The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 4. PSP GO

Console Development

PSP GO is the first and only version of the console that was radically changed. It removed the UMD drive (where game discs were inserted) and changed the design to a slider.

Let's start with the UMD drive. The PSP is like a sandwich, where the screen comes first, followed by the motherboard, and finally the UMD drive. One might think that it was removed only to minimize the size of the console. But that's not the case at all.

Back in 2007, when Sony started working on this version of the console, they wanted to make a purely network-based PSP model. That is, to remove the drive not to reduce the console, but to change the way games were sold. This was related to the natural development of the internet. Users were increasingly buying games and other programs online rather than on physical media.

And then on June 29, 2007, the iPhone was released, which changed everything.

At first, the console giants were not worried at all. So what if a phone was released? But then something happened that radically changed both Apple and the console market. Steve Jobs announced the launch of the AppStore – the iPhone app store.

And on July 11, 2008, the app store opened. As of July 14, 2008, users had downloaded apps more than ten million times. By the beginning of 2009, there were already over 500 million downloads, and by April 2009, a billion.

And, of course, this could not but affect portable consoles. Nintendo started working on the DSi console, and Sony, in turn, only confirmed their plans, deciding to release the PSP GO without a UMD drive.

The second change was the new form factor - the slider. And this innovation was made solely to reduce the size of the console.

If you look at the PSP-3000, it might seem that it can only be reduced by reducing the screen.

Essentially, only the screen and controls are on the front of the console. But the wide screen is almost the main feature of the console. If it were reduced, the PSP would lose its main advantage.

In 2005, Nintendo reduced the screen on the Game Boy Micro, and the console completely failed. Many complained that playing on a screen smaller than a matchbox was simply impossible.

Therefore, Sony decided not to radically change the screen. It was reduced from 4.3 inches (10.9 cm) to 3.8 inches (9.7 cm). And the controls were moved to the sliding part of the slider.

This led to another problem – the height of the buttons. It may not be very clear from the photos, but they are literally one and a half millimeters high. Kazuhiro Yanasé, one of the PSP developers, said that they made several prototypes of the PSP GO with buttons of different heights. Moreover, the height varied within one millimeter. Then they distributed them to the company's departments and collected feedback.

The motherboard was also changed. Firstly, it was completely redesigned, and secondly, the "Lepton" chip, which was responsible for the UMD drive, disappeared from it. Since the PSP GO was the first console with built-in memory, an additional chip appeared on the board that allowed storing 16 gigabytes of information. Why exactly this amount of memory? The PSP GO developers wanted you to be able to carry 10 games with you. Considering that the average PSP game "weighs" about 1 – 1.5 gigabytes, that's how it turned out.

But Sony didn't stop there. The mini USB port disappeared from the PSP GO. Instead, there was now a single charging/connection port. Because of this, all old accessories do not work with the PSP GO.

The memory card slot also changed. If before a Memory Stick was inserted into the console, now it was a Memory Stick Micro (M2).

All this led to the PSP GO being 50% smaller and 43% lighter than the original PSP fat. And 35% smaller and 16% lighter than the PSP-3000.

For the first time in the PSP series, Bluetooth was added, which was intended for connecting headphones, accessories, and controllers.

They also added a smart sleep function. You could play a game, minimize it, go to the browser, and return to it.

There were no other changes. Naoya Matsui was asked why this happened? Couldn't they add a touch screen or motion sensors? But, according to him, the main goal was not to make the PSP GO a separate line, but to ensure that new games could be launched on older versions of the PSP.

Console Announcement

As usual, the announcement of the new PSP took place at a press conference before the E3 exhibition.

On June 2, 2009, Kazuo Hirai appeared on stage and presented the console.

He also talked about the new features of the console (which we discussed above).

At the E3 exhibition itself, a large exposition was presented where you could try out the console.

And after that, a small riot happened on the internet. By 2009, the PSP console series had been on sale for over four years. Many people had extensive collections of UMD discs, so everyone started asking what would happen to them?

Sony had to improvise, and they said they would come up with something. And they even had a plan ready. The idea was that you wouldn't transfer the game directly from the UMD disc to the PSP GO (for example, by connecting two consoles), but Sony itself would check your UMD disc, and then the game would be downloaded from the internet.

For a while, users calmed down, but on October 5, 2009, Sony announced that they wouldn't be able to do anything by the time sales started. There were legal issues they couldn't resolve. Instead, users could download one game from the store for free.

And a month later, they simply canceled this idea. The main motivation was the notorious copyright issues. Sony couldn't just add someone else's game to the store at their own discretion, as it would violate copyright. And for some reason, game developers weren't eager to give such permission, even though such a transfer would have been very simple.

And, of course, all this affected the release of the console, which we will now discuss.

Console Release

On November 1, 2009, the PSP GO finally went on sale. It cost 26,800 yen, which was 7,000 yen more than the PSP-3000 at the start of sales and 10,000 yen more than the PSP-3000 at the time of the PSP GO release.

But there was no excitement, even though Sony prepared very well and set up test stands in stores, as well as invited various media personalities.

In front of the Yodobashi Camera Multimedia store, 30 minutes before the start of sales, a queue of 10 people formed.

And by the time the store opened, there were already 30 people.

Not very impressive.

Many came just to look at the console. Or maybe not at the console, but at the girls.

On the first day, 28,275 consoles were sold. Compare this to the launch of the PSP-2000, which sold 130,000 units.

Although, according to sellers, the PSP GO sold even better than they expected, it couldn't be called a success. Let's see why this happened.

Failure

The first and perhaps the main reason was the high price. In America, the PSP GO was sold for $250. At the same time, the PSP-3000 could be bought for $170, and the extended kit cost $200. But did you get a console for $250 that was better than the previous ones? No. The lack of a UMD drive scared away PSP fans who already had a lot of discs. That is, the main buyers should have been people who did not have a PSP before. But Sony's best customers are the current PSP owners. They don't need to explain anything, they knew all the advantages of this series of consoles well.

The second reason was the price of games in the online store. They cost the same as the games on discs. There were no sales. And the games that migrated to the PSP from the App Store cost 3-4 times more!

And the third reason – the lack of the best PSP games in the online store. For example, you couldn't buy Crisis Core. And some major releases after the PSP GO launch were simply sold only on UMD discs, for example, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep.

Also, all the accessories that had to be bought again. Memory card, charger, cables, cases – none of this fit the PSP GO. To connect old accessories like the camera or GPS, you had to buy the PSP-N440 adapter, which also looked just awful. It was a frame that was put on the PSP GO (increasing its size), and a cable was sticking out from below, which had to be connected to the console.

Initially, Apple considered the PSP GO as a competitor to the iPod Touch, but very soon they said that these platforms stopped competing. And it's clear why, because the PSP GO was a complete failure for Sony.

In April 2011, Sony announced that they were discontinuing sales of the PSP GO. And this despite the fact that the PSP-3000 was actively sold until 2014, and after-sales service ended only in 2019.

Epilogue

As with many consoles, the PSP GO revealed itself after it was hacked. You stopped depending on the high prices in the online store and could download any games on it, not just the ones that were available. You got an excellent portable console that you could put in your pocket. After all, the PSP GO had the best screen and built-in memory.

So if earlier its sales were not promoted by Sony itself, now it makes sense to take a closer look at it, especially if you love miniature devices.

Read the continuation in the article: The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 5. Final.