Table of Contents
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 5. The Final
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 1. PSP-1000
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 2. PSP-2000
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 3. PSP-3000
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 4. PSP GO
The history of PlayStation Portable. Part 5. The Final
The lifecycle of portable consoles is approximately 5-10 years. The PSP family underwent significant changes three times. Not to mention the many small changes in the motherboards: from strengthening anti-piracy protection to the addition of heat-dissipating plates on the chips.
After Sony announced in April 2011 that the PSP GO would no longer be produced, it seemed that the lifecycle of this family was coming to an end. Especially considering that in early 2011, Sony announced the PlayStation Vita console, rumors about which had been circulating for more than two years.
It was even more surprising when, in 2011, right after the announcement of the PlayStation Vita, Sony announced the release of a new console – the PlayStation E1000 Street.
This happened extremely unexpectedly.
Console Announcement
On August 18, 2011, the Gamescom Cologne exhibition was supposed to start.
And as usual, the day before, there was a press day.
Jim Ryan (President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) took the stage and started talking about the PlayStation Vita.
Then he talked a little about the games and unexpectedly moved on to announcing the release of a new PSP.
The announcement lasted only a minute.
And it would have been a very strange decision if not for the price. It was only 99 euros.
At the exhibition itself, you could hold this console in your hands.
But how did they manage to make it so cheap? Let's figure it out.
Cheapness
According to Sony, the main goal of developing this console was to improve the price-to-quality ratio. As Jim Ryan later explained, they wanted to make sure not to cross the psychological barrier of 100 euros. But at what cost?
In short, they definitely went overboard. Because for a long 4 years, Sony developed and supported an online store. Then they released the PSP GO console, which doesn't have a UMD drive, and... they removed Wi-Fi from the PSP Street.
The changes didn't end there; stereo sound was also cut. The PSP Street has only one speaker.
Physical buttons were removed: brightness adjustment (now it was changed in the console settings) and instant mute.
Notice the speaker (four holes on the top left) and the buttons (now there are fewer of them).
The UMD drive cover now takes up the entire back of the console.
Because of this, the battery became built-in, which, of course, is a downside.
The microphone and the TV cable output, which was also intended for the console remote control, disappeared. The screen also changed, no longer being as vibrant as the PSP-3000's. However, it was still good.
There was one plus. Those who don't like glossy cases could rejoice – the console was made of matte plastic.
This is the strange device that resulted. Moreover, I suspect that it was made exclusively for Eastern Europe. At least in Russia, the PSP Street started selling earlier than in Western Europe.
Was the console well received? On the internet, no. Users were puzzled by such strange changes and called the PSP Street a "castrated version." For an extra 50 euros, you could buy a full-fledged PSP-3000, which didn't have all these drawbacks.
But the internet is the internet, and real life put everything in its place. At one point, the PSP Street simply sold out in stores. Price won.
Let's be honest, buying a child a PSP GO slider for 250 euros is overkill. At least because breaking a console for 99 euros is not as painful as breaking one for 250 euros.
Epilogue
This concludes the series of articles on the history of the PSP, and it's time to summarize.
The PlayStation Portable family sold just over 80 million units.
If you compare the PSP and the Nintendo DS, which sold 154 million units, it might seem like a failure. But that's not entirely true.
First of all, 80 million is still a very respectable, I would even say quite impressive, result. Which no competitor to Nintendo has been able to repeat so far.
Secondly, Sony not only released a portable console but also significantly influenced Nintendo. The change in concept from Project Iris to the Nintendo DS was largely due to that Sony presentation in 2003.
And most importantly – this console will forever remain in our hearts. At that time, unlike Nintendo, Sony fully supported and developed the market in Russia. Many hits were translated into Russian, and all major games were released here as well. The consoles themselves started selling as part of a unified launch, and in some cases even earlier than in Europe.
Unfortunately, it's unknown how many PSPs and Nintendo DSs were sold in Russia, but in my opinion, the PSP is much more loved here than the Nintendo DS.
But all this doesn't negate the fact that both the PSP and the Nintendo DS were very cool consoles worth playing.
