In what way did Sony ever think they could compete with Nintendo in the handheld market?

[johnlucas]

Zekkyou said:

landguy1 said:
Ps2 made Sony lose their heads. But, like others have said, the PSP might have failed here in the states, it was overall a borderline success.

Borderline success? 80 million units is border linenow? Well shit, the PS3 and 360 must still be in the failure zone :P

OT: I don't think Sony were ever really directly competing with Nintendo. It's like saying Toyota and Aston Martin are competing because they are both car makers (not saying either is better, as is the case with those two car companies, simply using an example). The PSP showed that with enough support, their strategy for hand held gaming is perfectly viable, and in-fact was rather successful. They just haven't haven't managed to pull of that support again, as s happening with the WiiU. Hopefully we will see both get the support they deserve in the future. (I especially hope the Vita can find it's ground again. It's a really brilliant piece of hardware, it's just lacking the games).

Hold on hold on hold on.
No-no-no-no-no-no-no.
Gotta jump in here.

Kaz Hirai, the then-CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, now President & CEO of the entire Sony Corporation, spoke at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in January & said these words when giving the press conference for the PSP:

"PSP will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto, and Sony is the only company that can do it.
PSP will be a disruptor in the portable entertainment space."

Here's a CNET article referencing that quote.
Sony vague on American PSP launch

Another article with even more of the quote.
Sony gives PSP its US debut

"PSP will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto and Sony is the only company that can do it.
Dare I say, the baton has been passed"

Another fun quote from this article when talking about the PSP's audio/video capabilities:

"It's been referred to as an iPod killer."

If you want to see & hear the actual video of it, here's the Gamespot video right here to the full conference.
Start at 8:00 to hear him make that iPod killer quip then at 8:20 is the infamous quote.
Sony PSP Press Conference - CES 2005

Sony WAS COMPETING with Nintendo with the PSP in THE SAME MARKET: The Handheld Videogame Market.
And they LOST. They lost BIG.

They weren't here to just do OK & steal some marketshare from Nintendo maybe sorta.
They thought they were going to ANNIHILATE Nintendo like they did Sega, run them out of the business real quick, then take on an emerging Apple which had intruded on their portable music business.
They were focused on Apple & thought Nintendo was a little runabout they had to get out of the way sort of like an annoying mosquito.

Sony saw Japan where the PS2 dominated the scene sales wise but yet that little Game Boy Advance was hanging around in Japanese hands.
They wanted Sony devices in those hands so they thought they were gonna strike the finishing blow to Nintendo & take them out of the handheld business.
Little did they know that Nintendo was THE REAL BOSS & they showed Sony who REALLY was gonna run who out of the business.
First with the DS, then with the Wii, now with the Wii U.

So while 80 million is the best anybody ever did against Nintendo in the handheld realm & they should get credit for that accomplishment, the PSP FAILED in its objective to get rid of those "handheld gaming ghettos".
It FAILED to stop Nintendo in the handheld race by a LONG shot.
And overall it failed as a game device especially when many folks hacked PSPs to play Nintendo games on them. That always floored me.
It ALSO failed to stop Apple on the portable music player front which is why Walkman is forgotten & everybody knows about iPod.

The PSP was designated to be the Walkman of the 21st Century & it failed on EACH & EVERY front.

PSP & DS were in the same market & the PSP LOST the fight.
It wasn't even financially profitable since it sold for a loss for years.
It didn't sell a whole lot of games for a long time either & even when it did start selling games more decently in Japan it still wasn't enough to cover the losses Sony had from PSP.
On top of that their PSP movie format UMD failed to take root.

The PSP was a high class failure.
But hey it got its 80 million against Nintendo's handhelds & no one will ever take that away from them.
John Lucas

P.S.: One successful aspect of the PSP was that it was used for a nifty porn watching device. But not much more than that.