Lasse Penttinen
13 Dec 2004 9:21
Sony's portable gaming device PlayStation Portable has had a smashing start in Japan. According to the source, they have already reported 200.000 units sold and hoping to hit 500.000 before new year.
Once again Sony aims to reshape a market segment, which has been dominated by Nintendo for years. Mobile phone giant aimed to stirr the markets with the N-Gage mobile phone / game deck hybrids, but so far with little success.
Sony's approach is a bit different. The device isn't actually too mobile. The PSP is rather large and not something you slip into your pocket. On the other hand, it promises to deliver a very high quality gaming experience, comparable to set-top consoles. In a way, it resembles the old Atari Lynx, which was perhaps a concept in the 90's way ahead of it's time.
That expansion is the objective again, as Sony enters a field dominated for years by Nintendo, which controls somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of the handheld game systems space, explained Goodman. If Sony were to come out with a comparable system, it would be scraping for any portion of market share.Source: CIO-Today
"Even with the vaunted Sony brand in gaming," Goodman noted, "they would be destined to be a bit player. But that's not the way Sony enters marketplaces."