PSP – Big in Japan

Japan has always had a games sector that is very much its own space with is own rules, hits and misses. So while the PSP has trailed the DS is most places around the world, in Japan it is not the case…

The PSP has remained the number one selling hardware format during the Golden Week series of holidays in Japan, despite the period traditionally being favourable to Nintendo products.

With many smaller shops shut for the majority of the week, sales during Golden Week are traditionally low, although with spikes for family-friendly products – as can be seen from some of the older Nintendo titles rising up to the bottom of the software top 10.

However, the PSP remained comfortably the best-selling hardware format, despite falling from its pre-holiday high of 76,974 units to 54,882. By comparison the 3DS saw sales increase by only 1,000 units to 29,149, according to early data obtained by Andrisang.

I wrote recently about the end of the PSPgo, and given the launch of the PSP2 into the post-iPhone world, I do wonder if, given Sony is a Japanese company, that the view of handheld gaming within is skewed by the larger sales at home?