I think whats killing the PSP is not being connected. The wi-fi even in the Go! is garbage, and that is the only way to get connected. PSP needs to be connected to PSN anytime, anywhere. Portable gaming is even more social than console gaming in my point of view. A handheld can be pulled out anywhere you go, and played with friends. To me it only makes sense for a handheld to allow you to play with those same freinds anywhere you go, whether they are there or not.

So, what Sony needs to do IMO, is get the PSP connected. While they are at it, a second anologue nub would be great.

With that in place I see this.

PSP + 3G + Second Nub + COD + US = Success

PSP + 3G + GT + EU = Success

PSP + 3G + FF or MH + Japan = Success

The reason PSP hasnt held up better v DS is rampant piracy. Still a very nice earner for Sony.

Last Weeks PSP Sales: 521,782
Last Years PSP Sales: 9,515,379

Thats a fuckload of sales for a dead handheld.

:-/

The PSP got off to a weak start because of its high price and weak support. The rise of piracy shortly thereafter convinced publishers to avoid what was already considered a rather weak platform. This created a software glut that lasted years, and didn't begin to end until just this past year, after Sony worked out deals with various publishers to return to the platform. Things for the PSP are starting to look up, but it's arguably too little too late.

That being said, the PSP is doing quite well in Japan, where it had a resurgence of sorts around the end of 2007. The Slim, Monster Hunter, and Final Fantasy have helped the PSP to be a strong contender in that region. The willingness of Japanese consumers to spend plenty of money on material goods (they sell anime on single DVDs that contain a mere two episodes - for $50 a pop, $80 for Blu-Ray) has also helped to keep piracy low in the region, compared to North America and Europe.

A current console with 55m sales can't be regarded as dead.
With a install base that big there is still a chance to turn decent SW sales.

Piracy on the PSP is a major issue. I have a PSP that's not been "mod" but have had plenty of offers to have it done by mates.
In all honesty I hardly touch the thing.

The people who are saying that the PSP has actually done well are quite right. It's sold 55M units; when was the last time a non-Nintendo handheld sold anywhere near that well? Never, that's when! It only seems to be doing badly because the DS is on its way to becoming the best selling gaming platform ever (unless one counts the PC, and one doesn't ).

It's also true that, from a console sales and popularity perspective, piracy has only helped it, since a hacked PSP can do so much more than a normal one. Of course, it may also be the case that some developers have been put off by the low software sales...

So, yeah, I just completely failed to bring anything new to the discussion :3

I don't think piracy had anything to do with it.

I like mai's idea. The PSP isn't different enough. The DS is.

The PSP is too similar to consoles (when you compare game libraries anyway), so it's basically a portable PlayStation, and its best-selling games is a GTA game that's also available on PS2. Turns out the consumers liked that a lot and it sold over 50 million, which is a great success.

It also turns out that more consumers preferred their handheld game library to be radically different from consoles and radically different from other handheld systems. So they flocked to the DS like nothing before, and the DS's best-selling games are exclusives that require exclusive controls, like Nintendogs and Brain Age.

this is from gamasutra about Bounty Hounds
"In 2006 the game went to market on the PSP platform," said XPEC Chairman Aaron Hsu. "Although it didn’t get released in mainland China officially, it was illegally downloaded more than 2 million times ... thats sick
but the newer psp are not hackable psp go and psp 3000 ofw 5.55, i hope they released a psp 2 this year

it done better than almost both microsoft consoles

that says something and it's only portable to survive nintendo handheld dominance.

and the reason 360 have a huge attach rate , it's archivements and everything linked to xbox live.

people don't hack 360 as much as the PSP, even if they did, they on PSP there is almost no games with online play, if your PSP was banned it wouldn't matter since many games don't require online.

many 360 owners farm low cost games for archivements points, and now ps3 owner are doing the same with trophies.

by attrach rate both 360 ps3 are around 8 games. 360 being high by a small number, and selling more due higher userbase.

Oh, there were plenty of things Sony did wrong. People who say otherwise must have a short term memory.

• Multimedia Handheld - I'm not saying that PSP being a multimedia device is inherently wrong, but the way Sony marketed it at the time certainly hurt. If the PSP was the only handheld on the market, that would have been fine. But they were putting it up against a pure gaming machine by a beast like Nintendo. People know what they want out of their DS. The PSP is a mishmash of ideas and so it's competing with other devicesthat, like the DS, were specialized in their area. UMDs were a failure. The iPod became a monster and took any attention away from PSP as a digital music player. And the DS had a bigger and better library of games. So in Sony's thirst to make a handheld that did it all, they doomed it to be second class to everything else out there.

• Piracy - Sony is surprisingly lax on the subject, especially compared to Nintendo. I've met people that actually brag about never having bought a single game for their PSP. And there's not a whole lot stopping them. The DS has piracy problems too, but Nintendo is a lot more active in trying to squash activities that will never truly end.

• The Games - Most of the PSP's prized games after it launched were clearly built off of home console fundamentals. Handhelds are handhelds for a reason. Insane load times and lite versions of PS2 classics as your draws is a flawed approach because you're relying on part of an audience thinking "I have to have more of this but on the go" which is what I'm sure most people playing God of War weren't thinking. The PSP actually had better 3rd party support than the DS did coming out of the gates but the DS had more compelling software for what it was because of the way the games are designed. Brain Training is purposely using the DS's strengths to bring a new audience to the platform. God of War: Chains of Olympus is basically GoW: The Spinoff; you're going to get some of the God of War fanbase and not much else. Even with established franchises like Mario and Zelda, Nintendo thought about the platform and the people that might be buying these games and how to make it revolve around being a DS product. Mario didn't follow the route of Sunshine and (eventually) Galaxy...Nintendo instead chose to raise 2D Mario back from the dead, which turned out to be one of the most lucrative decisions in gaming in the decade. Similarly, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is built completely around the DS hardware and has, to date, sold more than Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in Japan.

• Neglect & 'Relaunch' - After the DS's dominance was established, Sony let the PSP die. They didn't support it, and they certainly weren't courting 3rd parties to do it in their absence. Then, in Japan, Capcom single-handedly revived it with Monster Hunter. After awhile, Sony decided to try to 'relaunch' the PSP in Western territories in 2009. As shown above, they still don't get it when it comes to the games. They graduated from PS2-lite titles to...PS3-lite titles. The PSP was 'relaunched' with much anticipated titles such as third person Resistance (bomb), Rock Band Unplugged (bundle baby/huge bomb), Motorstorm: the spinoff (spectacular flop) EvenLittlerBigPlanet (modest seller at best) as well as Assassin's Creed Lite (bomb).

I can elaborate if need be.