| The PlayStation Portable (officially
abbreviated PSP) is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by
Sony Computer Entertainment. Development of the console was first announced
during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on May 11, 2004 at a Sony press conference
before E3 2004. The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004,
in North America on March 24, 2005, and in the PAL region on September
1, 2005.
The PlayStation Portable is the first
handheld video game console to use an optical disc format, Universal Media
Disc (UMD), as its primary storage media. Other distinguishing features
of the console include its large viewing screen, robust multi-media capabilities,
and connectivity with the PlayStation 3, other PSPs, and the Internet.
Despite the console's superior computing
power and multimedia capabilities, sales have (with cyclical exceptions)
lagged behind its main competitor, the Nintendo DS. Despite this, the console
is the most successful competitor to Nintendo's portable gaming dominance,
and the most successful non-Nintendo handheld gaming system ever sold.
After the release of a remodeled, slimmer, and lighter version of the PlayStation
Portable, appropriately titled Slim and Lite, in early September 2007,
sales quadrupled in the United Kingdom the following week and increased
by nearly 200% in North America for the month of October. |
