DS Outsells PSP Three-To-One In JapanDS Outsells PSP Three-To-One In Japan

Sony Japan has revealed new shipment figures for the PSP, which show that 5 million units of the portable console have been shipped in Japan by the end of January – over 9 million units behind the Nintendo DS. According to a Bloomberg News report, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka confirmed the figures in a phone interview, meaning that the Nintendo DS has been outselling the PSP by a factor of three to one. The figures tally with weekly results provided by Japanese game hardware/software chart source Media Create, although the release of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd at the beginning of March saw PlayStation Portable hardware sales triple as a result. Despite this, the PSP still did not manage to outsell the Nintendo DS during the recent period of software buoyancy - the DS continues to suffer from intermittent stock problems that stretch back to the launch of the Nintendo DS Lite version of the hardware. Overall though, analysts have not been overly critical of hardware sales for the PSP, particularly in the West, with the format now commanding a significantly sized userbase, despite competition from Nintendo. Software sales, though, have been a constant source of complaint, with very few break-out titles for the system. This is particularly true of Japan, where the huge success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd – which has become the fastest selling third party portable game on any format - stands in stark contrast to the performance of other titles, which struggle to break into the top twenty sales chart.