Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’ll know that there’s a war in handheld land, and its being fought on a global scale. Sony’s PSP is clearly the more powerful of the two, but the Nintendo DS is so unique, and Nintendo’s heritage in handheld gaming is so strong, that in many areas the DS is outselling the PSP.
I’ve personally ordered a PSP, but not before I checked out the competition. Update: The PSP has arrived, I’ll do a post on it in the next few days. Having played on both, I can honestly say that the PSP provides a console-style experience in your hands, whereas the Nintendo DS provides a handheld experience, much as the Gameboy Advance SP or the Gameboy did. Now Nintendo have released the Gameboy Micro, a minature version of the DS. I get the impression that Nintendo may have just shot themselves in the foot over this, because the GBA was actually such a damned fine (yet flawed) console that by resolving the issues that plagued it, Nintendo may well have just introduced a new competitor into the market.
Of course, everyone seems to have an opinion on the PSP Vs. the DS. Over at IGN there’s a great comparison between the two that shows that it’s not all about the raw power under the admittedly small hood. G4 has a three part comparison that makes the valid points on the DS’ lack of an analogue stick, making it almost impossible to play 3D games. It also makes a point of the PSP’s loading times. Consumers are happy to wait for games to load at home, but when you just want a quick blast of Tetris, are you willing to wait 10, 20, 30 seconds or upwards of a minute to play?
In August Satori took some statistics on PSP and DS game sales and compared the two. The results showed a neck and neck race in the U.S. but in the lucrative Japanese market, the PSP was trailing behind the DS. Korea appears to be a different story. A round-up of comments on the DS and PSP at GamaSutra tells us that the war is far from over. YongTae Kim, a Korean observer noted:
I am living in Korea working mobile contents publishing and have checked sales status of both handheld machines in Korea . The PSP has already sold out over 300K unit (I think almost 400k – 500K unit) while the Nintendo DS still struggling for sales in Korea . Marketing for the PSP is quite aggressive in Korea .
One things for sure, the battle for the handheld market is far from over. It’s only just begun.
meh, i think the “portable war” is nearing it’s end if not already over.
Having seen the japanese sales figures, where the DS is 1.5 mil units ahead and the gap is widening by some 15-20k units every week.
More handheld sold = more 3rd party developer support = better range of games avaliable on the DS = more sales again…
This is potentially devastating to the already poor game lineup for the PSP.
then again, i think it’s time to move on, people are shifting their attention to the next console three-way battle of revolution vs. Xbox360 vs. PS3.
Or more importently, this HD-DVD vs. Blue-Ray thing will be giving all consumers quite a headache.
I think you’ve got a valid point in that people will focus more on Xbox360 vs. PS3, but personally I think we’ll probably end up in a situation where the PSP does well in some markets but not in others.
Looking at the DS, I can see that it caters for an area that the PSP really seems to be lacking – The female gamer. After spending some time with the PSP, I get the impression that it’s being approached as though it were a full size Playstation. Nintendo have honed portable gaming to a fine art, and the DS appears to have that ‘5 minute session’ approach to its games.
PSP is exactly what it says – a portable Playstation. There’s little point switching it on if you’re at home, ‘cos you’ve got things which do all the same jobs, only better.
If you travel a lot (or disappear to the toilet for an hour at a time at work a lot), then PSP is a great option. If you want something which you will play at home, the DS is cheap and really good fun. It does things you won’t have seen anywhere before(the first time I saw a Pacman that I drew come to life I was thinking “I must own this machine!”).
I have heard people criticise the DS by saying that you will end up with a collection of novelty mini-games that you only really play for 10-20 mins at a time.
I say yes! That’s exactly what I bought my DS for. My favourite all-time game by a mile is Point Blank, and DS provides exactly this kind of entertainment (Warioware especially).
howcome no one mentions the psp’s ability to automatically save your spot in a game when it turns off. With that feature you can play a big level for twenty minutes and turn it off and then play it for another 20 minutes. So the psp can also have short sessions you dont have to play the whole level through.
Well geez, can this still even be considered a war? All the triple A titles haves come out for the DS and its millions aheads of the PSP in every market. Except Korea. Korea vs World doesn’t quite pan out. Developers are being given the choice of developing for a platform that costs 4x more than the DS, with half the installed base, and no hardware capabilities to innovate with, or for the DS which has twice the installed base, cheap development costs, and lots of gameplay hardware to innovate with.
emulators,homebrew, and multimedia, need i say more?
it is legal to make roms if u own the original copy of the game. so if you what, u can play any atari, snes, or jaguar game u own on a pocket sized consele
think that if you just want to play games you should get a ds because it has shorter load times and a longer battery life but if you want more you should go with the psp but have to recharge more often and spend more on games and memory sticks or you could just get both and see which one you like more and be happy.
It’s funny you mention that Rodney, I had a chance to play on a DS the other night. I even got to play Burnout (which I have for the PSP). Next to each other, the PSP beats the DS hands down in terms of screen quality, graphics and functionality, but some of the games for the DS were clearly better.
It seems to me that the DS is more suited for casual gaming. I’ve just got the Sims 2 on the PSP and I can’t even imagine how this would work on the DS. Interestingly enough, the Sims 2 on the PSP seems to be continously loading and there’s plenty of lag as you go through the game loading the next section of a conversation or some sub game. Its… Really… Irritating… But the game is good enough to carry it off.
You’re quite clearly an idiot and this article is riddled with inaccuracies and perjorative commentary. Give up.
Thanks for your deep insight into the inner workings of the gaming industry flipthis. Would you like to perhaps enlighten us with specifics? Or would you prefer to stick to sweeping statements and rude remarks?
If you think about, comparing the two systems, there is no contest. DS takes the cake. Ok sure, PSP has better graphics but I dont see how that enhances gameplay. PSP’s analog stick is small, hard to use and just plain stupid. The DS’s touch screen is bigger, easier to use, and you can see exactly what you are doing from on the touch screen. DS also has better games and is compatible with GBA which has some of the greatest games ever. PSP takes forever to load and DS takes a maximum of 6 seconds to load. PSP’s battery runs out very quickly but DS doesn’t use too much power up, plus you can play the game while the DS is charging. The DS’s flip screen can stop damage towards the DS and puts it on standby mode. The PSP does not have standby mode resulting in not much gameplay without letting it charge. As I said before this is no contest.
I agree with steve, flipthis shouldn’t be such a cretin. This should be positive thoughts not criticizm.
anyway PSP v.s DS is well pointed out.
I used to want a PSP, but when my brother got a DS I just couldn’t resist. So I got one for my 10th birthday.(yes I am only 10.)
The numbers dont lie.The DS is DESTROYING the PSP in Japan and America.Since the DS Lite launched the gap is widening even more.The PSP will be like the 13th handheld to bite the dust to Ninty’s handhelds.Should I post the sales figures?lol thought so
Do it.
The DS just hit 21 million units world wide. I belive the PSP has yet to break 10. The DS hardware remains one of eb-games overall top selling units, the list includes all software. The PSP has fallen off the top 25. I expect the DS to reach 30-40 million before the PSP hits 10.
The Xbox360 isn’t doing bad either with 5 million sold. Sony may be in some hot water.
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