Is The Sony PSP Really Dead?

There has been a lot of talk about the PSP, after Yahoo released an article stating that the future is bleak for the handheld console. Many are saying that the PSP is dead and the Nintendo DS has conquered the handheld war and after the DS sold 1.5 million units in the United States and the PSP is listed for selling only 421,000 for the holiday season, which really isn’t a bad number but it’s been declining in sales for awhile.
I would say yes that the PSP has seen better days and most likely will see its end, if it’s next round of games fails to convince developers that it’s worth system citing development costs. I also think that the PSP took some missteps, it was released to give Nintendo competition in the handheld war (that Nintendo dominates) but offered us way too much that we didn’t need in a handheld causing it to be way over priced.
The PSP launched at the high price of $249.99, which is a lot of money for a handheld, it has since been lowered to $169.99. The DS launched at the price of $149.99 and has since been lowered to $129.99.
Obliviously the DS was extremely lower in price, but also lacked some of the features that the PSP was able to show off.
The PSP is able to play movies, music and even work as a phone (which was an add on). The DS had none of this stuff but it really didn’t matter, the DS may have not had those features or the graphics the PSP offered but it had solid first party games and a new innovative way to play.
Which brings me to my point why the PSP is failing to compete with Nintendo, the reason I have is it’s first party support. Nintendo has Super Mario 64 DS, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, New Super Mario Brothers and even more and that’s always been their big sellers. PSP has their GTA stories series and even Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, but those are only a couple games and PSP never got the first party support I believe it needed.
If it had the first party support, I do believe that the PSP would have been around longer. The PSP has some great games and that includes Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Metal Gear Solid Portal Ops and I think it deserves to stick around for a little while longer.
But after all that I think why Nintendo is number one is because they give people different ways to play. They aren’t killing themselves in trying to compete with the graphic power of the PS3, XBOX360 or even the PSP and they give us a product that is solid, affordable and has strong first party support.