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[Bullet Club]

For over 20 years the portable video game market was dominated entirely by Nintendo, with almost no real competition in sight. That is, until Sony releases the powerhouse PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Accumulating massive market share, and then creating their own handheld; the PSP. We take a deep dive into the history of PSP. From its initial hype and release, to its steady decline with piracy and the DS leading the way.

 

[Codes 208]

The psp is a good contender for one of my favorite handhelds. It had good support, comfortable GBA-esque portability factor and a huge library.

Here’s hoping we see a PSP3

 

[sublimit]

I liked my PSPs due its great library with a big variety of different genres but i always hated its analogue button for games that required it. Vita's analogue sticks were a dream come true for me.

 

[MagnesG]

It was pirated as hell. No one wants to buy a umd disc then, it is shit. No one wants to buy a game on PSP PSN either, cause piracy was already rampant at that time.

Handhelds are truly pirates' console of choice for whatever weird reason it is. Passion is high for it, for every portable, including the Switch.

 

[Virex]

Fall? The PSP sold well. Where did it fall?

 

[Bullet Club]

Fall? The PSP sold well. Where did it fall?

Overall it was successful but the PSP Go & PSP Street didn't do well, so that was a bit of a fall.

 

[stranno]

Fall? The PSP sold well. Where did it fall?

Click bait i think. It was a success. And It was pirated pretty much since the beginning.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

I am glad it can used to digitise your Physical Games....I wish all concoles did thst to be honest.

Love my PSP to bits regardless of the hacking scene.

 

[sublimit]

Love my PSP to bits regardless of the hacking scene.

Same and i never hacked it just like i have never hacked any of my old systems (i like to keep them "pure" )

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Same and i never hacked it just like i have never hacked any of my old systems (i like to keep them "pure" )

I hacked mine many years later just to see if I could.

Don't regret it one bit as I can play any game that I have ripped from my UMDs (I don't pirate) and the screenshot feature is a godsend.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

PSP was/is one of Sony's best platforms, probably better than PS1 and PS3. So many amazing titles.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

The PSP was an amazing little piece of hardware - way ahead of its time in many ways (remote gaming, "console level" games on the go, and pretty good multimedia capabilities).

Fall? The PSP sold well. Where did it fall?

It didn't do nearly as well as the Nintendo DS in terms of sales, games sales were also impacted by rampant piracy.... so software sales were not as good as you would expect from the number of units sold.

It does not negate how great it did in many ways (the DS never even tempted me - even a hacked one is of no interest to me).

 

[EverydayBeast]

It's easy to hate on the PSP, you could say SONY didn't invest time but the PSP was a BIG DEAL, say what you want but we got GTA, Metal Gear etc. on the road. Portable gaming wasn't SONY's primary focus so you're right it doesn't feel like a "fall" at all.

 

[hunthunt]

Best portable gaming device ever.

 

[Codes 208]

The PSP was an amazing little piece of hardware - way ahead of its time in many ways (remote gaming, "console level" games on the go, and pretty good multimedia capabilities).


It didn't do nearly as well as the Nintendo DS in terms of sales, games sales were also impacted by rampant piracy.... so software sales were not as good as you would expect from the number of units sold.

It does not negate how great it did in many ways (the DS never even tempted me - even a hacked one is of no interest to me).

It didn’t do well against its direct competitor is barely a fault. The system was the eighth best selling system for years with around 82mil sales, something that not even the 3ds or psv could pass.

On top of that, a difference of around 50% in sales isn’t that wide of of gap when you compare it to something like ps4 vs Xbox one which is a gap of around 140% (comparing ~40 to ~100)

 

[Evilms]

By far, the best handheld ever created.

 

[MagnesG]

It didn’t do well against its direct competitor is barely a fault. The system was the eighth best selling system for years with around 82mil sales, something that not even the 3ds or psv could pass.

On top of that, a difference of around 50% in sales isn’t that wide of of gap when you compare it to something like ps4 vs Xbox one which is a gap of around 140% (comparing ~40 to ~100)

It's a fault because PSP got released before the golden age of smartphones, while 3ds survived and psv being okay during that time. Their potentials can also be subjective when other circumstances are factored in. There's nothing wrong with it still, imo the decision to use UMD create the side effect of physical buyers absolutely hating on buying and carrying that thing around, thus weak sales and of course piracy. Also comparing to vs consoles with huge price differences and economy conditions on a different timeline is nothing noteworthy, it is a wildly different scenario.

With that said, it's the only system I would feel guilty of pirating its games. A portable that introduced me to Monster Hunter series, FF tactics, Patapon series, Kingdom Hearts - from BBS, Falcom games Ys + Kiseki, Persona, Metal Gear Solid - from Peace Walker and much more. Also the home to FF Crisis Core and FF Type-0 (best Action FF IMO).

 

[Ian Henry]

Ya'll showing my boy Ryan some love.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

It didn’t do well against its direct competitor is barely a fault. The system was the eighth best selling system for years with around 82mil sales, something that not even the 3ds or psv could pass.

On top of that, a difference of around 50% in sales isn’t that wide of of gap when you compare it to something like ps4 vs Xbox one which is a gap of around 140% (comparing ~40 to ~100)

I don't completely disagree - you'll see that the video has a pretty positive note all in all, even for the sales numbers (I don't think anyone could disparage the system as a whole) but in any market where a company does not reach the expectations it will certainly not consider that things turned out as good as they could have been.

But I still think that the PSP did not do as well as it could have done sales wise, when compared to the Nintendo DS (it shows what was the potential sales a portable gaming system had in this time frame).

Obviously the PR side of the company will always show up with a smile.

 

[Manus]

The PSP GO still remains as one of my all time favorite handhelds. It does emulation so well!

 

[Codes 208]

I don't completely disagree - you'll see that the video has a pretty positive note all in all, even for the sales numbers (I don't think anyone could disparage the system as a whole) but in any market where a company does not reach the expectations it will certainly not consider that things turned out as good as they could have been.

But I still think that the PSP did not do as well as it could have done sales wise, when compared to the Nintendo DS (it shows what was the potential sales a portable gaming system had in this time frame).

Obviously the PR side of the company will always show up with a smile.

The biggest difference between the DS and psp I would argue is mainly how the psp was Sony putting their foot in the water while Nintendo saw two (or three of you consider the gbc a successor to the gb) systems ahead of the DS, they knew exactly what they were doing and had a big library to build off of (especially with its BC.) The psp launched just ahead of the ps3 launch with a library similar (but not identical) to the psx and ps2. So for sony’s first handheld they should be proud that the psp was still a moderate success.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same about the vita.

 

[Bolivar687]

I got it with the PSP Go, which seems to be around when it started falling off in sales. The portability on that thing was insane and it's one of my favorite handhelds. Peace Walker, Tactics Ogre, and Valkyria Chronicles II put it way above the DS in my personal rankings.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I bought it 3 days after release. Got Wipeout and Ridge Racer. Cant deny, it felt as if i was holding an iphone X today. Then you got the DS which next to it in every way looked like an outdated Russian made bulky VCR. I enjoyed hacking it, was a great community...making it into a GPS machine. The vita technically was great but it never blew me away.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Man, the PSP had not one, not two, but three great GTA games! I also always found it interesting that certain elements of Sony's handheld were used in the PS3 such as the XMB.

Great video, Bullet Club. Keep them coming.

 

[Sqorin Hammerfarf]

It's a shame Metal Gear Acid games never made it to other systems (not even digital, so you could play them on the Vita). They are pretty much the only PSP games that I actively miss. I would also like to see Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 (especially 3) make a comeback as well.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

MotorStorm: Arctic Edge was pretty good too. They ported it to the PS2 but I thought it was pretty good MotorStorm game. I even thought they would port it to the PS Vita or PS3 but we got RC instead which I don't think anyone asked for.

 

[SpiceRacz]

It was an amazing piece of tech for the time. I bought mine the day it came out off a guy on Craigslist. He was only asking $100 and he had a backpack full of them (probably stolen). I immediately drove to Game Crazy afterwards and bought Lumines. Good times.

 

[EDMIX]

Such an amazing portable. Own so many gems on it. Lumines, Loco Roco, Patapon, Kingdom Hearts BBS, God Of War CoO and GoS, GTA, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, all the PS1 ports were really great on portable too, Final Fantasies, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid etc

Being able to out it to a TV was also a cool option and very ahead of its time (Seeing how Switch is doing the same feature)