One PSP To Three DS: The Hand-Held Battle
- Scribbled on March 15th, 2007 by Derrick Schommer
- Filed in Editorial Content, Mobile Gaming, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP
News has centered around PlayStation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii vs. Microsoft Xbox 360 for home console dollars since product launch. How many people follow the hand-held battle being fought in many countries with a special focus on Japan?
Not so many people care about the hand-held war because the figures are not even close to being even. Consoles continue to fight it out unit by unit while Nintendo simply dominates the hand-held market against Sony’s PSP nearly 3-to-1 in favor of Nintendo.
Sony has confirmed that it has shipped 5 million PSPs in the island country through the end of January, compared to 14.4 million DSs shipped in Japan through 2006. Both consoles went on sale in the country in December 2004.
Staggering numbers considering Sony’s total success with the PlayStation 2 console. Apparently, knowing a few things about the home console market does not make you a professional in the hand-held market. The two markets are vastly different and hold different opportunities and niche markets.
Nintendo has controlling share of the casual gamers while Sony continues to look for its niche market. It has been three years since the product launched, will Sony be able to compete in the next few years or is the PSP going to lose out to the DS with growing margins?
(Thanks, Gamespot and Bloomberg.)
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