2 million units in the world an impressive score

This is the end of a cycle. Five years after its launch in the United States and Europe, the Sony portable console gives signs of shortness of breath. Sony expects that 8 million PSP 3000 and PSP Go be sold in 2010, compared with 9.9 million last year, or a drop of more than 19 in one year. "After more than five years of marketing, it is normal to see declines in this order there," Judge Georges Fornay, boss of Sony PlayStation France. The giant said the figures: since its launch, the PSP has elapsed 64.2 million units in the world, an impressive score. And in France, the Park installed reached end September the threshold of the 2.8 million coins. "E n 2002, in France, there was an annual market of 700,000 3.5 million games and portable consoles." Today, it has more than doubled in consoles and multiplied by three games. "It has managed to impose the portable console as a mass market," said Georges Fornay. In fact, the PSP allowed Sony to sell 272 games, with 3,000 million different titles. And this is the value for a constructor is created... "Do not forget that other manufacturers attempted to enter the market without success", says Georges Fornay. Reference to Nokia, which launched in 2008 the NGage, both console and "smartphone", a commercial failure.

Overwhelmed by the Nintendo DS

Rest that Sony was less successful than its Japanese competitor, Nintendo, and its DS. Launched end of 2004, it was sold in the world to some 175 million copies... Sony has tried to regain control through various innovations, including PSP 3000 and PSP Go, first dematerialized portable console released in October 2009: the UMD drive disappears and the user downloads directly its games on the PlayStation Store. Today, the betting seems to be missed: in 2010, only 25,000 PSP Go should be sold in France, according to Sony, a total of 300,000 PSP. Either an installed base of 60,000 PSP Go in France. In an attempt to revive the, Sony just to lower the price: since early November, she was sold to 169 euros, against 250 euros at the time of its launch. "We have always said that the PSP Go is a form of test, including at the level of the dematerialization", noted Georges Fornay.

Nevertheless, Sony is at a turning point. He must first face competition from Nintendo, which will be released next spring a new console, the 3DS, to see embossed without glasses. He is then confronted with the rise of "smartphones" and touch tablets, claiming as of real games, platforms offering thousands of small games much less expensive than Sony. "We take into account this new competition and we offer more games than 10 euros to download on the PlayStation Network." "But overall, our games deliver another experiment, much more realistic," blows Georges Fornay.

Above all, Sony is preparing in secret reply market. The group refuses to comment, but it seems that he is working on a new portable console that would out as early as 2011, probably in the second half.