Support NeoGAF

[Jubenhimer]

For much of the PS1 and PS2 days, Sony Computer Entertainment had a near monopoly on third party support, especially in Japan. Nintendo's use of cartridges and controlling policies with developers and publishers at the time led to many of Nintendo's longtime partners, including the once legendary SquareSoft, to jump ship to Sony's new PlayStation, which boasted CD technology and much more relaxed rules. This gave the PlayStation a major advantage as developers and franchises once made popular by Nintendo's systems, were now going to a company with almost no prior video game experience. That is of course, strictly referring to home consoles.

On the handheld side, things were very, very different. The PlayStation brand was a powerhouse in the console market by 2003, so Sony decided to expand the brand by taking on Nintendo at its bread and butter, the handheld gaming system. Sony crafted the PlayStation Portable, a multi-media powerhouse that aimed to do for handheld gaming, what the original PlayStation did for consoles. Meanwhile, after appointing Kirby Producer Satoru Iwata as its new CEO, Nintendo was hard at work on a top-secret project, the dual screen Nintendo DS. Compared to Sony's offering, the DS was a vastly different beast. Using 2 screens, N64 style 3D compared to the PS2 style of the PSP, cartridges instead of UMD, and new functions like touch screen, microphone, and wireless functionality. In the end the DS prevailed at 152 million units sold worldwide, making it second only to the PS2 as the best selling gaming platform ever. But the PSP was able to hold its own at a solid 80 million units.

But where the two were on a level playing field, was with support of third parties. The DS and PSP actually were more or less pretty even in both quality and quantity of third party support. Capcom for example gave Sony exclusive dibs on the PSP Monster Hunter games, but Nintendo had the Phoenix Wright series all to themselves. Square Enix was a heavy supporter of both platforms. The DS got truly unique games like The World Ends With You and The Game With No Name, while the PSP got ambitious titles like Crisis Core and Dissidia. Both also got excellent Kingdom Hearts titles, and a slew of Final Fantasy Remakes. Ubisoft gave both systems exclusive Assassin's Creed experiences. Rockstar supplied the ever popular Grand Theft Auto to both systems. The yearly Sports gaming franchises came to both, and Sonic the Hedgehog was present on both with 2D outings as well.

Each console had advantages though. The DS' intuitive nature and unique control interface made it more ideal for shooters and casual games than the PSP like with the Call of Duty series which was present on Nintendo's platform, but completely absent on Sony's. Meanwhile the PSP's power and screen size made it more ideal for complex action games and PS2 conversions such as Metal Gear Solid, which got an exclusive entry on the PSP. In terms of third parties, the DS and PSP came as close as handhelds at the time could get. But seems like that was a one time deal. Their successors, the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita would see massive declines in sales vs. their predecessors. But this time, Nintendo had the upper-hand in mainstream support, with the PS Vita being regulated to indie games and obscure Japanese titles, with the once PlayStation exclusive Monster Hunter, now going to Nintendo this generation. Even the 3DS was a step back in third party support vs. the DS. The closest we ever saw to Sony and Nintendo rivaling eachother in third party support since then, is the Nintendo Switch and PlayStaiton 4, but only with indie games and lower budget titles, Sony still has all the big AAA games that the Switch otherwise wouldn't be able to run.

 

[CamHostage]

(Not much to add; I like the post a lot, particularly since I enjoyed both sides of this Portable War, with both companies doing some of their best work and 3rd Parties active in a way I wish we had seen in the 3DS/Vita era.
Just a small correction: there was actually a PSP Call of Duty, a CoD 3 spin-off called Roads to Victory by Amaze Ent.
Despite the demographics and marketing, though, CoD found an audience on Nintendo DS rather than Sony's PSP, as you said, and DS got a slew of n-Space's impressive Call of Duty games while PSP was one-and-done. One could think of it as the exception that proved the rule of how 3rd Parties saw these two gaming portables...)
)

 

[Punished Miku]

There's barely even western portable games. 98% all Japanese games.

Wii also had tons of third party support, it was just mostly shovelware. Wii has 200+ more games than PS3. Things are just different.

 

[stranno]

)

Playstation Portable had two Medal of Honor entries tho, still the largest portable multiplayer games ever seen i think (32 players per match).

n-Space games on DS are really cool (Call of Duty, Goldeneye, Blood Stone, Star Wars, etc). Gamecube's Geist is my favourite game from them tho.

 

[EightBit Man]

The PlayStation Portable may have sold around half the units, but in my book it was the superior system in both quality and library. One only has to look at the Ridge Racer games the respective systems received.

