While it may be hard to believe at a time when any and everybody is making gaming handhelds, there was a time when just one company dominated the portable business. Barring a few solid attempts from Neo Geo and Sega in the ‘90s, Nintendo essentially cornered the market right from its inception thanks to brand recognition, impeccable game design, and the foresight to focus on battery life over fidelity.
After 15 years of the Game Boy ruling portable gaming, however, a worthy challenger in Sony finally stepped up to compete with Nintendo’s juggernaut. Few were better positioned to do so, and on paper, it couldn’t have been a better time. Sony had already bullied its way into the console market, with its first console outselling its contemporaries and the second well on its way to becoming the best-selling of all time. And with Nintendo ditching the Game Boy brand for its Dual Screen experiment, entering into the portable ring was a no-brainer.
