The PSP-1000 was released on March 24, 2005 to the portable gaming loving public of the USA. That was just over 3 years ago. Back then we were watching UMD’s and playing Ridge Racer on our big fat black shiny PSP’s and it was great (and still is)!
Now 3 years later, we can enjoy it’s hotter slim multi-colored younger sister, the PSP-2000 with a heap of new and cool gadgets.
It’s been a long and interesting ride since the very beginnings of the PSP. It may be three years old, but it’s been nearly five years since we first heard of it and eagerly waited its release. Announced, but not shown at E3 2003, Sony promised an ambitious handheld that promised to be the “Walkman of the future”.
The high resolution wide screen, coupled with a UMD drive made it seem like an ideal portable entertainment machine. And it wasn’t only for games, Sony was quick to point out.
So has the PSP lived up to it’s reputation? As a PSP fan and by the fact that it’s still selling and is good enough to have a “part 2″ with the production and popularity of the PSP slim makes it easy to say, YES, the PSP is the ideal portable entertainment machine.
I wish you a happy birthday PSP and I’m looking forward to many more to come!
Opposing emotions of surprise and confusion hit us when we heard that Sony’s newly redesigned PSP ’slim’ or PSP-2000 had shipped 1 million units in Japan in just about two months.
Hang on! Wasn’t the DS everyone’s favorite, especially in Japan? Then there’s the fact that DS sales (in Japan) might actually be slowly declining, allowing the slightly thinner and sleeker PSP to almost catch up.
So we did a little research into the portable gaming space between the new PSP slim vs. the sassy DS and we came up with 8 reasons why the PSP could sneak up and overtake the selling demon machine that is Nintendo’s DS.
• 1 Million new PSPs were sold in Japan in about two months. This first point got us curious as to why the PSP was doing so well. Was it because of the redesign? …which lead to 250k sales in four days, or, has it actually become time (thanks to various factors listed below) for the PSP to catch up?…. if not surpass, the Nintendo DS? This point alone wouldn’t make for a strong argument, but we’ve found seven more.
• Sales figures for PSPs are rising, while DS Lite’s figures dropping (in Japan). According to the Japanese sales charts Kotaku loves to drool over, the last four weeks for the DS looked like this: 76243, 78552, 78854, 76069. The last four weeks for the PSP looked like this: 59792, 59714, 58964, 65609.
DS sales seems to have plateaued (the slight dip probably means nothing), whereas the PSP sales got a nice spike this past week. Has everyone over there finished the new Zelda game already?
• PSP actually has more and better games to play. According to metacritic, the site that aggregates major game reviews, the PSP has 53 games that are rated 80 (out of 100) or higher, whereas the DS only has 44.
Although the DS has three games that score higher than any of the PSP’s (Mario Kart DS, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), on the whole it seems the PSP gets you better bang for your buck in the game selection and game play area.
• The PSP has better PS3 integration compared with the DS and Wii. The recent upgrades to both the PS3 and PSP firmware allow for much, much better compatibility between the two than compared with the DS and the Wii. Remotely starting up your PS3 may be a neat gimmick, but they’ve also got remote play, which lets you access videos, music, and even games wirelessly through your PSP whether you’re at home or outdoors at a Wi-Fi access point.
There’s been talk of using the DS as a Wii controller in many games, but the most we’ve seen is transferring Pokemon to your Wii or using the Wii to download DS demos—a function that the PS3/PSP also has.
• The PSP has better media capabilities. Ignoring the failed UMD movie initiative, you can still use the PSP’s giant screen to play back movies off of your memory stick. There’s also picture and slideshow viewing, music playback, as well as remote play off your PS3, which lets you stream content from home.
• The PSP has better add-ons. Some of these are only in Japan, but the add-on camera, GPS, TV Tuner, and LocationFree TV give you four things to do with your PSP when you’re not playing games.