Not saying the Nintendo DS was bad; it had some really great games, but it never came even close to SONY's effort.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Best handheld generation, IMO. Nintendo and Sony were both giving it their best and the result is two legendary systems.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

(Not much to add; I like the post a lot, particularly since I enjoyed both sides of this Portable War, with both companies doing some of their best work and 3rd Parties active in a way I wish we had seen in the 3DS/Vita era.
Just a small correction: there was actually a PSP Call of Duty, a CoD 3 spin-off called Roads to Victory by Amaze Ent.
Despite the demographics and marketing, though, CoD found an audience on Nintendo DS rather than Sony's PSP, as you said, and DS got a slew of n-Space's impressive Call of Duty games while PSP was one-and-done. One could think of it as the exception that proved the rule of how 3rd Parties saw these two gaming portables...)
)

Medal of Honor was really fun, it was amazing for a portable system back then.

I just wanted to add to the OP that Rockstar supported the PSP well. GTA:LCS and VCS were outstanding, they had The Warriors, Midnight Club, Manhunt 2 and even the former DS exclusive Chinatown Wars.
DS was a one and done effort basically compared to the PSP offering

 

[Synless]

Medal of Honor was really fun, it was amazing for a portable system back then.

I just wanted to add to the OP that Rockstar supported the PSP well. GTA:LCS and VCS were outstanding, they had The Warriors, Midnight Club, Manhunt 2 and even the former DS exclusive Chinatown Wars.
DS was a one and done effort basically compared to the PSP offering

GTA on PSP was amazing compared to Chinatown wars. The game even had local MP which was amazing at the time. I’m still amazed they pulled of GTA on psp.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

The DS felt kind of like experimental games that either worked but didn't have the full experience or were so experimental it had the wow factor before you realised it had one gimmick.

The PSP had more traditional games but was bottlenecked by some of the design choices. Third parties weren't nearly as dedicated to the Hardware as they were with the DS but you can find plenty of spin off gems on the PSP whereas the more popular franchises went on the DS but were changed drastically.

Looking back now I preferred Nintendo games and a few RPGs on the DS but wasn't a big fan of the touch screen dominant gameplay and I loved the PSPs more traditional yet bitesized approach but I felt that the library was shortened thanks to poor sales due to piracy on the system (despite it being amazing for homebrew).

Fell in love with Falcom thanks to the PSP offerings they provided and appreciate what the DS did for touch screen gaming but I felt at odds with the generation because I am not a huge fan of the dual screen make up and at the same time I felt that the PSP was trying to market itself more than just a games console which perhaps diluted some of the appeal of the console as a pure handheld.

The PSP didn't have as many Japanese games that were translated for the West whereas the DS offerings were too diluted for casual play (there are some true hardcore gaming experiences on there but you have to really look into the library to find them). If the Japanese developers had more confidence in the market, we would have had way more games to play, which is why I am happy to hear that people are trying to translate some of these great games via patches!

The Vita feels like the best of both worlds with touch and traditional controls and mostly focused on games that I enjoy from both libraries.

Great games for both consoles though when it comes down to it that I don't think we will see again going into the next generation such as:

Trails in the Sky, Kirby's Mass Attack, 7th Dragon (DS and PSP varients), God Eater, Gurumin, Phantasy Star 0 and Portable 1/2/Infinity and Dual Screen Pokemon (which I felt did work in its favour).

Still looking into these libraries myself as there is always something to find!!!

 

[synchronicity]

The DSiXL is my favorite handheld ever - by far. (I have two of them.) Such an amazing library, and the hardware itself is just incredibly well built and designed.

It's funny because my two favorite electronic devices I've ever owned are really underpowered, simple tech. (DSiXL and kindle) Just goes to show that - at least for me - power is not that important. I generally don't get that googly-eyed about hardware - I'm more about content, but with the DSixl (and kindle), I just have this weird, lustful attachment.

 

[Vawn]

Wii also had tons of third party support, it was just mostly shovelware.

That doesn't count. That's a meaningful as console wars listing how many total games come to the console each week/month. If the game is not worth playing by literally anyone, then we don't count it.

 

[hunthunt]

I dont think anyone can discuss that 2004 - 2010 was the Golden age for portable gaming, both Sony and Nintendo did a fantastic job in both atracting third party and in first pary support.

I always loved more the Psp because having in my first years of work back in 2005 full fledged portable versions of stuff like God of War, GTA, Metal Gear Solid and Burnout was something that even thinking back sounds crazy as fuck.

 

[Jubenhimer]

The DSiXL is my favorite handheld ever - by far. (I have two of them.) Such an amazing library, and the hardware itself is just incredibly well built and designed.

It's funny because my two favorite electronic devices I've ever owned are really underpowered, simple tech. (DSiXL and kindle) Just goes to show that - at least for me - power is not that important. I generally don't get that googly-eyed about hardware - I'm more about content, but with the DSixl (and kindle), I just have this weird, lustful attachment.

