Survey further indicates Nintendo DS leads in handheld war.

Otonafami magazine published the results of their survey, which reveals what's happening with the Sony vs Nintendo handheld war in Japan half a year after the release of both machines. Looking at a 1000 gamers above the age of 20, the magazine asked just how many owned a handheld.

14% said they owned a PSP, while 25% said they owned a DS, and 19% said they owned both types. Out of the remaining gamers who don't own a next-generation handheld, 31% said they were planning to get a PSP, while 35% said they wanted to get a DS, 19% said they wanted to get both, and 15% said they didn't want either of the handhelds.

Otonafami further reports that the average Japanese PSP owner owns one to three games for their handheld; 27% said they owned one game, 24% said they owned two games, and 22% said they owned three games. The Nintendo DS statistics were different, with 23% of its owners saying that they owned more than six games for the handheld. Strangely enough, 2% of the users for both the PSP and DS said they had no games at all.

Owners of both handhelds also seemed to think that they weren't getting the maximum out of their machine. 75% of PSP owners replied "no" when asked if they were using all of its hardware capabilities. Many PSP owners commented that they didn't understand how to use its multimedia functions or that they simply found it too troublesome.

The comments also showed that users view the PSP more as a multimedia device than a just gaming machine. 67% of DS owners answered "no" when they were asked the same question. However, DS users complained that their DS's Wi-Fi capability goes unused, especially if they happen to live in the countryside where nobody owns a DS.

When asked about their thoughts on their handheld, PSP owners praised its fantastic graphics and entertainment functions and commented that they found the battery life to be surprisingly long. The main PSP complaints were that its games were mediocre, its game library had too many ports, its load times were too long and that some games froze often.

DS owners said they enjoyed the backward compatibility to GBA games and using the handheld's touchscreen. On the other hand, they also said that the audio in DS games wasn't loud enough, there weren't any titles for adults, and its two screens were too small in size.

When looking at the two handhelds in terms of sales figures, the Nintendo DS has sold approximately 2.2 million units in Japan since its launch on the 2nd of December, versus the PSP's 1.39 million units since it went on sale 10 days later. The top-selling games for the two machines in Japan are listed here below.

CUMULATIVE GAME SALES

Nintendo DS
WarioWare: Touched! : 740,000 units
Super Mario 64 DS : 710,000 units
Nintendogs: 400,000 units
Pokémon Dash: 320,000 units
Kirby: Canvas Curse: 190,000 units

Sony PSP:
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee: 350,000 units
Ridge Racers: 260,000 units
Dynasty Warriors: 260,000 units
Tales of Eternia: 170,000 units
Metal Gear Acid: 110,000 units

SURVEY RESULTS

Q: How many Games do you have?

Answer PSP:
None: 2%
One game: 27%
Two games: 24%
Three games: 12%
Four games: 6%
Five Games: 9%
More than six games: 10%

Answer DS:
None: 2%
One game: 16%
Two games: 20%
Three games: 19%
Four games: 12%
Five games: 8%
More than six games: 23%