PSP smashes UK sales records News

So all sony's shit over importing didnt really matter after all?

Importing doesnt seem to have affected sales...

dear god

14 of those launch titles are in in the top 20 as well o_0
I know, bundles do help, but still... dear god

It would be nice, just for once, to see justice done on Sony.

So will Europe end up being the biggest market for the PSP?

Europe will be shit on by Japanese companies like always.

Well it's good to see uk gamers with as good as taste as ever! *cough*.

Of course justice was done to Sony. They came out with a spectacular looking machine with an amazing screen and a good-ish portfolio of first-wave titles! Let's hope future games are more optimized for portable fun, which is the point by the way.

Good, maybe they'll start releasing a few more games on it know:-)

Very good news.

Well, this was a nice pleasant surprise. Sony created a kick ass system and despite the high price people went out and bought it. Good job Sony, now go and kick some of your third party devs into creating some original games for it ;)

Before everyone starts attacking the PSP and the mainstream audience falling for the hype.

Please consider that the bigger market makes it easier for unique titles to show up among the usual dross.

What's with Lumines, Everybody's Golf and Archer Maclean's Mercury outside the top ten?

This bodes badly for the initial price of the PS3 - Sony will see people happy to fork out £180 for a handheld and create a record number of sales, so my bet is, PS3 will be £400+

Yes it is true that most games will cater to the mainstream audience just as on the PS2 but then the PS2 has plenty of bizarrely unique titles that I treasure the console for.

What's that sound I hear... fanboys spitting out their cornflakes?

"bizarrely unique titles" - give it time, once the platform has been established more solidly they will come... (imagine Katamari PSP..!)

I think the PSP is a nice machine, but I become largely annoyed on the symptomes of the Sony-syndrome taken to portable gaming; i.e. long loading times and such. Lumines is wonderful, so is Wipeout Pure.

But there isn't a single game that you can pick up, put it in, play for a few minutes and then stop it. Wipeout is a frustrating experience if you don't have much time -- intro load, intro texts, intro movie, select profile, choose game mode, loading pause... and the game itself where you can play is ready in a bit over a minute. I just wished they'd made the whole beginning the game process a bit less frustrating.

Which games are best for loading times? are there any games to avoid due to long loading?

Umbala - that's what the sleep function's for.

Lumines has barely any loading. Ridge Racers and Mercury has bearable loading times.

Virtua Tennis is a bit odd but that's the title I'd recommend to anyone.

Is anyone really surprised by this? Sony aimed squarely at the mass market with both the hardware and the software. It hit all the things that the majority of buyers want, and it sold bundles and bundles of them. Where's the surprise?

/shrugs

i realise that a few of you dont like the PSP, but i like games, and i like the DS and PSP. The PSP does deserve the sales it has recieved it is a top piece of kit even though its expensive over here. get over yourselves, if you dont like it do the following:

dont buy it
shut up
put a smile on your face you miserable bastards.

So the 'early adopters' have put there money where there mouth is....... but will PSP's continue to sell at this rate to the rest of the gaming public? Maybe the high price will put off the more 'casual gamers' out there till the price drops......?

Disc - I'd say Mercury has the longest loading from all the games I've played (Merc, RR, WoP+EGolf). Maybe it's just because it's a much slower game too?

So, do they (sony, ms, ninty, etc.) now realise that Europe is the primairy market? If not, we might convince them by not buying games for 2 months. That should put them out of buisiness.

"Well it's good to see uk gamers with as good as taste as ever! *cough*." - Not just the uk mate.

Anyway, this brings out the old sony fanboy argument: "Something that sells this good, must be good.". Well, no. It means that there are 185,000 ppl who have never played a DS, got bad advice from the sales rep. or really just dont care and want to play Mercury that badly (the only game that i thought was worth playing on the demo stand). Quantity does not make quality. The DS/GBA (soon GBM) still has more and better games.

Ow and if quantity really means that much, lets see if the psp outsells the ninty machines in the long run.

"are there any games to avoid due to long loading?"

Gretzky NHL has ludicrously long loading times. Mercury is lightning fast in comparison. Wipeout is about 15 seconds in loading a new level. Fired Up is shite, but has practically no loading times.

does anyone know UMD Movie sales stats?

Give it a rest Xerxes. The DS has good games but so does the PSP and people enjoy both.

as i thought - the psp is the bling-chav must buy item.

The amount of tracksuit wearing buyers wielding carrier bags full of old trade-in kit was.....erm.....thoroughly believable.

This was always on the cards.

that's what the sleep function's for

Really, I thought it was for when I have to change trains in the middle of a game. A function to allow me to save battery power and pause at the same time. Do people use it as a way to have quick access to their games? Does it really take that long to 'get gaming' that you have to set the game up before you feel like playing, just in case you might feel like it in a while?

I'm not a PSP owner, but I do commute 3hrs a day, so this is an earnest question.

Xerx3s - once again acting the tit.

Hmm i am very suprised at this, and now have a dreaded feeling Sony will feel justified in their delaying tatics in relation to the UK release of the PSP, and their efforts at targeting importers over any future release's!

Doh!

Has anyone tred to take US/Jap games into places such as Game to try and get another title etc?

Tonka - it's useful for both those things. If you leave the machine for 2 mins or more it shuts things down to save battery - like a moniter's power saving features. It doesn't take long to get gaming but if you only have 5 mins to play and you want to maximise that time, then the sleep function is good. I think a lot of people leave it in sleep most of the time anyway.

