Is this sentence really wrong though. Yea, it's arrogant but.....

The PSP did improve handheld gaming leaps and bounds in terms of features, tech, scale and visuals. 

And, Sony were very well placed to do this, because of their status and backing due to the PS2.

Other companies could have theoretically done this, but none of them wanted to. This sentence is full of truth, just stated in a 'cock waver' way :)

LOL!!! I love that 2nd sentence you got up there.

and I agree PSP is a total success, I think some people need to realize that you don't have to be #1 to be successful

While I think he should have put it better, I agree with you.  The PSP, and it's built-in features, is probably the #1 reason Nintendo even spent more time and money developing the DSi, which supports many similar features.

@ OP

It definitely was/is a success.  Anyone who tries to downplay a system selling ~ 80 mil, which would equal GBA's sales, when all is said and done, is quite foolish.  Not only is this a market that Nintendo dominates, but this is also Nintendo's most successful handheld.  The highest any previous company has been able to pull was ~11 mil against the ~120 mil selling Gameboy.  So yea, the PSP has pulled off a pretty impressive feat.

congratulations to the PSP, Sony's first venture into the handheld market was a success and set them up greatly for the NGP release

I suppose it is a success. While it has done much worse than other Playstation products, it's still done a lot better than any (?) other non-Nintendo handheld - and its sales are definitely not bad.

People are in this thread calling the PSP a failure?  Based on the fact that it didn't outsell the PS1 and PS2 or the DS?  What the hell, people?  Anything that isn't the best ever is a failure?  If that's the case, I hope these guys end up curing cancer or something.  I mean, Kobe Bryant is a successful basketball player despite not being better than Michael Jordan.  You can be a successful business person despite not doing better than your father or your neighbor.  The PSP can be (and IS) a successful console--a GREAT success--despite not outselling the best selling portable console of all time or the two best selling home consoles of all time.

I don't get this "First place or nothing" mentality that only seems to be in the video games industry.  Coke and Pepsi. McDonald's and Burger King.  Ford and Chevy.  It's possible to be a great success without being number 1.  The PSP sold a tremendous amount of consoles.  It sold a tremendous amount of software.  It continues to sell well, six years after it launched.  It makes money and it doesn't sell for a loss like other devices have.  It brought some great advances to portablegaming (comic books, analog control, digital download, skype, etc.). 

It's a success financially, a success technically, and a success commercially.  I don't give a fuck what expectations were.

Well, this is annecdotal on my part but:  I work at a nuclear power plant.  I shouldn't admit this but.......everybody has (or had) a PSP.  I've not once seen a DS.  Maybe the sales don't reflect it (personally, I have SIX DS consoles in my house and two PSP's) but the PSP is (or was--we all have smart phones, now) widely accepted by most of the people I know as the mature portable console.  It's an alternative to the DS which I would guess has a "Fun for all ages" demographic.  Maybe the DS sells more but in a way, you could say that a lot of people that wouldn't have gotten a portable console before were sold on the idea of a more adult console that plays movies, music, and games.  If that's the case, you can say that Sony DID elevate portable gaming out of the ghetto.

On the flipside, look at Nintendo's expectations:  I can dig out magazines (like the Gamecube reveal in Next Gen Magazine) from my closet or scour the internet for quotes.  With the Gamecube and the Wii, Nintendo states how they plan to extend their hand to third parties and how they would greatly support the console.  For the most part, that hasn't happened.  Does the fact that things didn't pan out exactly the way they predicted mean that the Wii was a failure?  It may have failed to reach that one particular goal but, like the PSP, it was an overall success. 

I'm not a Sony fanboy by any means (why do I feel the need to say that?) and I know you weren't posting that quote to call the PSP a failure.  I just don't think a quote from "Crazy Kaz" is enough to disprove anything.  I'm sure the man has made several bold claims in the past but he's not a psychic* like me.

*psychic?  I meant psycho.

for their first entry in the handheld-business it definatly a HUGE success hardware-wise...but on the other hand Sony really got it bad with the Software...i mean in the end they maybe only sold 15-25% of what it could had sold if the piracy wasnt that bad and the PSP and it games wasnt that easy to hack...

Truth be told, after experiencing hacking both the DS and the PSP, the DS is eons easier. PSP's problem is that the games are not truly portable. They are PS2 games on a handheld with a really slow drive. That is a good part of the reason why the DS did much better, I will not go about the others.

It is, however, a strong success. Lots of good games available and real lots of hardware sold.

another problem from the PSP is that they are more older gamers...i mean you got millions of kids with DS and the parents buying them games and you got millions of adults who got a PSP that prefer hacking games than buying ^^