• The PSP actually sold just as well as the PS2 in the first year. We dislike to bring up sales numbers again as proof that the PSP is picking up steam over the DS system, but as J Allard famously found out, the PSP sold just as well as the PS2, hitting 10 million units within a 12-month span (give or take).
• Sony’s planning a PSP Phone! Look out Apple. Whether the PSP phone will actually support PSP games is uncertain and possibly unlikely, but the mere fact that there’s a PSP phone that supports some of the PSP’s functions and has some PSP connectivity will be enough to give both platforms a boost.
So does this late domination of the PSP mean that the DS is doomed? Certainly not. If you look at our gaming distribution between DS time and PSP time this past Thanksgiving holiday, the time spent on the DS dwarfed the time spent on the PSP about 1,000 to 1. And the DS just sold 653,000 units over Thanksgiving.
We simply think this means the PSP’s time to shine has come! It is finally stepping out from behind the DS’s shadow as the uglier, fatter, less fun cousin and showing itself off as the full-featured portable media powerhouse of entertainment that it really is. It’s great to be a PSP owner and only hope it continues to improve!
Squidoo.com is a great place to write about what you like and show the world how much you know.
I have made a “lens” over at Squidoo all about PSP games and other cool PSP stuff. I’ve also listed info about this site on the lens and also about the free PSP guide I have on offer.
Not too long ago Sony made a few changes to its PSP portable gaming system. Today we are going to look at the new slim PSP and compare it to the old PSP to see just what is different about the two systems. If you are thinking about getting a new PSP slim, read on for details on the new slim PSP and some comparisons to the old PSP.
Features & Specifications
The new PSP has the same basic specifications as the old PSP. Games and movies are still stored on UMD discs. You can even pop your Memory Stick out of your old PSP if you are upgrading and play from your previous saved games without any issues. Size wise the new PSP is a bit slimmer and by a bit, I mean a tiny bit.
The new PSP slim is 0.7-inch thick whereas the old PSP was 0.9-inch thick.
The weight of the new system is 6.7 ounces as compared to the weight of the old system at 9.2 ounces.
Sony doubled the amount of onboard memory with the slim PSP from the original 32MB to 54MB in the slim PSP.
The screen is the same on both machines and the WiFi adapter is the same as well.
The slim PSP gains the ability to use a component out cable to play games on a larger screen.
Gaming wise the two systems are identical.
Other than the slight reduction in thickness, the bulk of the weight savings comes thanks to the smaller, thinner battery pack.
The new PSP uses a 1200mAh battery while the old PSP used an 1800mAh battery. While the battery is smaller, the new PSP uses less power so game play time is rated the same by Sony at 3-6 hours.
Gaming
On the game titles I played, I noticed a slight improvement in load times for games and levels, but nothing to write home about.
External changes to the new PSP include the loss of the UMD eject button. You now simply pry the UMD bay door open with your fingernail. The WiFi button now sites where the eject button is on the old PSP.The body color is still black, though you can get special edition PSP bundles that come in different colors.
The old PSP was glossy black on the front and a matte black on the back, which I liked. The new PSP has the glossy black on both the front and back. Not only does this attract more fingerprints and scuffs than the matte finish, the glossy new PSP offers less grip when playing with sweaty palms.
The reminder of the PSP features from the original PSP carry over. One new addition is the ability to charge via USB with eh new PSP, but it takes around 5 hours so most of us will stick to the AC adapter. In the end, if you still have a functional PSP you really don’t need the new slim PSP.
In real world gameplay, I hardly noticed the weight difference and the improvement in load time of games like Burnout, Test Drive Unlimited and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was minimal.
If you simply must play your PSP games on a bigger screen, it’s a worthwhile update and if you are new to the PSP looking to get your first device, it is a no brainer.
I bought this card for only 60 bucks at a local game shop after selling some of my old games. All I can say is that this memory card rocks. I can store all my music, movies, and photos all in one syst …
If you simply must play your PSP games on a bigger screen, it’s a worthwhile update and if you are new to the PSP looking to get your first device, it is a no brainer.