Also, I know this is a depressing thing to be posting, but I stumbled across this interview with Yoshida today and it made me laugh:
What would you say is the most important thing Sony learned from the original PSP?
There are many lessons we have learned, but if you ask me to pick one lesson… Before the launch, as far as the hardware goes we didn’t put enough resources in the hardware to allow us to develop games that are unique to the PSP compared to home consoles. We had many products on PSP, but most of these games like God of War [Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta] came from the console. Basically, you can play a bigger, better version of these titles on PS3. So pre-launch of PSP we were too happy with having the basic capability of PS2-class games to play on PSP, in terms of the screen and CPU/GPU. But after the launch and a few years time, just having pretty graphics isn’t enough. Especially when you can play a bigger, better game on home consoles. That’s the one big lesson when we designed the PS Vita. Because it is portable and because it’s a new technological development, we can put a touchscreen, touchpad, cameras, GPS, or 3G capabilities. We made sure that developers will be able to make use of these features that are unique to portable systems, so that with games we can continue to produce something very exciting that you cannot find on games on home console. So that’s one lesson.
The second lesson comes post-launch of the PSP. Because we shifted development resources to the PS3 launch, we kind of stopped supporting PSP games post-launch. That was a big mistake, because we didn’t realize that third-party developers were doing the same because they were working on the new launch of software on the PS3, Nintendo Wii, and Xbox 360 as well. So going into the PS Vita, because it’s our second time, we are making sure that we won’t make the same mistakes, meaning that we’ll continue to support PS Vita with a stream of good titles through release. So I pick these two as the lessons learned from PSP. I would also say that security and piracy was a problem with the PSP as well, and that will be fortified with PS Vita.
So basically, the two biggest mistakes they made with the PSP were - it got too many home-console esque games, and didn't get enough post-launch support from Sony, and they intend to rectify that with Vita.
Three years down the line, and Vita gets absolutely bugger all support from Sony. The only major title releasing this year from Sony is a port of a PS3/PS4 game. The only major titles last year were Freedom Wars (new IP, fair enough) with console-esque production values; and Borderlands 2... a port of a PS3 game.
Shows what a load of hot air Yoshida was spouting at Vita's launch.
