"You Bastards": Former Sony Head Recalls Nintendo's Reaction to PlayStation Portable

The Big N didn't expect anyone to start claiming the portable market.

Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden recalled the launch of the PlayStation Portable and discussed how serious a threat Nintendo considered Sony's first major foray into the portable console market.

In an interview with The Expansion Pass, Layden recounted that after the first demonstration of the PSP in the mid-2000s, he received a message from an acquaintance who worked at Nintendo. It consisted of just two words: “You bastards.” According to Layden, he took the reaction with humor, but it accurately reflected Nintendo's attitude towards the emergence of a serious competitor.

At that time, Nintendo almost completely dominated the portable device market. Game Boy and Game Boy Advance sold hundreds of millions of units, and other companies hardly dared to challenge the Japanese giant. Even the unusual design of the Nintendo DS with two screens and touch controls initially seemed like a risky experiment.

Ultimately, Nintendo achieved enormous success by targeting a broader and more casual audience. DS sales exceeded 154 million units, while the PSP sold approximately 76 million units. Despite lagging behind the DS by almost twofold, the PSP remains the most successful portable console among non-Nintendo devices.

At the same time, Sony faced a serious problem — piracy. According to Layden, the PSP's operating system was quickly cracked, after which users were able to install unlicensed games relatively easily.

According to Layden, Monster Hunter largely saved the situation. The game's cooperative component made players in Japan buy PSPs for their friends to go hunting together. Thus, the game became one of the main factors in the console's popularity in the Japanese market.