A debate has broken out on social media about the "failure" of Sony's PlayStation Portable, leading many to defend the beloved handheld.
The origin point of this particular ruckus appears to be a post by @JaAmfan, citing a two-year-old video with the title "Why The PlayStation Handhelds Failed".
The video focuses on both the PSP and its ill-fated successor, the PS Vita. The PSP sold 82 million units, lest we forget, while the Vita sold just over 14 million.
While the latter can certainly be considered a disappointment for Sony, what has caused such upset online is the fact that the PSP is seemingly being tarred with the same brush, despite having comfortably beaten the likes of the Mega Drive / Genesis (30.75 million), SNES (49.5 million) and NES (61.91 million) – all of which are considered to be successful systems in terms of commercial performance.
Why is it even possible for someone to suggest that the PSP was a sales failure? Well, that's because its main rival, the Nintendo DS, sold a staggering 154 million units during its lifespan – almost double what Sony's handheld did.
While the subsequent 3DS wouldn't reach the same heights, with 75 million systems sold, it managed to perform better than the Vita – which is perhaps why some people feel the PlayStation handheld project wasn't as successful as Sony had hoped.
What do you think? Should the PSP be considered a failure because its main rival did so much better? Is the PSP to blame for the Vita flopping? Let us know with a comment.