PSP

Summary

PSP Lineup

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) was released March 24, 2005 and marked Sony's first entry into the handheld gaming market.

In late 2007, the PSP was upgraded with a new hardware variation known by the model number PSP-2000.

On August 20, 2008, at the Leipzig Games Convention, Sony announced a new revision of the PSP, the PSP-3000.

On June 2, 2009, at E3 in Los Angeles, Sony announced the PSPgo, which removed the UMD drive and instead was the first dedicated gaming handheld to be completely dependent on downloaded software.

In August, 2011, at Gamescom in Cologne, Sony announced the budget priced PSP-E1000 for PAL regions, which removed network support. This would be the last revision of the PSP.

Limited Editions

Following the release of the PSP-2000, Sony announced a limited edition Star Wars themed version of the PSP that would come with the game Battlefront Renegade Squadron. It was the first of several bundle packages, and Sony has since released a silver Daxter PSP bundled with the game of the same title and a memory stick, a God of War: Chains of Olympus red PSP, a blue Madden 09 PSP, and a Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP bundle. After the release of the Ratchet & Clank bundle, Sony released the new PSP 3000 Core pack.

PSP-2000 (PSP Slim)

PSP 1000 vs. Slim

During the E3 conference of 2007, Sony released several details about their first PSP hardware revision. The model number is PSP-2000, then commonly referred to as the PSP Slim. The Slim replaced the original (or ''phat'') PSP on the market and had significant hardware changes. The amount of RAM in the PSP-2000 was doubled from 32 megabytes to 64 megabytes. (This added RAM was primarily used to decrease UMD load times, and to improve the memory limit when browsing web pages.) The Slim's battery was manufactured to supply the same amount of playtime as the Phat battery while attaining a smaller form factor. The WLAN switch was moved to the top of the device, and the UMD drive was replaced with a slimmer version that requires the user to open it manually, as opposed to the spring-loaded version in the PSP-1000 that was activated by pressing a switch.

The PSP Slim was released in September of 2007.

PSP-3000 (PSP Brite)

PSP Slim vs. PSP-3000

Sony officially announced the PSP-3000 at the 2008 Leipzig Games Convention. Improvements over the PSP-2000 included a built in mic between the volume buttons and the PSP logo in the center, a new PS button that replaces the Home button, and an improved LCD screen. The new screen features twice the color gamut, five times the contrast ratio, and a response time that is twice as fast as the PSP-2000's LCD screen. It also features a new anti-reflective technology for improved viewing of the LCD screen in outdoor areas.

The PSP-3000 was released in Japan, Europe and North America in October as part of the Rachet and Clank: Size Matters Entertainment Pack . Europe saw the PSP-3000 released for €199 on October 15. North America was able to get the PSP-3000 in one bundle on October 14 for $199.99. This pack contains a silver PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, the movie National Treasure 2 on UMD, a PlayStation Network voucher for Echochrome and a 1GB ProDUO Memory Stick.

A second bundle, named the PSP-3000 Core Pack was originally announced to be available in early November 2008. This bundle was later delayed near the end of October. The Bundle was later released in mid December 2008. The bundle includes only a Piano Black PSP-3000.

PSPgo

PSP GO in the Flesh

During E3 2009, Sony revealed the PSPgo. (or PSP Go) Leaked before their actual press conference in a mistakenly released issue of Qore, the PSPgo was one of the ''worst kept secrets'' in the gaming industry. Rumours persist that Sony was the catalyst of this leak in order to gain media coverage before the deluge of games announced at E3. This iteration of the handheld features a digital-only software catalogue, and is incompatible with the previously released UMD games, as it lacks a UMD drive. Other than the lack of a UMD drive, it is tehnically the same system in a different size and form factor.

PSPgo features a slide-out game pad, a 3.8 inch screen, and is 23 percent lighter than the PSP-3000. The device also has supports Bluetooth connection to a PS3 Dualshock controller, and has 16GB of internal flash memory to store games downloaded from the PSN store. The storage space is expandable by the use of Sony's proprietary M2 Memory Stick, unlike the other models of PSP, which use the Memory Stick ProDUO. The PSPgo existed alongside the PSP-3000 when it launched on October 1st, 2009, and unlike other PSP revisions was not considered a replacement for existing models. The device proved unpopular with many gamers for various reasons, most notably the fact that not all PSP titles are available to be purchased from the PSN store. Other issues included high prices of games (at least typically), slow download speeds, games being listed incorrectly in PSN store, and lack of quality control of PSN versions of previously UMD-only games, which may includes glitches not found in their UMD counterparts.

PSP-E1000

PSP-E1000

Announced at Gamescom 2011, the PSP-E1000 is a budget-priced PSP available only in PAL territories. Reversing course from the PSPgo, the PSP-E1000 includes a UMD drive, but does not include network capabilities. Slightly larger and heavier than the PSP-3000, the PSP-E1000 has a charcoal black plastic matte body similar to the slim PS3 redesign. The layout is fairly similar to the original PSP, however it moves the system buttons to a single row below the screen which mimics touch control by being flush with the case itself. To save on costs, the PSP-E1000 removed WiFi as well as stereo sound speakers, opting for no network access and monaural audio. Despite the lack of wireless connectivity, PSN content could still be accessed by connecting the PSP-E1000 to a PC via USB and using Sony's Media Go software, or by connecting to a PS3. The PSP-E100 launched at a cost of €99.99 or £85.

Launch Titles

Japanese launch titles

• Armored Core: Formula Front
• Mahjong Fight
• Minna no Golf Portable
• Lumines
• Ridge Racers
• Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower

North American Launch Titles

• Ape Escape: On the Loose
• Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower
• Dynasty Warriors
• Gretzky NHL
• Lumines
• Metal Gear Acid
• NBA
• Need for Speed Underground: Rivals
• NFL Street 2 Unleashed
• Ridge Racer
• Spider-Man 2
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour
• Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix
• Twisted Metal: Head-On
• Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
• Wipeout Pure
• World Tour Soccer
• Dead to Rights Reckoning
• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
• MVP Baseball
• Smart Bomb
• Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee
• NBA Street Showdown
• Rengoku: Tower of Purgatory
• FIFA Soccer
• ATV Offroad Fury : Blazin' Trails
• MLB
• Mercury

European Launch Titles

• Ape Academy
• Archer Maclean's Mercury
• Colin McRae Rally 2005
• Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower
• Dynasty Warriors
• Everybody's Golf Portable
• Fired Up
• Kao Challengers
• Lumines
• MediEvil Resurrection
• Metal Gear Acid
• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
• Need for Speed Underground: Rivals
• Ridge Racer
• Smart Bomb
• Spider-Man 2
• TOCA Race Driver 2
• Tony Hawks Underground 2 Remix
• Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
• Virtua Tennis: World Tour
• Wipeout Pure
• World Snooker Championship 2005
• World Tour Soccer: Challenge Edition
• World Rally Championship

UMD

'Universal Media Discs' are used by the PSP for games and movies. They are small circular discs in a plastic casing. All PSP models except the PSPgo support this format, and various games include firmware updates for the PSP on their disc.

Some movies available on UMD are now included on Blu-Ray releases. The user can download a PSP version of the film from their PS3 to the PSP or PSPgo. Some examples are Godzilla and The Ugly Truth.

Copies of Lumines featured an older firmware update which many users bought and installed to unlock their PSP. At the time this firmware update left the PSP easier to unlock. More recent firmware updates make this harder to do.

Media Functionality

The PSP uses Sony Memory Stick Duos to store media. The PSP plays most MP3 and AVC music files. The PSP's Video playback options are far more limitied, however. The PSP cannot play many movie files without using a file converter. The PSP can play movie downloads and rentals from the Playstation Video store. The PSP can also view photos and allows the user to change their wallpaper using their downloaded pictures. Videos, games, and music can all be managed on the PSP either manually, or by using Media GO, which is a program that manages PSP media in a way similar to iTunes.

Digital Comics

Digital Comics

PlayStation Portable owners gained a new personal electronic reading room when Marvel Comics released many of its flagship titles in PlayStation online stores. Other publishers such as DC, Dark Horse, and many indie publishers, also released comics to Playstation Store. However, virtually no manga was released, at least not outsite of Japan.

Marvel announced that gamers in the United States, and other select countries will have access to classic, select and digital-first comics through the PlayStation reader -- from Marvel and possibly others as well.

"PSP's new digital reader offers an unprecedented consumer experience that will extend the world of Marvel from print pages into the hands of fans around the world. Many are excited to be part of this launch," said Ira Rubenstein, executive vice president, global digital media group, Marvel Entertainment in an official press release. This news follows the Japanese availability of comics on the PSP gaming console, but this is a very good sign for fans of mobile reading. With Nintendo already making comics available to North American fans, sequential art seems to finally have all of its next-gen hand-held gaming consoles covered - including smart phones.

The original version of the PSP comics reader had no way to delete comics. However, users can manually download an update for the comics reader. (by highlighting the comics reader from the PSP's cross media bar and then viewing details) This update added the functionality to delete individual comics.

Among the many comics available for purchase in the PSN US store, over 80 free comics are also offered.

Controls for PSP digital comics reader:

• Directional pad left/right - go to next (or previous) panel, word balloon, or other point of interest. Each comic is individually programmed to take you through the pages in order and zoom in to the appropriate level for each panel, and zooming in on text if necessary -- Ideally, the entire comic can be read this way, using only the directional pad. When you read the end of a page and press right on the directional pad, you are automatically taken to the next page.
• Directional pad up/down - Jump to next/previous page of a comic.
• 3D Analog Nub - Scroll around the page. (This can be used to read a comic 'manually'.)
• L/R buttons - Zoom in/out.
• O button - Exit the comic.

Specifications