I feel like this is the most important distinction here. The PSP may have been a powerhouse back in the day, but the DS proved to be good enough for most types of games at the time for a lot of people. It just goes to show you that you don't need the most cutting edge specs to draw in an audience, even today.

 

[synchronicity]

I feel like this is the most important distinction here. The PSP may have been a powerhouse back in the day, but the DS proved to be good enough for most types of games at the time for a lot of people. It just goes to show you that you don't need the most cutting edge specs to draw in an audience, even today.

Nintendo know what they're doing. (Except when they named the Wii U )

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

No? The 3DS and Vita were. Oh right nobody bought a Vita in the US.

 

[EverydayBeast]

PSP had a lot of substance and father time shows both have aged, sure Nintendo is still holding down the handheld market granted noone else is entered in it, but PSP had way more impact on the industry than any Nintendo handheld EVER.

 

[Jubenhimer]

PSP had a lot of substance and father time shows both have aged, sure Nintendo is still holding down the handheld market granted noone else is entered in it, but PSP had way more impact on the industry than any Nintendo handheld EVER.

I wouldn't say that. The DS opened gaming up to a much wider audience, many of whom never touched a controller before in their life. It's touch interface and software like Brain Age helped it cater to a whole new market, and single handedly birthed the modern mobile game market.

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

I wouldn't say that. The DS opened gaming up to a much wider audience, many of whom never touched a controller before in their life. It's touch interface and software like Brain Age helped it cater to a whole new market, and single handedly birthed the modern mobile game market.

 

[HE1NZ]

PSP was sort of like GBA 2. A home console experience in the pocket. With a bunch of shortcomings. It could never answer the question why should these games be gimped into portable and not be full experiences on a home console. Vita made the same mistake and this time it was fatal.

DS on other hand the first true handheld with gameplay style unique to handheld. There's no point in most of these games on a home console. Which is why DS is my favorite portable system ever.

 

[synchronicity]

PSP had way more impact on the industry than any Nintendo handheld EVER.

 

[Alexios]

Rivaled? PSP was a great little system, I had one and didn't have a DS, but I was also miffed the first time I got a Sony machine for myself it ended up not doing so great compared to their console dominance. In retrospect I should have expected that but maybe I just wasn't so into the console industry to understand what kind of a behemoth Nintendo can be. I had my fair share of fun games for it but in the end it seemed that Monster Hunter kept the system afloat. As of 2017 DS had sold nearly one billion games (yeah with these crazy numbers a ~51.49 million difference is nearly).

I fell for the hype with the PSP. It did pretty great, it's a wonder it got that "close" but in the end it didn't really touch DS on any level, in sales, software sales, or volume of games, no matter how much you may have preferred this or that thing it did. DS probably helped it by growing the market even.

These stats also show how full of shit the people claiming most only had the Wii/DS as casuals who just bought one game or a couple and only from Nintendo, were. Great, GREAT attach rates are on display for both and as great as first party software did do, that wasn't all they got to sell either.

 

[Jubenhimer]

These stats also show how full of shit the people claiming people only had the Wii/DS as casuals and just bought one game or a couple and only from Nintendo were just full of shit, great, GREAT attach rates on them all and as great as first party software did, that wasn't all that got to sell either.

Yeah I never got this narrative either. The idea that Wii Owners only bought it for Wii Sports and played nothing else on it, despite providing no evidence for that being true aside from vague anecdotal evidence is one thing I will never understand about the gaming media or community.

 

[Deleted member 738976]

Yeah I never got this narrative either. The idea that Wii Owners only bought it for Wii Sports and played nothing else on it, despite providing no evidence for that being true aside from vague anecdotal evidence is one thing I will never understand about the gaming media or community.

Sore loser talk plain and simple.

 

[JordanN]

3DS and Vita were much more closer.
I think it was the first time we saw 3rd party games lead on the 3DS and were later up ported to the Vita and not vice versa.

But when you compare DS and PSP, the DS had the giant Casual market backing it.

 

[Orenji Neko]

Loved both personally. For me it was like this:

DS: Nintendo games, Castlevania games, RPGs, Pokemon with my kids, writing "look behind you" to people I'd randomly see in pictochat and....well that's it because I never saw them.

PSP: Mega Man Powered UP (God...I love it and made so many levels), Maverick Hunter X, Phantasy Star Portable, Outrun.

Lots of good stuff on both, at least in my opinion.

 

[Davey Cakes]

Such an interesting era in gaming. It really made people think if they really enjoyed modern console-like games on the go or if they preferred mobile-friendly presentation overall.

The DS foreshadowed the mobile gaming takeover from a mile away but many didn’t see it.

 

[yet_another_alt]

PSP had two Star Wars Battlefronts. One of which lets you transition from ground to space battles within the same match. Compare that to modern Battlefronts and weep.