Just learned there are some very awesome non-Nintendo handhelds ...

[SodiumChloride]

... that unfortunately didn't live long.



Probably would have done great if Nintendo wasn't that dominant in that market.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If Sony hadn't treated the PSP as a sideshow and devoted more resources to it like they did with the PS3 and 4, it might've actually caught on and showed everyone that it was viable market, but nope! They just threw in a couple of their in house games and blinked when no third party devs made anything for it, then threw their arms up in the air and let Nintendo sit on their asses and do the same-old same-old because they have no competition and thus no reason to innovate beyond refining what they already have.

[SodiumChloride]

If Sony hadn't treated the PSP as a sideshow and devoted more resources to it like they did with the PS3 and 4, it might've actually caught on and showed everyone that it was viable market, but nope! They just threw in a couple of their in house games and blinked when no third party devs made anything for it, then threw their arms up in the air and let Nintendo sit on their asses and do the same-old same-old because they have no competition and thus no reason to innovate beyond refining what they already have.

You mean the PSV. PSP was quite well supported to my knowledge, although it was Monster Hunter that carried it.

PSV ... Sony did what they could. 3rd parties just refuse to jump on board. In the end, Sony just gave up and instead market it as a PS4 remote play device - and it's actually selling better due to that.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Perhaps another reason is that, in this day and age, a dedicated portable gaming device the likes of the DS is rather anarchic. Mobile flat screen phones and tablets are easily affordable, and in some cases cheaper than a DS/PSP. They offer far more utility than a DS/PSP, and they can play games. Sure; they won't play the amazingly high quality titles that the DS/PSP have like Pokemon or Monster Hunter, but the people who used to play DS/PSP games have grown up now and play on computers or on their phones, and the new generation grew up with phones and computers.

A real shame it is. A crying shame.

[A Chozo]

Perhaps another reason is that, in this day and age, a dedicated portable gaming device the likes of the DS is rather anarchic. Mobile flat screen phones and tablets are easily affordable, and in some cases cheaper than a DS/PSP. They offer far more utility than a DS/PSP, and they can play games. Sure; they won't play the amazingly high quality titles that the DS/PSP have like Pokemon or Monster Hunter, but the people who used to play DS/PSP games have grown up now and play on computers or on their phones, and the new generation grew up with phones and computers.

A real shame it is. A crying shame.

Yeahhhhh I think that's wrong. People who used to play DS/PSP grew up to play... more DS/PSP and 3DS, and ALSO play their computers and consoles.
Or not play anything at all. Adult life can crit really hard for the unlucky D:

[kail]

Sony had an amazing piece of hardware in their hands. Just goes to show that hardware alone will not carry a console/handheld.

[Mechazod]

The NeoGeo Pocket is great (those glorious joysticks). If they could have built in a back-light that wouldn't have killed the battery and gathered up some more 3rd party devs and exclusives for it I could have totally seen it being a decent competition for the GameBoy Color, or atleast in Japan probably.

I think the biggest missed opportunity in the hand held market (besides the Virtual Boy which I will always love) was the Sega Nomad. Sega really had something special on their hands if they could have fixed the battery issue with it and perhaps marketed it differently. They could have advertised it as a portable Genesis, but I would have gone the slightly more sneaky route. Since the Game Gear was basically a portable Master System with its own library of exclusive games, if I were selling the Nomad I would have developed games exclusively for it that were basically just new Mega Drive games. Think about it, mid-late 90s with a hand held that could display 16-bit graphics with a back light while Nintendo was still only just barely transitioning to colored Game Boy games. Once again the battery would be the main issue to sort out, and probably would have pushed the price up even further to the point that it would have probably just ended up being the NeoGeo AES of handhelds, a system with great graphics but very few people would actually own, but for its time it was one hell of an impressive console that could have had so much more done with it.

As for the PSP it is pretty much a endless treasure trove of niche titles, especially near the end of its life. The Vita seems to be even more so that, almost dropping the first party titles all together and just getting extremely niche games and JRPGs as its main lifeblood, which is fine by me. I actually dont have a Vita yet, but I have a PlayStation TV and the Vita games I have that I can play on it I have had a blast with. I dont care if the games would look like crap, if Nintendo would have released a DS/3DS player for the Wii U at launch I would have bought the system as soon as it came out.

[Keile]

The best part of the PSP...

Was being able to play SNES, NES, GB, PS1, some DOS games (like DooM), and basically any other old system games on it. It was an emulation-users dream handheld.

That is until handhelds came out DESIGNED for this and you didn't need to get a custom firmware.....

[Jester Joe]

You mean the PSV. PSP was quite well supported to my knowledge, although it was Monster Hunter that carried it.

PSV ... Sony did what they could. 3rd parties just refuse to jump on board. In the end, Sony just gave up and instead market it as a PS4 remote play device - and it's actually selling better due to that.

Odd, I never see someone actually defend Nintendo for the Wii U when it comes to that though.

I also think it's odd to vaguely blame Nintendo, as if they're the reason other companies failed. I mean, even with the Vita being a "failure", it's still selling, it still has games, it's still a decent handheld. It's not like you need to beat Nintendo to make a profit.

The best part of the PSP...

Was being able to play SNES, NES, GB, PS1, some DOS games (like DooM), and basically any other old system games on it. It was an emulation-users dream handheld.

That is until handhelds came out DESIGNED for this and you didn't need to get a custom firmware.....

Also this is very true.

[Tech614]

If Sony hadn't treated the PSP as a sideshow and devoted more resources to it like they did with the PS3 and 4, it might've actually caught on and showed everyone that it was viable market, but nope! They just threw in a couple of their in house games and blinked when no third party devs made anything for it, then threw their arms up in the air and let Nintendo sit on their asses and do the same-old same-old because they have no competition and thus no reason to innovate beyond refining what they already have.

Umm, PSP was HUGE, you must be thinking of the Vita.

But you can't say Sony didn't support the Vita.

Uncharted
Wipeout
Gravity Rush
Killzone
Tearaway
Resistance
Soul Sacrifice
Sly Cooper
MLB The Show
LBP

Pretty much the only major Sony IPs they didn't put on the system where GT and GoW(not counting the hd collection).

They definetly tried, it just didn't catch on outside of Japan to the mainstream. Also not surprising because as good as people think the 3DS is selling(its selling good compared to Vita/Wii U but not great) it is pushing no where near DS numbers. The handheld market lost the casuals which was a massive part of it in the DS/PSP gen. The DS and PSP combined for 230 million install base the 3DS and Vita are sub 60 mil combined.

[Cyclone Jack]

NGPC was a great handheld, and I still pull it out from time to time to play some old games.

I was also able to get my hands on an import WonderSwan Color that has a great version of Devil Dice on it, as well as two Guilty Gear Petit games that were pretty fun.

[Deleted]

I love my PSV. It helped me not to fall asleep while travels.