I spent some time with my sister today. In the daylight. In the real world. Wow, sunlight is warm!

We walked and talked, and she ended up trying several games on each of my two handheld systems. She asked me a lot of questions and I gave her a lot of answers. And in the end, the DS won out over PSP for her.

She was already intent on buying a home system, but I told her that her lifestyle fits portable gaming better since she's never at home. Thus, her flirtation with the Wii was ended.

Then, we got down to the nitty-gritty of all handheld gaming controversy... PSP versus DS. Here is a list of the pros of each system, based on  the importance with which it was weighed for her:

GAME TYPE--DS Wins
Let's face it, the PSP is a gamer's portable gaming machine. It's powerful. It has great graphics. But what does it offer for a woman who dislikes First-Person Shooters and War Strategy games? LocoRoco, Daxter, Lumines, The Sims2, and a few second-rate RPGs, among a very small selection. The DS? Well, I'll elaborate by explaining what games I am specifically reccomending to my sister.

Cooking Momma
Clubhouse Games
Elite Beat Agents
Nintendogs or Horsez
Kirby Canvas Curse or Yoshi's Touch-And-Go
New Super Mario Brothers or Yoshi's Island DS
The Sims 2
Pokemon Pearl/Diamond

This is just a small sampling of what the DS has to offer girls like her. She doesn't want fighting games. She doesn't want
FPS's. She wants games to relax and play for fun. Girl-friendly games. There just isn't enough on the PSP to sate her hunger for them.

PRICE TAG--DS Wins
At a mere $129, the DS Lite takes the field again. For the casual gamer such as my sister, seventy dollars is a huge difference and a huge reason to turn away from a handheld. She doesn't make a ton of money, and when she spends on herself, she'd rather have 2 extra games than get a more expensive system.

SCREEN PRESENTATION & GRAPHICS--PSP Wins
I put this in with graphics because the look of the games is all one issue as far as my sister is concerned, whether it be due to graphics or screen size/number.

Against the dual screens of the DS Lite, the PSP is the victor. Games just look sharper on the PSP. She didn't mention any problems with having dual screens, but she also seemed to have trouble getting the hang of using both of them in unison. The bigger screen and better graphics of the PSP finally make it stand out, but this isn't a high enough concern to outweigh the first two issues. She liked the touch screen of the DS, but not enough to make it the winner in this round.

COLOR SELECTION--DS Wins
Since the DS has three colors in the US (White, Black and Pink), it wins over the PSP's monotonous black. This wasn't much of a concern, because she plans on using a vinyl sticker like I have on my PSP to cover it up anyway.

MICROPHONE--DS Wins
Although DS wins in this category by default, it was really an afterthough when it came to the choice in system. Although it's a nice feature to have for games like Nintendogs and Yoshi's Touch-and-Go, it's entirely irrelevant in most DS titles.


TOTAL SCORE
DS: 4 PSP: 1

As you can see, the most important reasons for a very casual girl gamer to buy a system are completely unheeded by Sony. Sure, the price has come down a tad, but $200 is a lot for a 2 year old system, especially when it's competing with another handheld that's so much cheaper! And Sony, we know you love your core gamers. We know Tekken and Metal Gear and GTA sell well. That doesn't mean that yhou can't sell to female gamers, too! We want more than a selection of 4-5 good games. We want to be heard.

IN CONCLUSION
Girls are a growing gaming population, and if Sony doesn't realise that, they will continue to lose out on the financial support of girl gamers who have to decide between their platform and Nintendo's. If things go the way they have been, I doubt Sony will expand their userbase much at all, and a great source of income will be lost forever.