OH MAN, you headshoted the thread !

EDIT

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.

amazing post indeed ...

I think this is the main issue when it came to software support. However, the reason I think Sony didn't bother chasing up on it too much was that it probably helped to sell PSPs. I know a number of people who bought PSPs specifically to hack them and if Sony were making a good profit on the hardware, they were probably happy with the short-term returns. Silly way of thinking if true.

Well, for quite a while they've been chasing PSP scene closely, someone even suggested that infamous Dark Alex was paid by Sony and ceased development of custom firmware for that reason. I found this suggestion at least believable (maybe not paid, but they've managed to somehow troubled him or make an offer), since I remember how Kalisto warez group unexpectedly left DC scene (being offered a "stock option" by Sega =) ), but just like with PSP scene there were people who picked up development of custom firmware. So I can't say Sony did nothing to prevent piracy, at least they continuously provide PSP with new firmware updates what Nintendo did only once back in 2005 and iirc never did it again until DSi came out (not having an option to upgrade firmware online till latest time made Nintendo kinda vulnerable to pirates, so they have to compensate by game protection of very few major releases).

I don't think it's dead yet, but it's drop was caused by a lack of software last year and the DS's goodness.

edit: by last year I meant 2008.

"IF" the PSP has been killed like you said, then I think you will find blood on the DS's hands...

It just got beat by DS, it didn't do anything bad. 55 million sales for a not-nintendo handheld was unheard of till now.

PSP was killed?

news to me

anyway right now its just age, the system will be 5 years old, its only natural interest is rapidly declining like it usually does (DS is an exception to this rule)

Don't think that the PSP is dead but Piracy on a handheld is much easier to get suck into I think :( I have only purchased 5 tittles for the PSP am a sucker for for classic games "collection" titles but I have probably only torrented 3-5 titles, I mainly bought the PSP as a peripheral for the PS3 remember the F1 Championship integration as a rear view mirror? I was blown away to the store and bought one and again I was suckerd into something that never came :( but the "remote play" option has more than made my PSP the perk of my collection :)

I have long considered buying a psp, but each time I don't, I consider a new psp will be heading our way soon. Maybe I am wrong but I like to jump onboard rather quickly so that I can ensure my purchase will be supported for a signicant amount of time. I can't help but wonder when the psp2 will come around.

The psp has had a decent run. 55 million isn't that bad. I'm not big on hand-helds,so I could care-less either way.