Sony (NYSE:SNE) was once a major player in handheld gaming consoles. Its first handheld, the PSP (PlayStation Portable), sold 81 million units between 2004 and 2014. But its successor, the PS Vita, only sold 16 million units between its launch in late 2011 and its discontinuation earlier this year.
The PS Vita failed due to a lack of compelling titles, weak marketing efforts, its use of pricey proprietary memory cards, and tough competition from Nintendo's (OTC:NTDOY) 3DS, which used weaker hardware but dazzled gamers with its dual screens and stereoscopic 3D effects.
Why Sony isn't interested in challenging Nintendo
For now, Sony seems more interested in next-gen gaming platforms, like cloud gaming and virtual reality, than handheld gaming consoles.
That isn't surprising, for three reasons: Smartphones disrupted the handheld console market, its main rival Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) isn't interested in handheld games, and Nintendo consistently dominated that niche since it launched the original Game Boy 30 years ago.
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