The Storied History of the PSP

During the Electronic Entertainment Expo of 2003 or popularly known as E3, technical manufacturer and digital giant, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced its foray in the hand-held gaming entertainment in the form of the PlayStation Portable, or aptly called the PSP. On May 24, 2004, at a Sony press conference prior to E3 2004, Sony Corporation officially unveiled its portable wonder.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s CEO at the time, Ken Kutaragi dubbed the PSP as "The twenty first century Walkman". The then-CEO boasted this line in reference to the machine's many technical capabilities and digital flexibility and multi-functionality. The world was left in awe and this started the long wait for many gaming enthusiasts for its release. Finally Sony Computer Entertainment released the PSP on December 12, 2004, March 24, 2005 and September 1, 2005 in Japan, North America and PAL regions respectively. The gaming industry rejoiced.

The PSP was the first device to employ UMD's or Universal Media Disk primarily for gaming and video content. The UMD also screamed portability of highest quality as the PSP console itself, which proved to be very beneficial for the gamer on-the-go. Following a successful console launch, including 24 launch titles made by several big-name game developers, Sony quickly took second place on the "units sold" charts following the also-successful Nintendo DS. Nevertheless, the PSP was the most successful hand-held console outside of Nintendo, which prior to its release, dominated by the Game Boy and the Nintendo DS.

In September 2007, Sony released a rehashed version dubbed as the "PSP Slim & Lite", which was a slimmer and better version as the original. It cured the many technical issues that plagued the first version (battery life, etc.) and also came with an additional built-in microphone. In 2009, Sony released the newest edition called PSP Go. More improvements were made over the previous versions specifically the looks and the design concept.

Did you know that you can legally download videos and movies on your Sony PSP console? Find out everything about it from our free PSP Movie Downloads guide!

Learn how to connect you PSP to the Internet from our PSP WiFi guide!