3rd April 2005, 10:21 PM
Quote:That lead will not be sustained. You and I both know it. As I said, my store's gone two months without selling a single DS. Maybe my store is an anomaly, certainly in that particular extreme, but consider this: Even our ancient, tiny PSX software selection draws more sales, numerically and profit-wise, than DS games do.
The DS has a lead now, yes. But it won't be more than maybe two months before that lead evaporates. If even that long. Sony actually seems to have an interest in making money from their handheld machine. Nintendo seems to be continuing their devil-may-care attitude that relegated the N64 and GameCube to second-class status. I know it won't be long before we're told something to this effect:
I doubt that they will have enough PSPs in the retail channel in the next few months to make up the gap... only 500,000 at launch, and they didn't sell anywhere near all of them (specialty stores sold well, big stores sold a lot fewer units)? Compared to several million DS'es? Yeah, the DS will keep its lead for some time.
Especially worldwide, considering how the DS has launched in Europe -- and sold great -- while the PSP isn't out and probably won't be until fall.