As far as home video game consoles go, Sony’s track record is pretty stellar. In the 25 years the PlayStation has been around, one of those consoles (the PlayStation 2) is the best-selling video game box period at over 150 million units. Two more (the original PlayStation and PlayStation 4) crossed the 100 million threshold. And even the beleaguered PlayStation 3 wound up pretty popular in the end.
When it comes to Sony handhelds though things get a lot more dicey. In a vacuum the PlayStation Portable did quite respectably. But it was dwarfed by its rival the Nintendo DS. Meanwhile, the PlayStation Vita did exponentially worse, hovering around Wii U hardware numbers but without any of the beloved games. And in case the protracted death of that system wasn’t a big enough clue, Sony officially has no more interest in handheld devices.
In an interview with Game Informer about the PlayStation’s 25th anniversary, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan poured cold water on the various low-key rumors that Sony is in fact readying a third portable PlayStation alongside the PlayStation 5. Nope.
“PlayStation Vita was brilliant in many ways, and the actual gaming experience was great,” Ryan said, “But clearly it’s a business that we’re no longer in now.”
Ryan and other Sony executives cited mobile gaming as the chief reason for their exit from the handheld space. But personally I don’t totally buy this. Mobile gaming eroded into the market for sure. Even Nintendo got hit. The 3DS didn’t do as well as the DS and they had to collapse handhelds and consoles into one with the Nintendo Switch.
However, the Vita had its own self-inflicted problems. High price. Proprietary memory cards. Underutilized hardware features. And most damning of all practically no major first-party games from Sony to take advantage of the impressive specs. Portable indie games are cool, but again as the Switch has shown, you need both.
So pour one out for portable PlayStations. And learn more about the PlayStation 5.
