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HappySqurriel on 07 April 2009
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CortezTheKiller said:
HappySqurriel said:

Sony attempted to compete against Apple (with the iPod) and Nintendo (with the GBA and DS) when they launched the PSP, and (even though they had a lot of advantages due to the unblemished track-record of the Playstation brand) they were easily beated by both companies ...

Right now, Nintendo and Apple are stronger brands then they have ever been before and have earned more respect from third party developers than they have ever had before ... At the same time the Playstation brand has never been weaker and Sony has lost a lot of influence with third parties because neither the PSP nor the PS3 are the same monsters that the PS2 and Playstation were.

While I can't tell Sony what to do, I would personally suggest that they focus on producing a system that wasn't (necessarily) in direct competition with both Apple and Nintendo and to focus on producing a system that appeals to an under serviced market.

 

The PSP was not a response to the iPod so I'm not sure what you mean there. But anyway, Apple took nearly seven years to sell a 100m iPods and Sony took four years to sell 50m PSPs; do the maths - it's not a huge difference, pro-rata. And given that portable music is hugely more popular than portable gaming, I'd say the difference is meaningless. But again, you are talking about two different markets. PSP can play music on the go? So can a laptop. Are laptops in the same market as an iPod?

The PSP was not a response to the DS either, given that it was developed around the same time and released only two weeks later. Indeed, I believe the PSP was announced six months before the DS (the former in May 03, the latter November 03)!

Yes, Nintendo is much stronger today. But before the Wii and DS Lite, Sony handed their asses to them on a plate every day for a decade. After entering the videogame market from scratch in 1994 they have sold in excess of a third of a billion (actually, about 360 million) PlayStation devices. Some people have short memories. And Apple is not even in the same league as Sony in gaming, which is the matter under debate.

And the reason Nintendo have earned the respect of third party developers is because the latter can make huge bundles of cash for both of them pushing out hundreds and hundreds of ****ing diabolically bad games, and Nintendo couldn't give a toss so long as the cheques keep coming. Shovelware for bored housewives and ten year old girls makes Nintendo very happy, but makes fomer SNES owners like me very sad.

 

Sony sold the PSP as the "Walkman of the 21st century" and spent as much time selling the PSP based on its media capabilities and talking about how they were going to beat the iPod as they did talking about the Nintendo DS, so I don't see how it isn't a response to the iPod. Beyond that, as of September 2008 Apple has sold over 170 Million iPods which is a massive difference from how the PSP has sold ...

Now you can bash the games on the DS as much as you want, but Nintendo's understanding of what people want from a portable gaming system led them to produce the software people want on a handheld ... While you might think Brain Training is far worse than Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories the fact is that Brain Training is a far superior game in the 5 to 15 minute play-sessions typical of a handheld gamer.