Not surprised by article at all...I'm only surprised they didn't sell more.

As a very keen gamer, but a poor one this is very good news, particularly the huge numbers trading in stuff. My local Game had so many people trade SP's for the DS I got a mint boxed Zelda SP and the minish cap game for £29. Looking forward to the 360 launch, perhaps a few of those 'chavs' will get sick of the load times and trade a few PSP's! Well done Sony perhaps this will give the big N the nudge they need to speed up Euro launches.

I leave mine in sleep all the time, the only game that doesn't like this sometimes is Lumines, but hey, that takes only a few moments to load anyhoo.

PSP outsells DS? I think I might have a bacon sandwich to celebrate.

It'll be interesting to see what the second week sales figures are

"It really only goes to prove how stupid the masses are"

Petay - you have a problem, just leave it. If they'd sold less you would've said the mass market wanted the DS. You don't want one - fine - we know, stfu.

Jolly good show, certainly due to the desirability of the console combined with some excellent marketing and some popular franchises at launch. That's how you launch a console, folks.

There sure are plenty of toys on the floor today.

Petay yeterday - "Hehe so you actually have to give them away now? not a surprise i guess."

Petay today - "Ok so the Psp sell's well in the UK, I dont think anyone ever doubted that it would"

Xerx3s said:
"It means that there are 185,000 ppl who have never played a DS, got bad advice from the sales rep. or really just dont care and want to play Mercury that badly."

Get over yourself. I've played a DS and think the PSP suits me far more. And I'm no n00b - I work in the industry and rate the PSP far higher. To me the DS is gimmicky and of limited appeal and lifespan. Yes Mercury is a fantastic game, but I'm also looking forwards to playing the likes of Burnout on it against other people and, of course, a proper GTA game (which is likely to sell more PSPs than anything else anyway - as long as it's up to scratch).

"Quantity does not make quality. The DS/GBA (soon GBM) still has more and better games."

The only reason they have more games is because the GBA has been around for donkeys years - your argument really doesn't hold much water. And as for the GBM - don't get me started... I've never seen such an overpriced and extraordinarily pointless piece of kit. £70 for that! You must be kidding. It's got a screen that's too small to read in game text (games haven't been made for the last five years with a screen that size in mind). The SP was the definitive GBA - and that fitted in the pocket just fine.

"Ow and if quantity really means that much, lets see if the psp outsells the ninty machines in the long run."

This ones giong to be interesting. Whilst it could go either way, I wouldn't be too confident about Ninty winning this one. What is clear is that they're unlikely to ever have the market dominance they've enjoyed until now, again. I'm not suggesting Sony will have 50% of the handheld market a year from now as Ninty are well and truly established, but to discount the PSP (even over the long term) would be ludicrous.

Besides, there's no reason why the PSP and DS can't live happily alongside each other. After all, everybody has their preference and therefore there is a market for both. Which can only be good news for the consumers.

Heh, Petay takes the piss out of "chavspeek" but then uses the term "son" to refer to people he doesnt know...

On launch day, a colleague went to the Sony shop and bought one for his birthday. When he came back to the office and charged it up, for the next three hours random strangers of nearly every demographic came up to him and purred over his new toy.

Including me. It's a lovely looking piece of kit and mainstream or not it deserves every chance of success. As for the import issue, it's a thorny one. On the one hand Sony have the right to sell the machines they make whenever they like in whatever territory they like. On the other hand suing importers over a trademark infringement seems like lunacy to me. Certainly sue them over breaking a territory embargo but over rights infringement? I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now.

There was a good quote on another website I read, and it went like this:

"there is nothing wrong with anything ever, if anyone disagrees they are a communist and must be shot 9 times in the lower torso and thrown out of an aeroplane onto the top of a mountain"

People should be barred from talking about the DS in PSP threads and vice versa!

(looks at chart)

Beats me why people want to play the games they've already played on their home consoles (and are more suited to home consoles) on a handheld, with longer loading times and worse graphics?

Especially nfs (which apparently is terrible!)

Because good games are good games, no matter where you play them?
Or because not everyone already owns them, or owns a PS2?

"Derb's expected reply - "yeh tetay i learned that youre a nob ed innit bruv""

I didn't call you any names and I don't write 'chav'. I know what you're suggesting but it's just making you look more stupid. Nice one.

Fluffy - as you think the DS is shit I take it your gonna sell it cheap yeah??? I mean I fully agree, it's a worthless load of crap, why the box is more fun than the machine. It's really really poor quality and the games are terrible, this does affect it's used value. And dont get me started on that totally useless touch screen - what a joke, again this brings the price down.

Also, all the others here with a DS 'on the shelf gathering dust' please let me know so I can help you get rid of these heaps of crap. xx

"Beats me why people want to play the games they've already played on their home consoles (and are more suited to home consoles) on a handheld, with longer loading times and worse graphics?"

I'm not playing games I've already played and I think RR and EGolf are much more suited to the PSP gameplay than the PS2 - RR's 'custom tour' mode is brilliant. The load times are all smaller than a lot of console titles I've played over the last year and the graphics are superb! Even if you had all the bells and whistles of the PS2 much of it would be lost on the smaller screen.

/numbnuts question alert

Does leaving on sleep use up a lot of battery power?