PSP, or PlayStation Portable (Japanese: プレイステーションポータブル) is a handheld game console launched by Sony Computer Entertainment and the first portable device in the PlayStation series, which was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, North America on March 24, 2005, and PAL on September 1, 2005.
In 2011, Sony launched the PlayStation Vita series (PSV for short), which does not support UMD discs but is compatible with digital PSP games.
Before birth
Many people have always thought that Sony's involvement in the game industry was accidental, but in fact, Sony has long coveted this fat. In 1988, Ken Kutaragi of Sony's home appliance department proposed a plan to develop a portable game console, this console named GAME MAN is similar to GAME BOY in terms of design ideas, the body is a vertical design, using low-power black and white liquid crystal, Kutaragi Ken has considered using cutting-edge infrared technology for communication battles, but due to the first launch of GAME BOY swept the market, this console was put into the cold palace.
Officially announced
On May 13, 2003, SCE unveiled the portable game console PSP for the first time at the regular press conference on May 11, 2003 at the E3 Show, and President Nagataki called it "the WALKMAN of the 21st century".
The day after the PSP was officially announced, Nintendo's stock plummeted, and many were convinced that Sony would swallow Nintendo's last territory. Nintendo remained unusually calm, with high-level figures such as Satoshi Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto saying on various occasions that they were secretly developing a "heterogeneous console" that subverted ideas. At E3 the following year, Sony and Nintendo exhibited their respective portable game consoles at the same show, and it was discovered that the biggest selling point of Nintendo's console, known as the NDS, was the dual screen and touch screen.
At 3:30 p.m. on September 21, 2004, SCE announced the postponement of the PlayStation Business Briefing 2004 grand future strategy presentation scheduled to be held at the PALACE Hotel in Tokyo, and the meeting was not held until 17 minutes later.
According to later disclosures, SCE was originally going to announce the specific details of the PSP price and release date, but for some reason it was changed urgently. Nintendo's sniping completely disrupted Sony's original plans, and the agency announced the official release date and price of the NDS an hour before the start of the SCE strategy conference. Nintendo's aggressive offensive forced SCE to adjust its strategic deployment, drastically reducing console pricing and bringing forward the release date to the end of the year and the beginning of the year.
On December 12, 2004, the PSP was officially released in Japan. In March 2005, the PSP went on sale in North America at an initial price of around $250. Although the pricing is higher than in Japan, it has been a great success. 500,000 units were sold in 48 hours.
When it was released in North America in 2005, the PSP was only available in a regular version. A black console, in-line headphones, 32MB Memory Stick, cloth bag, and wristband. For players, these pieces of equipment are also compensation for the high selling price of the PSP.
Rise
Due to the booming sales of PSPs, the price of PSPs is a bit more expensive. In the North American market, a deluxe limited edition priced at $299 has appeared, which is about 2,400 yuan. Compared to the previous Deluxe Edition, the Deluxe Limited Edition replaces the 32MB Memory Stick with 1GB and an additional USB cable.
In November 2005, Sony released version 2.6 of the PSP firmware. This brings three new features to the PSP: RSS Subscription Podcast, WMA Music Playback Feature, DRM Video Playback. Although PSPs can control the playback of videos through DRM, the video download service is only available in Japan. To emphasize that "the online playback capabilities of the PSP are outstanding", Sony introduced the LocationFree feature. Players can play videos remotely through this feature, but expensive add-ons and demanding network requirements disappoint a lot of people.
In March 2006, Sony announced its New Year's resolutions. It includes a lot of new content: accessories (camera and GPS), game and audio downloads, Flash support, Chinese support, and more. At the same time, to commemorate the first anniversary of the PSP's arrival in North America, Sony has finally started to cut prices. The PSP for the regular version was reduced from $250 to $199, or about 1,600 yuan. It's just a console, and there are no accessories. A month later, firmware version 2.7 was launched, and the PSP officially supported the Flash format.
At E3 2006, Sony released its first collection of PSP games. The criteria for selection were simple: a game that had been released in the last nine months should sell 250,000 copies.
Shipments are stopped
On June 4, 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment announced that it would discontinue sales of the PSP handheld game console in Japan at the end of the month. Prior to this, PSP handhelds had been discontinued in other regions such as Europe and the United States. In other words, the PSP, the classic game console that was launched in 2004 and sold more than 76 million units worldwide, has completed its 10-year mission and retired from the stage of history.
Like the PS2, the PSP handheld, which was born in 2004, is one of the most successful products in the history of Sony's game consoles. In 2014, the veteran was about to complete his mission and officially retire.
In April 2014, Sony stopped shipping all PSP models except for "Piano Black", and there was an opinion at the time that it would be a precursor to the official handover of Sony's new and old handhelds.
Sure enough, Sony recently officially announced that it would completely stop shipping PSP handheld phones in the Japanese market from June, and officially entered the PS Vita era.
To this end, the official promotion between PSP and PS Vita has also been launched, and players can enjoy a discount of up to 3,000 yen (4,000 yen for student parties) on the purchase of PS Vita by presenting the receipt for PSP purchase.
At the same time, the official has also expanded the PS Vita family lineup, adding two new colors of black/red and black/blue PlayStation VITA 2000 handheld and two bundles of "PS Vita Super Value Wi-Fi Gift Pack" and "PS Vita Super Value 3G/Wi-Fi Gift Pack".
According to the Japanese retail market data, in 2014, the PSP still maintained a weekly sales of about 3,000 units in the country, and due to the hot sales of the PlayStation 4 and the cross-level linkage function, the sales of the PlayStation VITA handheld console began to pick up.
The store is closed
In March 2021, Sony announced that it would close PSP's PSN store. On July 2 of the same year, the PSN store officially stopped supporting PSPs.