April 2012 NPD 360 HW 236k, PS3 175k, Wii 91k

[sperrico87]

RolStoppable said:

VGKing said:

RolStoppable said:

Why should I believe you when two companies are struggling because of strategies that would have also led to failure before the rise of smartphones?

Five years ago the PSP sank into oblivion and it wasn't because of smartphones. The PSP failed because it didn't do the job that consumers expected it to do. It's adapt or die. Sony chose to not adapt, so the PSP never made a comeback in the West. But at least it was good for homebrew applications and emulators, so the hardware kept selling.

Likewise, this generation Nintendo and Sony have to make a choice. Will they insist on following the PSP strategy or will they change their ways?

So what did you want Sony to do? Kill off the PSP as soon as the iPhone/iPod went mainstream? Launch the Vita 3 years ago at $599 with 1 hour battery life?

I want Sony to fail, so personally I was perfectly fine with Sony choosing to not adapt.

The PSPs purpose was to have the modern home console experience on a handheld, i.e. the PSP was sorta like a portable PS2. The market sent clear signals that that is not what people want from a handheld (aside from a minority, but Sony's business model is one that relies on capturing a majority). In order to make the PSP successful in the West, Sony would have had to distance themselves from the image of "the home console experience on a handheld". In order to make the PSV successful, Sony should have not presented it as the PS3 experience on a portable gaming machine.

I agree.  I was surprised to see Sony repeating the same mistakes with the Vita in the West that they made with the original PSP.  They should really take a closer look at what Nintendo does with handhelds versus consoles rather than trying to squeeze a PS3 into a handheld.