Sticker Shock!

Just like Nintendo had key franchises and SNES success to boost its N64 sales?
 
Or is Sony actually making bone-headed marketing decisions and alienating its key demographic, the casual gamer. S\'pose we\'ll see. ;]

hmm nice point.

 But unlike N64, Sony has a market share of more than 70%, and the many third party key franchises that were on the PS2 continue on the PS3 unlike Nintendo. Nintendo was left mostly with its first party games that targeted certain consumers mainly the Nintendo fans. Developers like Square and Namco abandoned lots of their support for the N64.

 In terms of games PS3 hasnt lost its appealing to the casual and hardcoe gamer...yet.

 The reason why Nintendo lost consumers wasnt the price of the console. There were other more important reasons.
 
 The price of the console is the real problem and you can only compare this with other expensive consoles that failed.

 PS3 and N64 are two 2 completely different cases.

 Despite that I am sure Sony is going to lose lots of market share because of the price unless they decide a price drop soon

I think the mainstream gaming audience is pretty fickle. Look what happened to Sega. And look at what happened to Nintendo.
 
Brand loyalty isn\'t something the common gamer is engrained with, historically.
 
For various reasons, the masses will switch companies. And at the pricepoint Sony is choosing, I could see Microsoft and Nintendo really looking good after a year or two.
 
For instance, check out the steeply priced PSP that is being outpaced by the less advanced but innovative and fairly priced DS.
 
Heh, when you make the Xbox 360 price tag seem rational, something is up.
 
-Dan

higher price than the DS has little to do with PSP sales

I\'d say the cost has a lot to do with little PSP sales.
 
Though I imagine your guess is as good as mine. (Or else, mine is better.) ;]

PSP isn\'t marketed towards kids like the DS is

handhelds are traditionally kid\'s toys

DS is being marketed for all age groups, especially in recent months. In a truer sense than has ever been attempted by video game companies. How well it is being marketed is debatable.
 
PSP is being marketed to the typical young male demographic.
 
Handhelds are traditionally kids\' toys, though.
 
The weird thing is young boys want to be cool like older boys, so that PSP demographic overlaps. Although when a parent is doing the purchasing, I would argue that segments the market and a parent would probably choose the DS, for price and for E-rated software.
 
-Dan

parents buy what thier kid wants

the DS looking less "fragile" and more toylike doesn\'t help much

[Living-In-Clip]

The amazing thing about that logic is, go to any internet forum and a lot of times it is is 20 - 30 year olds talking about lack of PSP games and the flood of good old school DS games.

parents buy what thier kid wants

Got any kids? No?
Yes, to certain extent parents buy what kids want , but with it being the most expensive console, parents will also buy the cheapest alternative, which may be the 360.

was i once a kid?  yes
do i pay attention to parents in stores?  yes

lol at "internet forums"

[Jumpman]

lol at u

lol at glass houses

Parents might buy what their kids want. But if all this talk about ordering a "GameStation 2" or "PlayCube" can be believed, I\'d be willing to bet that parents are going in and saying "Little mm wants one of those handheld games."
 
And then its "Well we have PSP for $! bla bla Grand Theft Auto and DS for $reasonable bla bla Mario..."
 
"OK, I\'ll take that one."
 
-Dan

[Living-In-Clip]

was i once a kid?  yes
do i pay attention to parents in stores?  yes

lol at "internet forums"

People posts on internet forums. Don\'t deny that a large amount of the market can be judged off popular forums. And the whole point was why the DS is outselling the PSP ... Price and games.  The PSP is to expensive for a handheld and it doesn\'t offer the games that need to be on a portable system. Nintendo knows that 2D still suits portable gaming and they have wisely stayed on that track.

You don\'t pay enough attention to parents in the stores - middleclass parents can\'t afford bills, support a kid and buy $600 dollar game systems, for their kids.

parents buy what thier kid wants

the DS looking less "fragile" and more toylike doesn\'t help much

Not always. When the parent sees a $500 fragile console on the shelves and the kid screams "I WANT IT I WANT IT NOW! I WANT IT!! BUY IT TO ME! OUAAAAAAA" the parent will respond like "SHUT UP! *slaps kid in the mouth*! I knew I should have used a condom"

[Paul2]

Although when a parent is doing the purchasing, I would argue that segments the market and a parent would probably choose the DS, for price and for E-rated software.
 
-Dan

I am not sure if it because of what the kids want or maybe it\'s the parents decision, but my sister bought Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance SP, and even DualScreen to her kids and they seem to enjoy it.  Can\'t really remember if she bought dual screen but i think she did.  maybe they see their friends have it or something and asked their mom to buy it.

But I don\'t see they have PSP and I didn\'t say anything, because I wasn\'t interested in handheld, and I like revisiting oldschool 2-D sidescrolling games and I can understand why she pick Gameboy.  Maybe she never heard of PSP, but its cool since its expensive, and I don\'t think psp have games that will interest the kids...