Reasons the Playstation Portable (PSP) Failed (And How the Vita Can Undo the Damage)
Ever since the Gameboy's release in 1989, Nintendo had pretty much dominated the handheld market. Many companies have tried to usurp the crown as the handheld king, but all have fallen, despite their handhelds’ technical superiority to the Gameboy. When the PSP was unveiled during E3 2004, many were ood and awed by its technical superiority and by what the PSP had that the DS didn't. For many, it seemed that Nintendo's days of holding the monopoly on the handheld gaming market had come to an end.But shortly after its launch on March 24, 2005 in North America, the issues quickly surfaced like a bloated corpse that wasn't tied down properly. Shortly after, support for the PSP quickly fizzled out and was put on life support during its entire duration in North America while it thrived in Japan. With the PS Vita out, Sony has made it clear they’re not backing down and are more determined than ever to dethrone Nintendo as the handheld gaming superpower. But they can’t do it unless they learn from their past mistakes, and learned they have. I'll be counting the reasons why the PSP floundered in North America, and how Sony is not going to be repeating the same mistakes again.
What were they thinking? Did they think the systems would sell themselves? Of course not. The reason the Sega Game Gear lasted as long as it did was that it stuck it to Nintendo's face. Cream Spinach Color vs. Bright Beautiful Color. Remember those ads? Sony had nothing of the sort, at least from what I saw. And a lot of PSP ads I did see were just retarded, especially the one with the Mexican dust balls. I'm not joking. And the "Dude, Get Your Own" versions weren't much better.
What's Happening Now: The majority of the PS Vita ads I found made sense. "The World is in Play" ads were actually really good, especially the Japanese commercial for Gravity Rush.
They seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, back then, discs were superior to cartridges in terms of storage and video/audio quality. However, the PSP had to expend battery power to read these things, and they were fragile, hard to clean, and maintain. Just one crack in those things and they were kaput. Not to mention, they took time to load. Throw in the fact that they took up more space than a DS card by around 5x, and you have an idea that sounded good in theory but bombed in practice.
What's Happening Now: The PS Vita game cards are pretty small, but they pack a lot of data. It's unsure if it's superior to the UMD in terms of storage, but with the ability to store it without much trouble, I'm not gonna complain. Just be careful not to lose it, or you might not see it again.
This one's pretty self-explanatory. In the world of handheld gaming, long battery life is a must. State-of-the-art graphics and whatnot don't mean much if you can't play the games for very long. When the PSP first came out, the battery life was terrible. Clocking in at only 2 hours fully charged, it was the battery-devouring Game Gear ordeal all over again.
Older gamers like myself will remember how the Game Gear lasted only four hours on six AA batteries, while the Game Boy lasted eight hours on four batteries. The redesigned Game Boy Pocket doubled the battery efficiency, lasting the same eight hours on only two AAs. Yeah. Same deal. The newer versions of the PSP did much to rectify the situation, but it was already too late. At least you could safely recharge the batteries this time.
What's Happening Now: Sony is taking battery efficiency much more seriously. While the current PS Vita's battery isn't as efficient as the 3DS's (and that's with the 3D effects turned off), the difference is less than an hour. Sony is working on a new model of the Vita that has a longer battery life, among other improvements.
Imagine this: You meet a hot girl and she invites you over. She decides to let you fondle her breasts, but you only get one. Yeah. That's the same stunt Sony pulled. When the PSP launched in 2005, first-person shooters were becoming the in thing. With only one analog stick to work with, making FPS games for the PSP was all but difficult. Not to mention, PS2 ports were nigh impossible without a second analog stick to control the camera effectively.
What's Happening Now: Obviously, the Vita has two analog sticks this time. They've upped the ante by including not only a front touchscreen but also a touchpad at the back. And while I'm on the subject of breasts, please don't remind me of that weird French magazine ad.
This is another issue that turned off a lot of potential customers. Sony just refused to let up with the firmware updates. Not really an issue with home consoles and let's face the fact that firmware is here to stay, but the PSP was sensitive about the issue. You couldn't update the firmware at all if your system wasn't sufficiently charged (either from the UMD or a Wi-Fi connection), and it didn't care if you had the charger plugged in. You couldn't play the latest games without the latest firmware. Because Sony bombarded PSP users with constant firmware updates, people just stopped caring about the latest games and moved to the DS, where you could just simply pop the card in, press power, and you were good to go.
What's Happening Now: Sony's being a lot more careful with its firmware for the Vita. Now, it's making sure not to overdo it and to include as many significant changes to the system as well.
When Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories debuted on Sony's new handheld, audiences were floored by the 128-bit quality graphics. It was poised to change the way people saw handheld gaming. But soon, there were fewer PSP games catering to Western gamers' tastes. Most of the library consisted of low-budget JRPG/dating sims of mediocre quality with an abundance of sexuality. Even the 20th-anniversary editions of Final Fantasy I and II felt like they were slapped together and thrown on a UMD with minimal effort. Why would I want to pay $30 to ogle a bunch of girls' breasts when a refined Google search can let me do that for free? Not to mention, stopping warlords' mad quests for world domination gets tiring after a while. There were some good JRPGs like Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7. Too bad not all companies put this much care into their products.
What's Happening Now: There are still JRPGs coming to the Vita, but now many third-party developers are paying attention to what people want from them. Games like Dragon's Crown and Persona 4: Golden have gotten stellar reviews.
Yet another good idea down the crapper due to technical shortcomings. Low battery life, poorer quality picture and sound, and lack of extras were bad enough, but they sold at the same price as regular DVDs. With portable DVD players entering the market, this idea was shot down like a one-winged duck and UMD movies were discontinued before long.
What's Happening Now: There doesn't seem to be any real movie support for the Vita. Sony learned its lesson. Either do it right and all the way, or not at all.
When Sony announced that people could directly download PSP games onto their memory cards, people were elated. Too bad Sony didn't follow through wholeheartedly. This came to light when they said that not all games would be available in all regions in digital form. There's your proof right there.
What's Happening Now: Sony announced that when a Vita game was released, it would be available in both physical and digital formats. They seem to have made good on that promise.
PSP-1000, PSP-2000, PSP-3000, PSP E1000, and the PSP Go. It felt like the constant revisions of these systems just wouldn't end. Three years after being released in Japan, Sony kept churning out revision after revision without offering any significant changes other than a smaller design and longer battery life. People liked having less to haul around and more battery power, but not many people have a large enough disposable income to keep up with the trend. And then there's the PSP GO, which excluded the UMD drive and thus became a download-only system. It was really expensive, only $50 cheaper than a PS3 at the time.
What's Happening Now: It seems that Sony is now trying to resolve as many issues as it can with its re-releases of hardware, like that mystery power port and different colors.
When the PSP launched at $250, people were rightfully iffy about it. And they were right. Not having recognizable franchises for launch and a lack of games people wanted to play were just a few of the omissions that Sony made. The high price itself wasn't the real problem. It was what people were going to get out of that money. And it wasn't much.
What's Happening Now: Sony made sure the Vita entered the market with a bang. With quality originals like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Gravity Rush available at launch and a few months down the road, Sony definitely knew how to put its best foot forward. They were able to keep up the momentum by including firmware that allowed people to download PS One games and play them on their Vitas. The system is definitely showing progress.