It had a long run, but the PSP — the handheld gaming device Sony introduced 10 years ago — is powering down.
It Plays Games and Music and Movies and Pretty Soon You Won’t Be Able to Buy It: Sony Says Goodbye to the PSP
Pretty cool concept for 2004.
Evan Amos via Wikipedia
Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.
Sony stopped shipping the gadget in North America earlier this year, and says it is winding down in Japan, too.
The PS Vita, the PSP’s sequel, doesn’t seem to be setting the world aflame, but Sony is still a big force in games. Ask Microsoft, which is losing the console war to Sony’s PS 4.
It’s hard to remember now, but back in 2004 — three years before the iPhone — the notion of a handheld device that could play games, music and movies was a pretty cool concept. The PSP retailed for $250 in the U.S., and Sony eventually sold around 80 million of them.
For context, Apple sold 94 million iPhones in the first two quarters of 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqyWbcMyRLk
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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