Actually, I think the PSP would have done worse without the multimedia functions. UMD movies were a flatout failure, but everything else has been an extra selling point to many of their customers and motivated sales. They'd probably have lower hardware and software sales without those functions. Really, there's virtually no extra cost to have them since the hardware was capable to begin with, and their existance has no effect on a developer's ability to make games.
Frankly, the multi-media funtions are a significant part of why attach rates are low, but I'd take low tie ratios in exchange for selling more copies of the games. I highly doubt the PSP would be on course for lifetime sales around 50 million if it were a straightforward game machine. It wouldn't have made it cheaper at retail and it wouldn't have pushed developers to try harder on the machine, so it's illogical to claim that multi-media functions are the downfall of the PSP.
Sony's PSP problems were laid out very well by exindguy. I'd also like to insert the fact that Sony has done a poor job of defining their image to the consumer and the developers have done a poor job of taking advantage of its capabilities.
You do not have the right to never be offended.
