If you ask me, the fact that it requires a PS5 makes it a non starter. I was really hoping for a standalone handheld, maybe not as powerful as the PS5, but something to compete with the Switch and Steam Deck. Like the PSP was a less powerful PS2 but still a standalone handheld providing a console like experience. Or even a phone handheld, the N-Gage was ahead of its time!
I’d argue it’s for most PS5 owners. PSP/PSVita were not popular as standalone systems (as much as I loved them). With the arrival of steam decks and the switch, mobile/streaming gaming is getting closer to a console experience. Project Q seems to fill that void for Sony pretty well.
The psp is the tenth best selling console of all time, and half the list above it is just Sony consoles which have dominated 3 of the 4 previous generations, it was plenty popular. The vita though…yeah no.
I think the PS Vita tried to overreach, and priced itself out of relevance. I feel like I had a lot more fun with my PSP than my Vita, even ignoring the cost, and I think that’s because it had weird features that developers didn’t know how to use properly, and Sony seemed to incentivize devs to use them for any game that was made for it.
I think the vita was fine at the price it was, the problem was the $129 64gb memory cards when you could throw a 64gb SD card in your 3ds for like $20 and just how quickly Sony completely gave up on supporting it. Past the first year or so Sony basically washed their hands entirely of the system.