I'm gonna cheat a little one and mention the PSP GO (take it as an honorable mention because it uses software to work lol).
The damn thing was meant to be used with an online connection to get games, updates and DLCs but people failed to see the appeal to it (mostly because of the poor infrastructure we used to have) people decided that UMD was the better option and guess which of those thrived.
That's downplaying how Sony tried forcing everyone to switch, once they'd already bought UMDs. They just could not stop themselves from fucking over their own customers. Buy a PSP! It needs Sony's special memory cards. No, extra-special ones, not the kind your Sony digital cameras use. Upgrade your PSP! Fuck you, buy new memory cards. Yeah it's the same shape, but it's special-er, you peasant. Upgrade your PSP again! And throw out all your games, because we didn't include a slot this time! It's all on the memory card, and of course you have to buy a new one, from us, specifically for this single gizmo, priced like it's made out of gold recovered from deep-water shipwrecks.
If they'd just launched with forced internet connectivity it might be a different story. God knows the OG PSP never spent long without getting leashed to a wall, so yet another game could forcibly install new firmware, once your battery reached exactly 100.0% charge.
I'm gonna cheat a little one and mention the PSP GO (take it as an honorable mention because it uses software to work lol).
The damn thing was meant to be used with an online connection to get games, updates and DLCs but people failed to see the appeal to it (mostly because of the poor infrastructure we used to have) people decided that UMD was the better option and guess which of those thrived.
That's downplaying how Sony tried forcing everyone to switch, once they'd already bought UMDs. They just could not stop themselves from fucking over their own customers. Buy a PSP! It needs Sony's special memory cards. No, extra-special ones, not the kind your Sony digital cameras use. Upgrade your PSP! Fuck you, buy new memory cards. Yeah it's the same shape, but it's special-er, you peasant. Upgrade your PSP again! And throw out all your games, because we didn't include a slot this time! It's all on the memory card, and of course you have to buy a new one, from us, specifically for this single gizmo, priced like it's made out of gold recovered from deep-water shipwrecks.
If they'd just launched with forced internet connectivity it might be a different story. God knows the OG PSP never spent long without getting leashed to a wall, so yet another game could forcibly install new firmware, once your battery reached exactly 100.0% charge.
But thrived though?
I mean, we have the PS5 digital edition and the Steam Deck, I think the format became very popular.