PlayStation Portable Go
Variant of PlayStation Portable
- Manufacturer
- Sony
- Production
- 2009–2011
- Generation
- Gen 7
- Type
- Handheld
- Launch price
- $249
- Units sold
- 1.5M
About PlayStation Portable Go
The PlayStation Portable (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.
Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).
Library & collector facts
1,958licensed games
- North America: 1,100
- Japan: 1,500
- PAL: 1,300
What's different from PlayStation Portable
- Sliding form factor (screen slides up to reveal controls)
- 16GB internal flash storage
- Bluetooth (for headsets and DualShock 3 pairing via PS3)
- Smaller and lighter (~158g vs. ~189g PSP-3000)
- M2 (Memory Stick Micro) slot for storage expansion
- UMD disc drive — downloadable games only via PlayStation Store
- Compatibility with the entire UMD library users already owned (no UMD-to-digital exchange program in most regions)
- Standard Memory Stick PRO Duo slot (replaced by M2 Micro)
- price: $169 PSP-3000 → $249 PSP Go launch (more expensive despite removed features)
- form factor: Slate PSP → sliding clamshell-like compact
- storage media: UMD discs + Memory Stick PRO Duo → 16GB internal + M2 Micro only
Lineage
Pricing
Launch price (2009)
- 🇺🇸 USD
- $249
Launch titles & exclusives
Wipeout Pure · Lumines · Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix · Need for Speed Underground Rivals · Twisted Metal: Head-On · Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade · Ridge Racer · Spider-Man 2 · Tiger Woods PGA Tour · MediEvil Resurrection
None standard (various retailer bundles included Spider-Man 2 UMD movie)
God of War: Chains of Olympus / Ghost of Sparta · Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII · Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions · Persona 3 Portable · Monster Hunter Freedom Unite / Portable 3rd · Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker / Portable Ops · Patapon trilogy · LocoRoco trilogy · Daxter · Lumines · Jeanne d'Arc · Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together · Valkyria Chronicles II / III · The 3rd Birthday · Dissidia Final Fantasy · Ys Seven / Oath in Felghana
Retro City Rampage DX (2016, JP minis) was among the last; commercial production ended in 2014
Metal Slug Anthology UMD (~$100+); Hellboy: The Science of Evil sealed; many UMD movies (the failed UMD video format) now command odd collector values; sealed launch Value Packs
Hardware specs
- Cpu
- 222–333 MHz MIPS32 R4000-based
- Gpu
- Custom Rendering Engine + Surface Engine GPU, 2.6 GFLOPS
- Ram
- 32 Megabyte, MB (PSP-1000); 64 MB (2000, 3000, Go, E1000) (system RAM), 2 MB (video RAM)
- Sound
- Stereo speakers, mono speaker (PSP-E1000), 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Os
- PlayStation Portable system software
Hardware revisions
- PSP-1000 (Phat)(2004)
original launch hardware, infrared port, full UMD drive, ~4-hour battery
⚠ many criticized 'square button doesn't always register' early QC defect (Sony issued statements)
- PSP-2000 (Slim & Lite)(2007)
33% lighter, video output to TV, faster RAM
- PSP-3000(2008)
built-in microphone, improved screen with less ghosting
- PSP Go (PSP-N1000)(2009)
slide-out form factor, no UMD drive (digital-only), commercial failure
- PSP Street / E1000(2011)
budget EU model, no WiFi
Launch colorways & special editions
- Gran Turismo Edition Red (2010)
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines Bundle
- Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core Red (JP)
- Star Trek Edition
- Resistance: Retribution Bundle
- Hannah Montana Lilac (EU)
Modding scene
- Difficulty
- soft-mod
- Custom firmware
- Custom Firmware (M33 — Dark Alex, 6.61 PRO-C, ChickHEN); the original 'softmod everywhere' platform
Reception & legacy
Strong — first serious threat to Nintendo's handheld dominance; praised for graphics (near-PS2 quality) and multimedia (music, video, photos)
Removal of UMD drive was catastrophic for adoption — UMD owners felt abandoned, Sony's promised UMD-to-digital trade-in program was scrapped before launch in NA/EU; higher price than feature-richer PSP-3000 baffled buyers; commercial flop (~6M units estimated) led Sony to discontinue early
Sold ~80M units, the most successful non-Nintendo handheld; defined the 'console-quality handheld' marketing position later inherited by Vita and Steam Deck; remains beloved for its emulation capabilities and its uniquely strong Japanese RPG library
References
More from Sony
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