For quite some time, Sony focused on handheld consoles as an entertainment platform. The company behind the PlayStation Vita concentrated on its home console. With the rise of smartphone gaming and the popularity of the Nintendo Switch , rumors of a new handheld console persisted. After much speculation, the company has ruled out launching a new handheld console.
It has been Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive, who has ruled out in an interview for Game Informer, seeing a new portable PlayStation. During the interview he was asked about the mythical PSP, noting that it was a great console, but the company was no longer in that business. Something that on the other hand is logical with the popularity of smartphone gaming.
There will be no more Sony handheld consoles
Smartphone gaming is on the rise and moves more money than PC and console gaming combined. Developing a handheld console and games for it would be expensive and time consuming and not really worth it. The company prefers to focus on other markets that it considers more lucrative.
The PlayStation Vita was brilliant in many ways, and the gaming experience was great, but it's clearly a business we're not in anymore.
Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive
At the beginning of the year, we saw the PlayStation Vita cease production and, therefore, become discontinued. Although it was a success in Japan, it went largely unnoticed in the rest of the world, and could be considered a failure.
According to estimates, Sony managed to sell just under 16 million units, a very low figure. Which caused the video game developers to abandon it and the titles were released only for the Japanese market.
Many talk about the Nintendo Switch, a quite different phenomenon. The Japanese company has many fans around the world and has always offered portable consoles. It also offers more thoughtful games for the whole family and features mythical characters like Mario or Sonic, of which people never tire.
Source: GB
