| abstract | - The Play Station Portable (or PSP as many like to call it) is the last shaming system made by Sony before it got stupid. It was the first shame made by Crash Bandicoot's Sony, and the only good one. It was made in 2006, after the Sony Civil War. It is the only handheld device made by Sony, because when have they ever done anything right? The Play Station Portable was originally made for two purposes: 1.
* Bandicoot needed some wartime propoganda, even though the war was over. 2.
* It had been a while since Sony had stolen something from Nintendo, and the Nintendo DS was an easy target. The PSP was manufactured and released shortly afterwards, and was an immediate FAIL. This was mostly due to the fact that the handheld shaming system had gone out of style three months ago. Bandicoot lost about $100,000,000 because it was so terrible. Bandicoot then proceeded to shoot himself. However, he is such a bad shot, he couldn't even hit himself. The PSP was never really that popular because it was so stupid, but hey, look on the bright side! I don't know what bright side I am referring to, but you'd better look at it! (Sigh) Nevermind.
- Short story: the PlayStation Portable could be called a "successful failure". It was a failure in stealing the market from Nintendo for the third time in a row, but a success in that it still sold tens of millions of systems (so far has sold nearly 70% as many systems as the original Play Station), and had a number of hit games. Long story: in 2004, Sony was riding high off the first two PlayStation systems, and decided to get into the handheld market, confident they could repeat their success for a third time. The gaming press was just as confident. It seemed like all the factors were in place for it to happen. Sony's use of discs versus the DS' cartridges, a traditional controller versus an unconventional controller (a touch screen this time instead of a three-pronged gamepad), better third-party support, multimedia capabilities, and far greater processing power (which wasn't the case with the last two systems, but still a touted factor) had all paid off for Sony in the past. It seemed like the PSP could become the leader in the handheld gaming market, dethroning Nintendo. However, not everything went as planned. There were a few reasons for this:
* The rechargeable battery's life was much better than other handheld challengers Nintendo had faced, but still paled in comparison to the DS. Playing a movie could cut the battery time to one-third.
* While disc-based formats proved to be superior to cartridges for home consoles, the format's advantages were less pronounced on a handheld device. The discs still offered higher capacity, but the optical format resulted in comparatively longer loading times, louder system noise, and increased battery usage due to disc spinning and seeking. Without the production volume of DVDs or CDs, the format didn't have the huge cost differential that made discs preferable to carts in the 5th generation. Storage of multiple games was also made less efficient due to each disc being permanently encased in an outer shell. The console and discs support Region Coding, and while only three PSP applications/games made use of region coding (the Asian release of Battlezone, as well as the Comic Book reader and Remote TV Viewer applications) all UMD movies were region coded and couldn't play on PSPs from a different region.
* Loading times aren't as much of an issue with home consoles, but handheld systems are often played here and there in two-minute windows. Taking even 30 seconds to load is a major downside under those circumstances. In the later models, Sony incorporated a method which considerably shortened loading times (adding extra RAM, and allowing games to selectively load data instead of strictly from the UMD) for compatible games. The console also has a "sleep" function which saves the current memory-state for quick revival later, but this causes even more problems for the already-iffy battery life.
* The system didn't have a Killer App by the time the DS had Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, and New Super Mario Bros. The PSP did later get sales boosts from the redesigns and true killer apps like Monster Hunter in Japan, but those were well after the DS took off and after the PSP had lost any lead.
* Most important of all was the different focus. Sony was convinced there was a "handheld gaming ghetto", which meant that the smaller-scale games on handhelds were supposedly inferior to home console games. The PSP was an unsuccessful attempt to bring home gaming to portables, which left developers scrambling to find a medium between the huge games of home consoles and the "bite-sized" gaming for portables, while Nintendo already had plenty of practice with that golden mean. Despite these issues, the PSP has been fairly successful financially. As mentioned, it's easily the most successful competitor to Nintendo's handheld dominance and the highest-selling second-place system of any console war. It has seen an Updated Rerelease as the "Slim & Lite", which made it smaller and lighter, as well as adding a brighter screen and a jack which let you display the console's output on a television. A third-generation version added a mic and a new screen that's less reflective and has more colors, but also has more prominent scanlines. Firmware updates since launch have greatly increased the system's capabilities, ranging from being able to play more file formats, to being able to organize media in folders, to PlayStation 3 remote play compatibility. UMD titles have the option of allowing portions of the game to be installed to the memory stick, reducing loading times and extending battery life. Sony has begun a major shift in their strategies for the PSP recently. The biggest shift is a massive embrace of digital distribution — while the newest incarnation of the DS is capable of downloading small games made specifically for its download service, the PSP is capable of downloading retail titles available for it through Sony's online storefront, as well as smaller games, video, and Downloadable Content for existing games. Furthermore, the newest incarnation of the PSP, the PSP Go, is specifically built around digital distribution, having no support for the UMD medium. Despite fears from older PSP owners, Sony insists that the Go is not meant to replace the PSP, and that Sony plans to sell and maintain both platforms simultaneously (and in fact, when the Go was launched, all future PSP releases were required to have a digital-only version available). Response has been lackluster at best, with reports that some stores wouldn't even stock it Since the PSP was released in 2004, and Sony historically released new consoles every six years, by 2010 there was a storm of rumor and speculation over what would come next. The announcement didn't hit until January 27, 2011. Sony's new device, Now named the Play Station Vita (formerly NGP), will be released by the end of the year. It comes with dual thumbsticks, 3G and wi-fi connectivity, motion control, front and back cameras, a touch screen, and a second touchpad in equivalent position on the backside of the device. It's also going back to flash-memory cards as its storage medium. More can be read about it at its page.
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