Analysts Declare 2006 Year of the PSP
Nintendo has been going on (and on) about how well the DS has done, but US analysts think the PSP will take over this year. Incendiary prognostication inside.
The first weeks of 2006 have seen a flurry of beaming press releases from Nintendo, boasting about the sales of the DS and its global victory over the PSP. But analysts in the US think that is going to change this year.
While Sony and Nintendo were neck-and-neck last year, finishing 2005 with about 13 million sold each, from this year Sony will pull ahead and do so for the next four years, according to numbers from research firm SiG in a report at Next Generation.
SiG says that as more gamers look for a gaming experience closer to what they already get at home, Sony's lead over Nintendo will grow. The gap is predicted to go from about 3 million units (22 million DSs vs 25 million PSPs) by the end of this year to nearly 20 million by the end of 2009.
It's a forecast that Mike Wallace, analyst at UBS, agrees with. Wallace's latest number crunching sees the PSP coming out on top handily this year, with a lead of about 5 million in the US by the end of 2006, according to a GameSpot report.
Wallace does admit that Nintendo will probably still come out on top on the whole this year, thanks to the Game Boy Advance, which recently got a boost after the release of the Game Boy Micro.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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