Ultimately Sony succeeded in reaching a target audience that differed greatly from Nintendo’s. Sony faced the tall task of making home console franchises work on a handheld device. These games hadn’t been developed for a handheld system. The best PSP games are comprised of titles such as God of War and Ratchet and Clank. Sony applied a similar technique by adding some of their greatest franchises to the PSP’s catalogue. Nintendo had been doing incredibly well due to the immense success of their exclusive titles. Sony pushed the boundaries and developed a new standard for handheld systems. Many of the best PSP games display incredible advancement in graphics for a handheld system. The PSP thrived by offering the same high-quality hardware synonymous with the Sony brand in a portable package. Of course, both Sony and Nintendo have both continually thrived, with the latter devising the Nintendo Switch has a logical step in the console-handheld hybrid direction. The PSP was Sony’s direct response to Nintendo’s success and competed entirely with the Nintendo DS released during the same year. At the time, Nintendo’s Gameboy dominated the handheld space.
It hit the North American market in 2005. The PlayStation Portable was Sony’s first foray into the world of handheld consoles.