Look, I like the system a whole lot, and its hardware sales have been grossly undercelebrated. However, the guy I was commenting to was saying that the PSP was a disappointment and that NGP looks like it may be repeating some of the same mistakes (or rather he was a part of a conversation about that,) and there is absolutely truth to that.
The PSP didn't exactly achieve that status of great shining saviour for portable gaming that Sony had ambitions for. Software sales have been underwhelming, and as much as PSP achieved in sales and acclaim, NDS and iPhone will be the ones that go down in the record books. Flash-forward to today, and the chatter around NGP's great graphics and console quality engines is quite familiar. Remember that this was us circa 2005:
Jump forward just one year and the story read like this:
But like I was saying, Sony tends not to compare itself to its competitors so much as it does mark its own milestones. There was a lot that went right with PSP, and a lot that didn't, and those things that didn't -- no matter what Apple or Nintendo do with their systems -- are things that Sony is concentrating on improving or pushing beyond. They're not doing it by throwing out the old playbook, because they can't make a portable like Nintendo does and expect it to succeed the same way; Sony needs to approach the market the same way. And if some of those ways include things like making mega-million dollar epics like God of War and Uncharted even though software sales didn't strongly support that kind of effort last time, it's still in Sony's best interest to mine that area again because that's what they do best and things may change this second time around with more compelling hardware. They'll learn, they'll adjust, they'll try new things, and they'll hopefully make a lasting mark with this new platform.