It Plays Games and Music and Movies and Pretty Soon You Won't Be Able to Buy It: Sony Says Goodbye to the PSP

It had a long run, but the PSP — the handheld gaming device Sony introduced 10 years ago — is powering down.

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.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via