PSP Goes Lite, Goes Big

Sales of the portable jump but will it last?

Though the PSP has not done as well as the DS, it's far from the failure some have painted it to be. Perception matters, and recently Sony proved that looking thinner is the way to go.

The PSP Slim And Lite represents a minor overhaul of the PSP. Sony trimmed both the size and weight of the portable and threw in a few new colours and a video-out port too. Minor the upgrades they may be, but they've had the desired stimulating effect.

MCV is reporting that sales for the PSP Slim And Lite were four times those of the old-model PSP in the week before the new one came out. All told, Sony sold 17,000 PSPs over its first week in stores.

The four-fold jump is impressive, but less so when you realize that the week before the new PSP came out, the handheld had its worst week ever in the UK.

Will this be a blip? Sony is pinning its hopes in some respects on greatly expanding the capabilities of the system.

The company is teaming up with a range of companies on new software that lets the PSP act variously as a global-positioning system receiver, a text/picture/video-messaging system and a portable video viewer.

The PSP is having success in Japan too - though for a different reason. The portable has recently topped even the DS in weekly sales, thanks to the release of Square Enix's new Final Fantasy VII tie-in game Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, which, according to Media Create, sold nearly half a million copies in its first week.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo