Sony PSP US launch a failure?

[cockroach]

March 25, 2005 - Reader responses to our PSP Launch: Retail Report from yesterday afternoon have been decidedly mixed -- many readers are reporting back to IGN that they just haven't seen the same level of business in their areas. Pre-order locations are obviously hotspots since buyers already have money down and have the date marked, but from there, it has been unpredictable as to how the PSP is selling on its first day out.

PSP advertisements started this week, including a TV spot featuring Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and billboards. But the company has not put the kind of advertising dollars and mass-market push into the new handheld that console releases tend to see, and mass market newspaper and TV coverage has not matched the fury that previous hardware releases have garnered.

Official numbers will likely not be announced until after the weekend, but below are the various responses we've received back from readers (including a number of those in the retail market) about how active PSP sales were on Launch Day.

Late-night on Launch Day at the Metreon.

How active will PSP sales be this first weekend?

Just thought i would shoot you guys some feedback on the PSP sales in my area. I'm a retail manager at a Target in the Denver Metro Area. We do the 3rd most business in the state of Colorado for target stores. We received 40 PSP's for the launch and we only sold 10 at yesterday. During Christmas we had people lining up everyday, to see if we got any DS, PS2 or Xbox in. We had only a handful of people really ask about the PSP, it seems to me that most non-hardcore gamers really didn't know the system was coming out. A few parents i talked with didn't even know what it was and was amazed when i showed them it. Just thought i would shoot you guys a heads-up on sales on the PSP in my store.

--Jimmy

I work retail, and our store received 60 PSP's and sold 10 the entire day. Outside of hardcore gaming stores, I was curious to find out if that was just an anomaly, or the standard. I actually had many people come up and talk to me about it, but balked at the price of $249.99.

--Jeff L.

Just to let people know, there are still plenty left in San Antonio, Tx. Out of our initial shipment (Target), we got rid of about 20 out of 80. Kind of funny, considering school's out because of good Friday. If there's any left on Sunday, I might pick one up for myself. Checking by the Gamestop in the same shopping center, they had a few left as well.

--G

Just read your article on the PSP Sales, and I must say that here in Indianapolis IN, they are sold out jus about everywhere. A certain store that I won't name ... took TOO MANY preorders even and were out of PSP's for my all my friends preorders! So they all went to the out of the wall location where I got mine (Gamestop) who had plenty, and we all bought them out at once :) I had to call around for about half an hour to find PSPs available. Also games selling out here rapidly are Ridge Racer and Dark Stalkers.

--Casey H.

hmm.. the PSP launch at my Wal-Mart went like this. We opened at 7am. 10am we sold one. 11:30. we sold another. 5:00pm. Almost sold one, another customer said "metal gear is a card game" lost the sale. we have 58 units left. great day.

--tom

I think you need to contact stores not on the coastlines to gauge how the PSP is becoming one of the worst launches in history. I'm in St. Louis and this thing is easier to find than a Gamecube right now.

Go ahead, call some Best Buys in the area. Some Toys R US, or Circuit City stores. And then rewrite you're glowing praise to reflect what's really happening.

--wmatistic

Thought you might be interested in how the sales were going with the PSP in mid-Oregon. In Eugene, the game shops in the large malls seemed to be completely out, while the Best Buy had plenty, they almost seemed desperate to sell some (at about 4pm). In Albany (about 40 miles north of Eugene), I decided to buy my own system at the Target I worked in at about 8pm, and I was only the 4th person to buy one the entire day. Of course the first one I bought happened to have a dead pixel, so that was quickly replaced.

--DN

I work at a Wal-Mart(sigh) in West Texas and we had plenty of PSP's left today. I personally only sold one, and I think we sold 4 or 5 altogether today. We had MANY calls though to see if we had any in stock. I called all the other stores in my district and they all had plenty. So I think the big retails might be the way to go if the specialty shops start selling out.

--Jeff A.

just for those who are foolish enough to try to sell the PSPs on Ebay for "massive" profit... I looked up PSP and found the first three that sold...

