When it comes to 2000s handheld console wars, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable (PSP) are absolutely two machines that can’t be ignored. Looking back, DS ultimately achieved a crushing victory with over 154 million units sold worldwide, while PSP accumulated around 76 million units. But at the time when PSP was just about to enter the market, Nintendo wasn’t nearly as calm about it. Former PlayStation head Sean Layden recently appeared on The Expansion Pass Podcast, recalling an interesting anecdote from when PSP was first revealed—where a Nintendo employee friend actually sent him a message containing just one line: “You guys are bastards.” It seems like while it was industry competition on the surface, the underlying tensions weren’t any less intense.
It Really Wasn’t a Joke Back Then
Layden recalled that Nintendo had been firmly established in the handheld market for years, accumulating a massive player base from Game Boy to Game Boy Advance. So when Sony suddenly brought the PS brand into the handheld market, it naturally raised the competitor’s guard. Later, Nintendo DS successfully captured the casual player market with its dual screens and touch controls, eventually becoming one of Nintendo’s most successful hardware products. Compared to DS, while PSP didn’t match its sales, it still achieved around 76 million units, becoming one of the most successful handhelds outside of Nintendo. The handheld market back then was truly bustling—not like today where people see new hardware and first ask “can this actually run Steam.”
Monster Hunter, PSP’s True Savior!
However, Layden also admitted that PSP was later affected by hacking and piracy issues, making it difficult for Sony to achieve ideal profits from game software sales alone. He believes one key factor that helped PSP establish itself was the Monster Hunter series. This game emphasized multiplayer co-op hunting, particularly creating a phenomenon in the Japanese market where players brought friends into the game, further driving PSP and game sales.
For Sony, this proved that handhelds don’t necessarily need to replicate the home console experience—what truly matters is finding content suited for portable gaming. Layden also noted that if Sony ever re-enters the handheld market in the future, they’d better not have handhelds, home consoles, and game software share the same marketing resources, otherwise they’ll likely end up trying to fight on multiple fronts and not doing any of them well.
From PSP to PS Vita, Sony Actually Learned a Lesson
When discussing PS Vita, Layden believed one of Sony’s biggest miscalculations was assuming players wanted a complete “console-level experience” directly packed into a handheld. But looking at market developments since then, what players really wanted wasn’t necessarily a shrunk-down home console, but gaming experiences specifically designed for handheld use. Today, devices like Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch have proven again that handhelds can run big games, while also having plenty of titles suited for short play sessions. For Sony, if they ever relaunch a handheld, what they might really need to think about isn’t “how small can we fit a PS5 into,” but rather “why should players definitely buy this”. If they can’t answer that question, even the most powerful hardware specs might just end up being a pretty electronic brick.