The PSP sold quite well for Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s successor, the PlayStation Vita, sold miserably for it. In fact, it was such a colossal failure for the PlayStation makers that the handheld console virtually became a meme. Despite this, there’s been scuttlebutt suggesting PlayStation may give the handheld gaming market another shot. Once thought dead, the Nintendo Switch has proven that there’s still considerable demand for portable gaming consoles. And thus, some theorized that Sony would make a triumphant return to this space sometime in the near-future. Bad news though: this isn’t happening.
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Speaking to Game Informer, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan confirmed that Sony isn’t interested in making another portable PlayStation console, noting it’s simply not the business it’s in anymore, though Ryan concedes he was one of the few hundred people who thought the PlayStation Vita was brilliant.
“PlayStation Vita was brilliant in many ways, and the actual gaming experience was great, but clearly it’s a business that we’re no longer in now,” said Ryan.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that PlayStation will never make another portable gaming console. It simply means it’s not in the pipeline right now. In other words, it looks like Sony is planning on focusing on PlayStation 5 and some of the services around it — such as PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus — going forward. And on the side, it seems it will keep chipping away at PlayStation VR, which looks destined to be the next PlayStation Vita in many ways.
As you may know, the PlayStation Vita — PlayStation’s last foray into this space — hit back in 2011 in Japan, but didn’t come to the States until 2012. Unlike the PSP, which sold quite well, the Vita flopped at launch and never recovered. Among other things, it lacked compelling software, which is why it has only sold 15 million units to date, a number the Nintendo Switch eclipsed very quickly.
Again, one day PlayStation may return to this space, but, for now, it seems like if you want to play portable console gaming, you will need to buy a Nintendo Switch, which, unlike the Vita, has a plethora of great games to play, many of which you can’t play anywhere else.