269.99 255.00 237.50

The bottom line is that one sold for $237+$16 shipping=$253 and the others sold for a MAX of about $35 over $250 (with shipping included in that price). In other words, once you take out taxes that the original buyer paid, the cut that Ebay takes out, and shipping costs, the Ebay sellers are coming out with about a MAX of $10, and in some cases a significant loss. You know the seller that sold one for $253 (with the cost of shipping included in that price) is kicking himself. Bottom line, it looks like Sony made just enough so Ebay scammers aren't going to make hundreds of dollars off of their product. You may want to return those extra PSPs you have laying around.

-- Harry

I read the mailbag that Jason replied to, and read where the guy wrote (or typed) about no one buying the PSP...I believe it has sold well so far, but honestly...ok, here's the story. I was going into WalMart to get my job in electronics back (I was a seasonal worker during the holidays, 2004) and I was talking to one of my ex-electronics co workers. She said "Are you here to buy the PSP?" Honestly...I forgot it came out today. I was like "ITS OUT??? OH YEAH!!" And went ahead to look at it. I saw a stock full of PSP's sitting in the glass cases-going nowhere. A sign read "Limit one PSP per household due to shortages" I thought to myself "well that shouldn't be a problem" as I saw NO ONE looking at it and simply passing it buy...seriously, about 10 were gone from the shelves, and this was at about 2:30 pm in the afternoon. The store opens at about 6 in the morning...Sony can't be keeping it on THAT low of a profile where no one's buying it in a local Wal Mart that every one went crazy about the day after thanksgiving for the blitz sale where game boys were only 30 bucks...in other words a lot of people shop there, and a lot of them are gamers. What happened?

-- Anthony L.

Just thought I'd let you guys know that I visited my local Best Buy in downtown Chicago and there were plenty of PSPs to go around. There was a stack of at least 50 PSPs in a display in the middle of the store and this was around 2:00 in the afternoon. After all of the talk of preordering I was surprised that Best Buy (in the busiest part of Lincoln Park) ending up having such a large quantity, especially because they advertised in Sunday's ad about opening early to sell PSPs today. Just thought you'd be interested.

--Matt

I work for a Best Buy in a major metropolitan area in the Midwest and so far sales haven't been very impressive at all. Our store was allocated 150 units and by the end of the night we still had about 100 units left. Our region, consisting of roughly 10 stores still had 1700 units left, that averages about 170 per store. There are 3 other larger stores in our district that were allocated about 300 units and each of them still had between 200 and 250 units remaining. This couldn't be because of people not knowing because 3/4 of our front page ad this week was on the PSP and launch info.

--Carverts

I'm a pretty geeky girl, but for some reason, I wasn't excited about the PSP...until four hours before the American launch. At that point, my friends told me that there was no way I was going to get a handheld for quite some time, what with all the pre-orders and massive lines forming in their cities. Just to make sure, I called the local game stores, and they didn't expect me to have a PSP in my hands anytime soon, either. I gave up, and decided to go to Wal-Mart, where...lo and behold, they were stocking the PSP at midnight. I waltzed in an hour before launch-time and stood in one of the most low-key lines (six people, and I live in a decent-sized college town) I've ever seen for any game or hardware release. A couple other guys walked in twenty minutes before midnight, and every one of us left with a shiny new PSP Value Pack. The sales clerk said that they had 80 of the units. And I learned something new. I think any of my fellow gamers who didn't manage to get a PSP yet should check out some secondary sources. Think beyond EB Games, Best Buy, and GameStop, and it might just pay off!

-- Michelle

http://psp.ign.com/artices/599/599156p1.html

The launch games sucked anyways, so not a real loss for the consumer. Now people can spend that hard earned american freedom money to better use, such as blow jobs, gambling and cocaine. God bless america and PSP.

[Ultomato]

the price is just so damn high. The psp is neat and everything, bringing it to school, but I will get bored of it the first week or two and would play it inside my home...what is the point of that when thers the ps2?

