Sony Ceases PSP Shipments

Sony will no longer ship PlayStation Portable systems from the end of this month onwards, the company has announced. 

The system, which sold 80 units, was first released in December 2004 in Japan before being launched in the West the following year. Despite a wide spread consensus that the PSP was a commerical failure, it performed well against the Nintendo DS, the best selling handheld console of all time with 153 million units sold. 

Indeed, the PSP broke hardware launch records in the UK with 185,000 sold in its first week, a milestone which would only be beaten in November of last year by the PS4. 

Nevertheless, a comparatively poor battery life coupled with an expensive proprietary disc format, UMDs, held back the system as Sony was unable to convince consumers to make use of the discs.

The company attempted to rectify this problem with the 2008 release of the download only PSP Go but the device was seen as too expensive with access to only a limited and overpriced game store. A lack of must-have exclusive games also held back the PSP which is perhaps why, despite selling far more poorly, its successor the PS Vita is generally perceived to be a far greater success. 

Sony's handheld legacy is perhaps not what it might have been but the PSP was not the failure many seem to think it was and the Vita continues to have a small but dedicated fanbase.