Should the PSP be viewed as a succes or a failure?

[Avalach21]

z64dan said:
Definitely a success. If someone released an operating system that took 20-30% of the market away from Windows, it would be a success right? Just look at who you are up against if you make a handheld. Nintendo have always been the kings of handheld.

What if that entity took 20-30% of the OS market, yet made little to no profit (maybe lost money) in doing so?  Who cares?

What if I built a piece of hardware and gave it out for free and 2 billion people took it.  Each one costed me 100 dollars to make.  I just lost 200,000,000,000 dollars, but since I have a market of 2 billion people, then I am a success story!  (EXAGGERATION TO MAKE A POINT)

 I like your logic!

 

PS.  Furthermore, what if out of those 2 billion people, on average, people only bought 1 game per system and played the rest of their games through illegal means, hardly negating the subsidization of the hardware.  This story isn't far from the PSPs.

 

Yeah the PSP sold 22 million consoles.  If you want to look at market share and pure hardware numbers, yes that is pretty respectable.

But, the ONLY reason why someone (esspecially developers) would look at hardware/market share figures is to look at POTENTIAL buyers.  If there's 20 million people with a console yet they aren't buying any games, then the negates any positive connotation the hardware sales can present.

 

You can't merely look at the market share or hardware sales that the PSP has.  There is much more you have to take into account.