PSPgo In Japan, One Month On

A few weeks ago we looked at how the PSPgo had sold in Japan during its first full week.  We said we would take another look once it had been selling for a full month and that time is now upon us with Media Create’s sales data for the week ending 29th November available.

The PSPgo saw an unusual Sunday launch in Japan on the 1st November.  That Sunday launch meant its first day sales were captured in that week’s sales data.  They were not too bad either with the PSPgo selling over 29,000 units on that one day alone.  They were not too good either when other console launches in Japan are taken into consideration and the fact there was just that single day’s sales included in the weekly chart meant that the PSP-3000 beat the PSPgo by almost 6,000 sales that week.  The following week saw the PSPgo’s sales more than halve to 14,000 despite the fact we were now looking at a full seven days.  In contrast the PSP-3000’s sales held fairly steady falling by just 1,000.

Did Sony score an own goal by launching the PSPgo on a Sunday?  I think I have to suggest that they did.  If you combine those two weeks of sales data for the PSPgo you get a total of around 43,000 units.  I know in reality that is eight days of sales but the vast majority would have been made during the first seven days following launch and just for once I am giving the PSPgo the benefit of the doubt.

Had the PSPgo launched on the 26th October and therefore sold those 43,000 during the week ending the 1st November it would have comfortably topped the Japanese hardware sales charts and outsold its older sibling.  A chart-topping console would surely have generated plenty of positive column inches for Sony, something the PSPgo sorely needs.  Instead it came 4th in the first week’s chart and 5th in the next, trailing the PSP-3000 in both.

So how did it fare in the following three weeks to the 29th November.  If I were to be kind I would say “not too well”.  If I were to be less kind I would say “very poorly”.  I will let this graph tell the story:

See that plummeting pink line that rushes hastily downwards to meet the pale blue one?  Yep, the PSPgo can now boast weekly sales that are roughly equivalent to the 360.  Anywhere but Japan that would be a very good thing.  However in Japan that is a very bad thing.

There is one line missing from the graph though.  A few weeks ago Japan saw another console launch.  Like the PSPgo this console was the fourth version of its console family.  Unlike the PSPgo this console included larger screens not a smaller one.  I am of course talking about the Nintendo DSi LL which launched on Saturday 21st November.

The reason I have left the DSi LL off the graph is that including it doubles the height of the Y-axis squeezing all the others together and, frankly, embarrasses the PSPgo.  In its first two days on sale the DSi LL sold over 100,000 units.  In the following seven days it achieved another 67,000 sales completing two weeks at the top of the hardware chart.

Will the PSPgo’s sales continue their downward trend?  How long before we are comparing its weekly sales to a console that will be ten years old in Japan this coming March?

Full hardware sales for the five weeks in question: