Happy Birthday: PSP Turns Five
5 years ago when the PSP launched onto the market, it was quite an ambitious device. There hadn’t yet been an “all-in-one” on-the-go gaming device that would play all of your media too. Fast forward to today, where many of those key features the PSP ushered in are available in nearly every gadget on the market. Today marks 5 years since Sony released the PlayStation Portable. Happy Birthday PSP.
Over the years, the PSP has adapted and evolved, becoming a much better device than what was first released back in March of 2005. The PSP has been redesigned a handful of times, slimming down more and more with each time until the recent removal of the UMD drive in the PSP Go model. The system has also received many firmware updates, which bring new and useful features to the handheld.
Since its release Sony’s portable PlayStation has sold over 60 Million units worldwide with over 17 Million of them being in the US alone. There has been over 520 UMD software titles (300 of which are available on the PlayStation Network) made available for the system from over 245 developers. Some of the biggest names in gaming have graced the platform including Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, and God of War.
Back in 2007, just 2 years into the PSP’s lifecycle, a firmware update brought access to the PlayStation Store adding to the value packed into the PSP by offering over 20,000 pieces of digital content.
Though the system is not all fairy tales with happy endings. From day one, piracy has been a major issue for both Sony and publishers looking to make a return on their games. It’s likely that the system would have been even more of a success had publishers not been scared away from releasing titles on the PSP by software pirates and hackers.
The system has had its ups and downs, but overall the past 5 years of owning a PSP have been a great experience.
Tell us some of your most memorable PSP moments in the comments below…
8 Responses to “Happy Birthday: PSP Turns Five”
my memorable moments with the psp would be playing Crisis Core (or as l ike to call it a remake of FF7). Zack’s ending made me tear up. Playing GoW on a handheld is awesome, fighting Charon & Persphone. Also spending 100 & 100′s of hours playing Monster on ad hoc party
I got to get a PSP again. I regret selling mine back in the day.
sweet cake. never had a psp. Tried out my friend’s with one of the PoP games, and all I remember thinking was “wheres the second joystick thingy?”.
Happy Birthday, PSP! I’m not going to lie, I thought you were useless as hardware, but then I bit the bullet and bought a PSP-2000 in a last minute decision with Patapon. One of the best decisions I ever made! Here’s to hoping that people realize how awesome you actually are when the PSP2 rolls out.
i just want a piece of that cake!
Wtf? today’s my birthday! omg my birthday is the same as the psp’s !
Wow, someone is a bad father. You missed PSP’s birthday by 4 months.
December 12, 2004. Sure it was released in the US in March, but when you think about it, should AUS be able to call September 2005 the PSP’s birthday (that’s almost a year after initial release)
happy bday lol