said...
Good question. And like most PSP problems, there's no simple answer.
As I understand it, it's quite popular in Japan to own several PSP's (to have different colors, exclusives, etc). I've seen the same thing to a lesser degree here in the US. Plus we all know that the European and Japanese PSP gadgets sell systems as well.
As for piracy and sales, it's like a convenience store where people are walking in during broad daylight, loading up there pockets, and walking out. And when someone complains about it, a knowledgable fellow comes in, gets in the store owner's face, and tells him how it's HIS fault that things aren't selling in his store. He doesn't carry the right types of chewing gum, so people don't want to pay for what he does have. His signs don't advertise his products well and make people want to buy them. And $1 for a pack of gum?! It should be 10 cents.......Etc. (See how silly that seems in another scenario?)
I admit Sony has problems. And I admit that all platforms suffer from piracy. There are many factors that contribute to poor software sales on the PSP. But by far the most significant is the fact that people don't pay for the games they play. Pure and simple. People with hacked PSP's have TONS of games and play them quite a lot. If we took away their ability to play illegal games, I GUA-RON-TEE sales would significantly improve. People might only buy 10% or less of the games they originally stole, but that would still be a big bump.
I'd love to see some uber-hacker develop a wi-fi bug that would brick any PSP with CFW and illegal ISO's on it. Sure, a tiny percentage of innocent people would suffer, but the other 98% would get what was coming to them. (And anyone who responds with, "I use CFW for blah, blah, blah, not for stolen games!!!"......you're in that 2%.) ;-)
5-14-2008 @ 5:34PM
pixelator said...
There's no real evidence to indicate that piracy on PSP is any worse than it was on the GBA - or currently is on the DS.
People need to quite blaming piracy. Sony can't do anything about it and it's a convenient out for them to stop trying.
I haven't heard of any publishers that have cited piracy specifically as a reason they're not producing games for the PSP. Poor sellthrough can be attributed to a lot of things, mainly the fact that there were only two big name A-level games for the system in about a year. If you look at Metacritic, you see 3 of the top 10 were released in 2007 or later.
5-14-2008 @ 1:58PM
EMaster said...
Software sales are down because a lot of the software sucks! The last game I bought was the SNK collection and that's worth paying for. I have a modded console and I do play the altest releases that way. Only the ones I play for more than 30 minutes I buy. 1/10 games is buyable. The rest are utter garbage I find. Of course I could try demos.... wait what demos? Oh that's right there rarely ever is any demos of he latest releases. People do buy PSP games, the problem is that people are only buying the heavy hitter titles like GOW, FF7 CC and so on. I too buy them because they are worht my money.
The other games I want to play are regrettably foreign games which I could import but instead get raped by customs fees. Case & point; piracy is not the only reason this is happening. I happen to think it's the massive amount of crappy games that is doing it. Also, I Love playing my SNES games and NES games I OWN on the psp. I think it's a great system and I Love playing it but a lot of the software is crap.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 1:59PM
Smokey said...
I've said before, ill say it again, PIRATES, FUCK U TOO!!!
Crisis Core (a CANON title, in the FFVII franchise)
1% growth last year, HUGE TITLE, I do not see this adding up, I really dont care for the arguments anymore, FUCK U TOO!!!!
Not just fuck u, but fuck u too, cause obviously pirates said a fuck u first to me, the average psp gamer, the average developer, the average distributor, and the average retailer.
U sent the first fuck u, so don't pretend ur some poor 12 year old girl being raped because u pirated psp games.
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 7:47PM
Marty said...
This from a guy that probably buys used games. I hate people that blame pirates and at the same time half their collection is used games. It's the same thing! To everyone that buys used games, you're just as bad as pirates!
5-14-2008 @ 1:59PM
SparkyJ23 said...
Is it any wonder or have you forgotten this?
In europe in the past month we've had 3 Fucking games released - just not good enough
Worldwide PSP releases for the week of May 11
NA Games:
No new releases
EU Games:
No new releases
Worldwide PSP releases for the week of May 4
NA Games:
R-Type Command
EU Games:
WWII: Battle Over the Pacific
Iron Man
Worldwide PSP releases for the week of Apr. 27
NA Games:
SNK Arcade Classics: Volume 1
Iron Man
EU Games:
No new releases
PSP releases for the week of Apr. 20
NA Games:
Chameleon
PSP Media Manager 2.5
EU Games:
No new releases
Worldwide PSP releases for the week of Apr. 13
NA Games:
No new releases
EU Games:
UEFA Euro 2008
If you don't supply any new games don't be surprised when folks only buy the old ones SECOND HAND and you blame the lack of sales on piracy? Get your head out your ass!
Reply
5-14-2008 @ 5:40PM
pixelator said...
Exactly. Seconded.
5-14-2008 @ 10:13PM
Saigon said...
Riiiiight. The number of psp owners obviously grew last year, and there were more quality games released last year, compared to '06. Yet software sales only grew one lousy percent.
I blame the months that saw no good psp games released, and I also blame people who buy used games./sarcasm
"Many users download the games, put them on their mem stick just to find out they won't work"
Source?
5-14-2008 @ 2:12PM
Jacksons said...
As much as I'd like to blame the dirty pirate bastards, there's just more to it than that. I go months between buying exclusives sometimes. I don't even see anything on the horizon after Clank. I can't complain too much, there's a ton of great stuff coming out for the PS3 and 360, but seeing the same PSP games on shelves every time I visit a store is getting sad. It needs more great exclusives, and it's just not getting them.
Reply