The Reasons Why The PSP Was Ahead Of Its Time

The gaming industry has seen some brilliant consoles in its time from the standout PlayStation 2 to the Nintendo Gameboy. The gaming industry has also seen some interesting devices such as the Sega 32x and the handheld Virtual Boy; not to sound like a forex platform comparison.

However, the Sony PSP, much like the Sega Dreamcast, was ahead of its time and was incredibly popular with fans across the world.

History of the PSP

The PSP was a handheld gaming device released in 2005 by Sony and was the first experience that the company had with handheld gaming. They were going head to head with Nintendo, obviously, for the brilliant Nintendo DS. However, that did not stop the PSP from being incredibly popular amongst fans of the gaming world.

In the US, 17 million units were sold of the PSP. In Europe 12 million were sold and on top of that 3.2 million were sold in the UK. Worldwide the PSP was a marketed success with 76.3 million sales worldwide. Everybody wanted to get their hands on the PSP.

Was the PSP a failure though?

With huge sales, the PSP did lose out on the battle against the Nintendo DS. Although the device used UMD games, it was limited and never took off after the PSP. It did struggle with battery life because it was running high-end graphics.

However, the failure should be down Sony not on the PSP device itself because even though there were some excellent games released for the PSP some of the big names were missing and Sony missed out on creating a fully rounded Sony experience by linking the devices together.

What put it ahead of its time?

One thing was the design. It just looked cool. With the rounded edges and futuristic sleek black design, it looked cool and fit in your hands superbly. People wanted it as a fashion icon as well as a gaming device. The screen was huge and made it easy to game in the dark.

One of the best things the PSP had to offer was the graphics. Despite Sony only working with PS2 graphics, the PS3 would not be released until 2006 in Japan and America (2007 in Europe), the PSP graphics were a huge step up from anything that Nintendo had previously created. It did really feel like you were playing your PS2 in your hands.

It was way ahead of any mobile gaming that was being released at the time as well. With mobile gaming on the rise with phones improving and Nokia making the N-Gage in 2003, Sony held their own with the PSP.

PS Vita

In 2012, the Vita replaced the PSP but all those strong foundations that the PSP had laid were built on. The Vita, although not as big as the PSP, was a commercial success. Many people still play the Vita today and you can still buy one for around £100.

Will Sony release another handheld device?

It is hard to say if they would be it has been nearly 20 years since the PSP was released and 10 since the Vita was as well. With the PS5 the flagship at the moment it could be Nintendo and Sony going head to head once again and who would not love to see the Mario vs Crash Bandicoot marketing once again!