Does The Sony Playstation Portable Have A Future?
The Playstation Portable has been something of a failure for Sony so far. In every single territory around the world, it has been roundly beaten by the cheaper and more innovative Nintendo DS, although Japan continues to be Sony’s strongest supporter. But the lack of success in managing to get a sizeable foothold in the hand-held market means there is a question mark hanging over the little console’s future.
According to Zeno Colaço, a VP for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, talking to Pocket Gamer recently, the console is still subject to the 10 year hardware strategy that Sony seems intent on sticking with. But while that has proved a viable strategy for the PS2, which continues to sell in huge numbers for such an outdated piece of hardware, I just can’t see the PSP having that much life left it in.
Sony should be relatively pleased with the amount of PSPs it has sold because coming in to a market where there was just one dominant force who had it sewn up with the Gameboy and the DS, it has managed to at least make a dent in Nintendo’s Teflon covered suit. But will that dent be enough to warrant a second generation PSP making an appearance in the future?
It emerged today that Sony has filed patents for a hand-held device which integrates a touch screen and motion sensing capabilities, which would indicate a move to compete on an level playing field with the DS and iPhone. But with it typically taking three years for patent applications to translate in to any hardware release, it culd be a case of too little, too late.
The PSP is a nice console, and anyone who owns one seems happy that they have made the right choice, but there aren’t the games available for it that there should be, and I for one am worried about its long-term future.
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