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Kneetos on 14 January 2025
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IcaroRibeiro said:
Otter said:

Honestly I don't think there's anything practical Sony could of done to compete with Nintendo. The recent price hikes etc are a reflection of them seeing a roof in the product they offer. Continuing a line of handhelds wouldn't of made sense as costs of software development went up. Even then they lacked any major IP aside from GT that Japan cared about. Everything else was dependant on third parties.

Playstation was born on the power of Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Tekken, DQ etc and all of those IPs still are on playstation and have often been exclusive, they've just either lost their power with recent entries or just aren't enough to make the hardware compelling. And sony was never going to design hardware around one market alone. Nintendo went the Switch route because it made sense for them and where their IPs and appeal lay. It wouldn't of made sense for Playstation in the past.

My only gripe is that I wish Sony more carefully created  their own Japanese IP. Japan studios always felt like they had potential but were shooting in the dark with very random games and without much core ambition or oversight governing quality of output. But ultimately looking at a global scale, I'm happy with how things are. Playstation and Nintendo offer something both quite distinct and that benefits gamers and developers alike. PS5 is easily the best console platform for broad gaming experiences, last year alone for JRPGs was insane.

The only thing Sony can do is come back releasing portable consoles. Currently there are many games that can be scaled back, with help of modern engines, which could make porting games easier. The problem however is those games are clearly made with TV in mind and the audience is limitado to people who really wants to play those games portable no matter what 

I think a new Sony handheld could sell between 25-35 million units, granted it received the majority of PS5 library and included free versions of the library you already own. The question is, is Sony willing to make hardware to sell that little and get barely any revenue from hardware and software only to sell more units in Japan? I don't think so 

Sony's issues in Japan are less to do with the fact the switch is a handheld, and is more to do with "Sony not caring about the Japanese market as much anymore" and this, Sony's popularity has shrunk with the Japanese game buying public

Ever since the PS2, playstation sales have slowed and fallen behind Nintendo, the psp lost to the DS, despite it being a handheld, and couldn't even hold a lead over the 3ds

Yes the Wii U happened, but the way I look at is it.

The Wii U is Nintendo's second worse selling console of all time worldwide, and the PS4 was Sony's second BEST selling console of all time, yet the sales gap between them in Japan was around 6 million

Sony needs to start catering to the Japanese market again, otherwise I don't see a PlayStation handheld doing all that well, certainly not anywhere close to the 25-35 million sales you think it will