[Gelob]

Oh please everybdy who wrote in is from freaking target or walmart. Who the hell shops tehre.

[ThunderRiver]

Hey.. I will still looking forward to get it three years from now from Overstock.com for only $149.99

[Liquid]

FFS Manicdevlin joined AGAIN!

[SkInvision]

Everywhere I have been has had a ton of them. Its cuz they are too damn expensive and the Nintendo DS is pretty good competition for 100 bucks less, plus many peeps already bought one of them when they came out a while ago

[Tran]

The Best Buy and Futureshop around here still have a bunch left. I would buy one but I don't have a job to pay for it. :p

[Dogan]

FFS Manicdevlin joined AGAIN!

585672889[/snapback]

lol :rofl:

[JustGeorge]

PSP = Too Expensive

[nomis_nehc]

i think the price is a big turn off for people. 200 bux may be okay, but 250 is just too much. plus you have to think about the extras that you have to get.

[Valerus]

the price is just so damn high. The psp is neat and everything, bringing it to school, but I will get bored of it the first week or two and would play it inside my home...what is the point of that when thers the ps2?

585672868[/snapback]

Yeah, I agree.

[Acezo]

Don't you have anything better to do than to put down product which is obviously popular around here? Why does doing this make you feel any better about supporting whatever your choice is/was (DS :rolleyes: )? For a moment I was thinking this would be actual news.

Anyway, My local Walmart has about 5 left out of a shipment of maybe 40-60, though I live in a very small town.

[sn00pie]

the price is just so damn high. The psp is neat and everything, bringing it to school, but I will get bored of it the first week or two and would play it inside my home...what is the point of that when thers the ps2?

585672868[/snapback]

Should've been like $150. :happy:

[bakerster]

I agree with the whole price thing, but im still gonna get one :)

[encephalon]

I don't know about you guys but over here, everyone is seliing them by the truckload !!

[Kupo-Cheer]

Yeah, the price is a major turnoff for casual shoppers, and online you can basically only find stupid bundles which include a bunch of games you don't want for outrageous prices ($400-$500 average). If I could find someplace to get just the psp ("Value Pack"), then I would definitely buy it. Oh, and a place I could return it to in case of dead pixels/other defects hassel-free just in case...

[j0se]

yup its a rip-off. ps1 in my hands. how boring. rather listen to my ipod =P

[Tech Star]

FFS Manicdevlin joined AGAIN!

585672889[/snapback]

lol is that true? :huh:

[neufuse Veteran]

I don't know about you guys but over here, everyone is seliing them by the truckload !!

585672950[/snapback]

you gota be kidding.. EB here says they sold a whole 2 units so far, and GameStop isn't selling them so hot either

[sin-ergy]

way too expensive. a friend of mine bought one just to try it out and i got to touch it! ha, but he's returning it. id get one myself but i ain't payin THAT much for it.

[Rappy Veteran]

It's a Pricey bit of Kit...Gonna be Expensive when it hits UK Stores :crazy:

[TruckWEB]

I know the PSP is a gaming machine, but selling UMD Movies higher than DVD movies is plain stupid.

I was at a FutureShop and looking at the (2) movies, no extra, stereo sound, low quality image and they ask more money... Not much more, mabe a couple of $ but still....

And lets not forget that Memory Stick cost more than SD, so not very good for huge storage space for MP3 or movies....

The PSP kit is 399$ CAN. A bit high for a portable gaming device.

The Gameboy SP will do good for me....

[Ultomato]

i wonder if you can mod these things

[Ji@nBing]

I also think it's just simply too expensive. I'm waiting until the price comes down and they work out the bugs. The PS1 and PS2 were full of bugs when they first came out, and I can see the same thing in the PSP. Actually I think Sony products are junk (only Sony product that I've ever owned that lasted more than a year is the PS1). I'm just going to wait and see on this one.

[neufuse Veteran]

I don't think this is gona last long in the U.S., just my personal opinnion... I saw way higher demand for the DS when it came out then I am seeing for the PSP