Portable Gaming Market Update

Nintendo 3DS on the Horizon; What about Sony?

Research Report

While the portable game industry is still led by Nintendo and Sony, mobile phones and other portable devices are quickly adding to the competitive landscape, potentially developing into substitutive products. Despite this incursion into the portable game player market the younger demographic groups are expected to help bolster demand in the coming years: children, who are less likely to own a mobile phone, will continue to represent a strong and viable target audience. This is perhaps one of the reasons Sony’s PSP has lost market presence to Nintendo’s DS line.

While 2010 is currently shaping up to be a down year for the portable gaming market in general, Sony in particular has been plagued by declining sales of its PSP brand players. The PSP Go, for instance, met with a rather tepid reception and without an announced successor to the current PSP 3000 there are likely to be further declines on the near horizon for Sony, especially if the Nintendo 3DS ships in late 2010. If the market is to regain a positive momentum it will come on the heels of innovative products such as the 3DS. While 3D technology in portable game players is still untested, it is a potentially strong differentiator from both the current generation of handhelds, and from mobile devices.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Portable Gaming Market: Still Largely a Duopoly?
    • 1.1. The Market Today
    • 1.2. Nintendo DS
    • 1.3. Sony PSP
  • 2. LOOKING AHEAD AND FORECASTS

Charts

  1. Portable Game Player Unit Shipments: World Market, Forecast: 2009 to 2015
  2. Portable Game Player Revenue: World Market, Forecast: 2009 to 2015
  3. Market Split (% Shipments) between Sony and Nintendo (2009)