back in the day the Play station Brand was a juggernaut, that was the principal reason the psp suceed as much as it did.

Thinking a little more i can not realise how sony mess everything... :( 

wait, Ps3 that is the reason sony is now where it is... sadly

Well I was under the impression piracy helped it sell well. That, and brand recognition.

PSP = timing

psp came at a time before smart phones. it was a great media device (i hear never used one too much). now phones have taken that spot. I think it was easy to hack which helps too when you can get pirated games. But again phones can take that place now too.

Lets see..

1. PSP was basically a non-touch screen ipad mini.. mini.
2. Good Selection of games that could not be played on the DS.
3. Piracy boosted sales
4. Constant update to the OS gave it more functionality.

Why are you guys even surprised at PSP's success? It was a good piece of hardware. Casual players would get DS, Veteran players would get PSP and hardcore players would get both.

from personal perspective:

- East to hack, so could run homebrew
- Multi media device prior explosion of smart phones.

I honestly have no idea. For years, I completely dismissed it and I didn't know anyone that actually owned it.

PSP was riding the success of the PS2 in its early year. Back then(before the iPod) console on the go was a huge deal...

The explanation for low software sales is simple.....it was being used for multimedia capabilities. But then the iPod came out and people forgot about the PSP.

The PSP could have been the new Walkman. Sony should have released some kind of music service like iTunes for it, maybe even release a UMD-less PSP with pure focus on multimedia. Sony just is too slow to act, as proven with how low they let Vita sales go this year.

I remember how amazing it was...Played frikkin Ridge Racer 100h tho I didin't like the game :D
It was something new and cool when released.But lot has changed in past years..If Vita was released back then it would had destroyed everything on its path.

OH one can only dream. That would have been perfect.

I think I still got my old walkkman somewhere at home haha.But I know it eats tapes.

mini dsic also had potential, but damn mp3s killed it.