[FixStory - 1] Could the PSVita have succeeded?

[Asura]

It was the first console to mandate that? Interesting.

Yep. It was because of the PSPGo; ultimately that was hamstrung because not only were a large chunk of PSP games missing from PSN, but some of the best games on the platform weren't available - like Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.

[wakka]

Yeah, I remember that being the case on the Go. It reinforces how uncoordinated their portable strategy was.

[Nu-Eclipse]

If Sony had learnt the lessons of the PSP in so much as that people didn't actually want full-scale home console experiences on a handheld (at that time)? Possibly.

Admittedly, the Switch has since skewed this thinking but I really don't consider that to be a handheld in primary terms - more a home console that can be played as a handheld.

The contemporaries of the Vita and PSP were the 3DS and DS respectively. Nintendo's handhelds ultimately succeeded, to my mind, because they weren't trying to deliver the home console experience on a handheld.

[Asura]

If Sony had learnt the lessons of the PSP in so much as that people didn't actually want full-scale home console experiences on a handheld (at that time)? Possibly.

Admittedly, the Switch has since skewed this thinking but I really don't consider that to be a handheld in primary terms - more a home console that can be played as a handheld.

The contemporaries of the Vita and PSP were the 3DS and DS respectively. Nintendo's handhelds ultimately succeeded, to my mind, because they weren't trying to deliver the home console experience on a handheld.

It's quite telling that one of the PSP's far-and-away successes was the Monster Hunter series, mainly because of people playing it 4-player local multiplayer - something not so easy to do on console.

[Nu-Eclipse]

It's quite telling that one of the PSP's far-and-away successes was the Monster Hunter series, mainly because of people playing it 4-player local multiplayer - something not so easy to do on console.

Would argue that things like this were an exception with the PSP and not a rule.

In any case, too many of the top PSP titles were trying to be scaled-down home console titles.

[wakka]

When you look at Nintendo's biggest successes, they've all been toys that are fun in and of themselves to mess around with. I think the PSP came up short in part because the market for a handheld-as-toy is actually much larger than the market for a handheld-as-sexy-high-tech-gadget.

And then the Vita double down on the PSP's approach at a time when people who are interested in consumer tech for consumer tech's sake were much more drawn in by the latest smartphones and the then-new category of tablets. Vita was high tech in some ways, but also kind of old hat compared to the latest iPads with their huge screens and retina displays.