PSP and DS sales begin to slow down

PSP sales beginning to lag
PSP sales beginning to lag

Sales of the flagship handhelds from Nintendo and Sony have shown the consumers are starting to lose interest in the old favourites in the US, while the console market is enjoying happier times.

However, this is more than likely due to the fact the two companies have both got new iterations of the devices coming out soon and the price drops for the older models haven't quite kicked in yet.

Sales of the DS were down from 536,800 to 491,000 and the PSP fell from 238,100 in September to 193,000 in October, which is more of a steady decline than an outright fall.

PS3 problems

Sales of the PS3 weren't that great either, despite the price cuts brought in by some retailers in the build up to Christmas. Sales fell from 232,400 to 190,000 in October, according to Reuters.

However, at the cheaper end of the console scale, things are looking much more rosy. The Wii climbed from 687,000 to 803,210, and the Xbox 360 rose from 347,200 to 371,000.

However, there's no word yet on how things are faring over here in the UK, where the new DSi will take a while to arrive and the PS3 looks likely to fare much better in the build up to Christmas after some decent price cuts.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.