Since 1989, when it launched the first Game Boy, Nintendo has dominated the handheld gaming market and focused on a demographic of five to 17 year old males. Over the past 15 years Game Boy has been challenged by Neo Geo (Neo Geo Pocket), Sega (Game Gear and Nomad), and more recently Nokia (N-Gage). None of these offerings have been successful at stealing market share from Nintendo who has continued to improve its offerings with newer more powerful systems to challenge competitors as well as backwards compatibility for its' previously released titles. On March 24th 2005 Sony introduced the PSP (PlayStation Portable) gaming device aimed at the growing demographic of 18 to 34 year old gamers. The PSP is still relatively new as of this report but already there has been a shift in handheld gaming as over 500,000 PSP units were sold within the first two days of the US launch. Sony has been incredibly successful working with third party software designers in gaining support for its previous gaming platforms (the PlayStation 2) which has put pressure on Nintendo and decreased their market share for the Gamecube system. When Sony entered the console gaming market with its PlayStation 2 in the United States on October 26, 2000 the pressure was so intense between Nintendo, Sega and Sony that Sega was forced to exit the market. Just as Sony was able to enter the console gaming market in the early 2000's and rise to the top, dominating Nintendo and forcing Sega out, the PSP is currently threatening Nintendo in the handheld gaming market .
Faced with huge competition from the PSP in the 18 to 34 year old demographic, primary and secondary data indicates that Nintendo should reinforce itself as the primary offering for young adults age 5 to 17. Nintendo has continued to expand into the entertainment industry outside of gaming to increase its intellectual property with the PoKeMoN franchise and strong ties to Nickelodeon and Disney.