Shane on 25 March 2007
Erik Aston said:
First of all, PSP isn't hugely profitable. It was supposed to buoy PlayStation financially during the early years of PS3 and wind-down of PS2. Thats not happening. Furthermore, while getting 35-40% marketshare (which its falling below already, btw) is nice, "getting a foothold in the market" as you seem to be implying is nonsense. Every market leader in VG history has gotten there with their first entry.
They won't. The portable gaming market isn't perceived as a long-term threat to their PC OS monopoly like Google, PlayStation or iPod. And thats really all MS is interested in.
The first year or two are rarely profitable. If they are, your system's probably overpriced. Wii's potentially the one exception to this. Every market leader in VG history? So that would be Atari. Who had no competition. Nintendo. Who had no competition. Nintendo again. Who had no competition again. And Sony. Whose competition committed suicide. Sony actually has a fight on its hands with PSP, much like Microsoft is fighting on the console front.
Microsoft wants to stem slowing growth. A portable gaming entry would be one avenue worth exploring. Though certainly focusing on just growing the Xbox at this point is the chief objective of the entertainment division.
