PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable[a] (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, and is the first handheld installment in the PlayStation line of consoles. As a seventh generation console, the PSP competed with the Nintendo DS.
Not to be confused with PlayStation Portal.Also known as
- PSP
2004–2014
82.52 million[5]
UMD (except PSP Go), digital distribution (except PSP-E1000)
Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo
PSP Go: Memory Stick Micro (M2) and 16 GB flash memory
4.3-inch (110 mm), 480 × 272 pixels with 24-bit color, 30:17 widescreen TFT LCD
PSP Go: 3.8 in (97 mm)
other models: 4.3 in (110 mm)
Stereo speakers, mono speaker (PSP-E1000), microphone (PSP-3000, PSP Go), 3.5 mm headphone jack
PSP-1000:
2.9 in (74 mm) (h)
6.7 in (170 mm) (w)
0.91 in (23 mm) (d)
PSP-2000/3000:
2.8 in (71 mm) (h)
6.7 in (169 mm) (w)
0.75 in (19 mm) (d)
PSP Go (PSP-N1000):
2.7 in (69 mm) (h)
5.0 in (128 mm) (w)
0.65 in (16.5 mm) (d)
PSP Street (PSP-E1000):
2.9 in (73 mm) (h)
6.8 in (172 mm) (w)
0.85 in (21.5 mm) (d)
PSP-1000:
9.9 ounces (280 g)
PSP-2000/3000:
6.7 ounces (189 g)
PSP Go (PSP-N1000):
5.6 ounces (158 g)
PSP Street (PSP-E1000):
7.9 ounces (223 g)
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (7.6 million) (as of October 2015)
Development of the PSP was announced during E3 2003, and the console was unveiled at a Sony press conference on May 11, 2004. The system was the most powerful portable console at the time of its introduction, and was the first viable competitor to Nintendo's handheld consoles after many challengers such as Nokia's N-Gage had failed. The PSP's advanced graphics capabilities made it a popular mobile entertainment device, which could connect to the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, any computer with a USB interface, other PSP systems, and the Internet. The PSP also had a vast array of multimedia features such as video playback, audio playback, and has been considered a portable media player as well.[8][9] The PSP is the only handheld console to use an optical disc format—in this case, Universal Media Disc (UMD)—as its primary storage medium; both games and movies have been released on the format.
The PSP was received positively by critics, and sold over 80 million units during its ten-year lifetime. Several models of the console were released, before the PSP line was succeeded by the PlayStation Vita, released in Japan in 2011 and worldwide a year later. The Vita has backward compatibility with PSP games that were released on the PlayStation Network through the PlayStation Store, which became the main method of purchasing PSP games after Sony shut down access to the store from the PSP on March 31, 2016. Hardware shipments of the PSP ended worldwide in 2014;[10] production of UMDs ended when the last Japanese factory producing them closed in late 2016.
Marketing[edit]
In late 2005, Sony said it had hired graffiti artists to spray-paint advertisements for the PSP in seven major U.S. cities, including New York City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. According to Sony, it was paying businesses and building owners for the right to spray-paint their walls.[229] A year later, Sony ran a poster campaign in England; a poster bearing the slogan "Take a running jump here" was removed from a Manchester Piccadilly station tram platform due to concerns it might encourage suicide.[230]
Later in 2006, news of a billboard advertisement released in the Netherlands depicting a white woman holding a black woman by the jaw, saying "PlayStation Portable White is coming", spread. Two similar advertisements existed; one showed the two women facing each other on equal footing in fighting stances, the other showed the black woman in a dominant position on top of the white woman. Sony's stated purpose was to contrast the white and black versions of the PSP but the advertisements were interpreted as being racially charged. These advertisements were never released in the rest of the world and were withdrawn from the Netherlands after the controversy.[231] The advertisement attracted international press coverage; Engadget said Sony may have hoped to "capitalize on a PR firestorm".[232]
Sony came under scrutiny online in December 2006 for a guerrilla marketing campaign in which advertisers posed as young bloggers who desperately wanted a PSP. The site was created by advertising firm Zipatoni.[233]
At E3 2010, Sony created a fictional 12-year-old character that was used by Sony Computer Entertainment America as part of their Step Your Game Up advertising campaign for the PlayStation Portable and PSPgo consoles in North America, as part of the PlayStation 3's "It Only Does Everything" advertising campaign.[234] The character, Marcus Rivers, was played by child-actor Bobb'e J. Thompson, and started as the publicist of the PlayStation Portable division of Sony, responding to "Dear PSP" queries.[235] Marcus was additionally used to advertise games for the system.[236] The character was eventually discontinued, with the "Dear PSP" campaign continuing without them.[237]