Play Station has been a successful brand for many years now, even decades. Some may even say it's a bigger gaming household than Nintendo. This success is obviously reflected in the terrific PS4 sales. The PS4 is the clear winner of the 8th generation against its original competitors XBONE and Wii U. (Let's count out the Switch for this post, because it's now clear that it belongs to the 9th gen)

Even with this success there's a crushing defeat in Sony's pocket that they don't want to talk about, and that's the way they were kicked out of the handheld market. The PSVita performed so badly that Sony decided to simply stop trying. The Original PSP was a really succesful machine selling more than 80 million I think. Yes it was overshadowed by the DS, but it still sold pretty well. The PSVita didn't even get close. In other words the PSVita is to the PSP what the Wii U was to the Wii.

So in your opinion, and referring to Sony's performance in the 8th gen, what is more relevant the crushing victory of the PS4 or their exile from the handheld market?

Switch is debatable where it stands. I thought of it as a replacement for WiiU mid gen. And did a fantastic job making up for lost ground. The Switch 2 or whatever it’s called will be the Series X/PS5 competition.

Otherwise, I feel Sony’s victory in the console space has left them complacent and thus has left the handheld space completely open for Nintendo and MS (Game Pass mobile streaming) ripe for takeover.

Nintendo is also down to just one platform after the Wii U debacle. The Wii U sold even worse than the Vita. Two simultaneous platforms is just not feasible in the current market for any brand.

Switch is the best selling system in its class. PS4 is the best selling in its class.

It depends on whether we are talking about the short term or long term.  In the short term the PS4 victory competely overshadows the Vita defeat.  Profit margins are much higher in the home console market.  Financially, Sony is doing extremely well right now.

In the long term, the Vita defeat is going to be a bigger deal.  The Switch is the type of innovation that is going to transform the gaming market.  In a few years (say, in generation 10) hybrid systems are going to be the standard for gaming hardware, and that means Nintendo is going to be doing extremely well for a while.  Sony is going to be playing catch up once they realize that they need a hybrid system to compete.

However, Nintendo would have never "gotten away with" the Switch if they hadn't kicked Sony out of the handheld market first.  $300 at launch is cheap for a home system, but it is very pricey for a handheld.  Really even $200 for the Lite model is still on the pricey side.  If Sony had a "Vita 2" priced at $150-$200, then Switch would have had a much harder time taking off, and also some of the Switch's third party games would have gone to Vita 2.  It would have made life harder for Nintendo all around.

But the reality is that Nintendo Switch has a monopoly on the handheld market and it is appealing to home console gamers too.  It's so successful that hybrid is going to eventually become the hardware standard for consoles.  But Nintendo would have had a much harder road with Sony was still selling a handheld.

If Sony goes to hybrid market they will lose their home console market for Xbox and PCs. Handhelds lack home consoles raw power, biggest western AAA devs will just stop making multi-plat games if it becomes too expensive (and sometimes  not feasible) to develop a high-realism game for a downgraded console

If Sony somewhat manage to decimate Xbox this gen (ie Xbox relevance fading everywhere but USA), then I can see Sony risking losing shares of home console market in the10th gen, but for an already moribund competitor, otherwise? Hardly

Of course, once streaming become a thing then I can see Sony pretty much quitting home-only market and going fully on hybrid business model as there is no replacement for Switch value proposition in a foreseeable future

Hard to say. Winning decisively with the PS4 after the comeback-kid story of the PS3 is definitely great for the brand but losing and abandoning handhelds is rough. I have a PSP and I love it. It's my N1 handheld of all time. I wanted more of that type of experience separate from what the DS/3DS did but obviously I'm in the minority.

It makes me wonder if Sony is going to try at a hybrid system like the Switch at some point. People here in this forum and elsewhere accuse Sony of being a copycat of Nintendo and even as fan I can sort of agree with the point. That being said, even if you took someone else's idea, as long as the execution is good and they bring the games then they could definitely succeed and redeem themselves after the Vita debacle.

No as it stands now the days of dedicated handhelds are over, Sony had no real choice but to leave. after mistakes with carts and support plus not seeing how much of a threat the rise of other devices.

In Nintendo's case they also left the dedicated Handheld space merging it with the home console space by way of a Hybrid something only they had the capacity to do successfully their choice to follow their own path in regards to the types of consoles they make meant that they could build a hybrid that was an upgrade in comparison to the two platforms it replaced, ensuring that a games platform legacy was a non factor . Sony couldn't follow that route not successfully anyway.

The handheld market is a fad that is only kept alive by Nintendo games. The DS and PSP saw great success as a precursor to smartphones, their successors already showed the decline thanks to the smart device revolution. The 3DS was only propped up by exclusives.

The mobility aspect of a console is not a main concern anymore and merely a bonus. Even Nintendo saw that and just combined mobile with stationary to hide the decline. The success of the Switch is a product of great exclusive software and passable hardware, the portability is a big bonus, but wouldn't be able to sell on its own.

I wouldn't call it a failure when you pull out of a market that practically doesn't exist anymore. If anything releasing the Vita at all was their biggest failure.

8th gen dedicated portable gaming just lost a lot of luster. I have a Vita (as well as a PSP, 3DS, Switch, etc.) and I carried them everywhere I go. In the case the 3DS and Vita, by the time I finally tried to play a game, the batteries were dead. I do/did play the Switch* almost every day though.

What I'm saying is that portable gaming isn't what it used to be. The console market is the bigger picture. It's the industry. Sony's success with the PS4, especially versus more opponents, is more relevant.