PSP sales hit the 50 million mark

Solid numbers.

All girlfriends should be given one of these and Loco Roco as a matter of course.....its the only way to be allowed free time to blow zombie heads off.

@Bill Door
Exactly. Someone clearly hasn't been paying attention. Including Sony: imagine how many millions more they would have sold if they had put some more marketing behind it in the passed oh ... 2 years maybe?
It's an awesome piece of hardware, support it already!

Great sales figures.

@Beek4257, they did have lots of marketing behind it.

50 million WOW, thats amazing considering the complete lack of decent titles!!

How long has the DS been in the market ?

Still no right-analogue for looking / aiming, and still no legal way of installing games to mem stick.

/sigh

On a previous PSP news story, a list of 20 decent games was requested. Here's mine:

- GTA: Liberty City Stories (Generally great, but the same as III without such a good story)

- GTA: Vice City Stories (Good, but why didn't they fix the save system? Same issues as III)

- Outrun 2006: Coat 2 Coast (suffered with a lack of an online service - no way to communicate or keep track of competitors, plus there was no 333MHz option at release, so the frame rate was all over the place)

- Test Drive Unlimited (for some horrendous reason - there's no option to customise controls, and the fixed layout has some strange choices. Too much loading just to see the map - this game needs an install option, and voice chat / global friends list to keep track of players)

- Tekken: Dark Resurrection (excellent, as long as you like Tekken. Why did the launch PSPs have no diagonals on the d-pad for 2 years? Fools.)

- Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (D-PAD. Stupid fools. Sony made a real mess of this. This game should also be downloadable for cheap, plus installable from UMD. Also, where's the game sharing option??)

- Burnout Legends (The best of Burnout 2 & 3???? WIN! Amazing game)

- Virtua Tennis World Tour (WIN!!!! If only it had a 4 player game sharing mode!)

- Power Stone Collection (I've had this for ages but not played it loads - I expect it's brilliant, and the controls would have fit the PSP perfectly from the Dreamcast original. Why aren't more Dreamcast games appearing on the PSP? No-one's buying games for it? Shame - include an install option and 8-16Gb flash / 60Gb HDD built in storage)

- Metal Slug Anthology (Another classic that'll be tarnished by a lack of diagonals, no download option / included storage, and no option to install to from the UMD. Foolish Sony.)

- Lumines (should be a download / install title)

- Loco Roco (Should be a download / install title)

- Patapon (should be a download / install title)

- StarWars - The Force Unleashed (Needs a right analogue stick)

- Metal Gear: Portable Ops (Fiddly controls, could do with a right analogue, but generally fine)

- Midnight Club - LA Remix (Can't complain - a great little title - the broken PSP controls favour driving games if you're happy without analogue accel / braking, and can use the nub for steering)

- The Warriors (great game, could do with...wait for it... a right analogue stick, as it's a modern 3D game!)

- God of War - Chains of Olympus (Fantastic. Nuff said, this shows what the PSP can do.)

- Wipeout Pulse (Wipeout non-HD. Excellent stuff)

etc, etc... there are loads more, but the vast majority are harmed by the same issues:

- No right analogue sick. Inexcusable. It's bad enough that the left analogue is a silly 'nub'. Games can easily be released with 2 control configs, in the same way that driving games have 2 control configs depending on whether you use a wheel or not, and the PSX had two configs depending on whether or not you used a Dual Shock. It's hardly rocket science, but could have boosted the console no end.

- Annoying loading times and / or loading pauses - just loading the pause map on TDU is a chore. mem stick install option?

- No option to install part or all of any game - STUPID, STUPID, STUPID considering the games come on slow UMD.

- Clicky buttons, poor launch d-pad, poor ergonomics - Handheld GAMES console, Sony. GAMES console. Wake up.

- No online service, friends list, or voice comms - killing online play

- Recently added integrated PSN store is lacking demos of titles, and has no option to send downloads to a download list to be picked up by the PS3 or PC client. IDIOTAS! Incompetence in the online space.

- No background downloading possible on the PSP - ruining the above mentioned PSN store.

- No built in storage - memory sticks or nothing. Foolish.

- No apps, music or video available on the PSN store. Foolish that Youtube is still inaccessible, foolish that I can't browse through a catalogue of SONY, BMG or MGM content at the VERY LEAST.

- Shit web browser, archaic typing method, and no bluetooth option - for hopping onto my mobile phone's HSDPA Internet connection. You know, my SONY Ericsson mobile phone? Helloooo???

There should have been a GAMERS version of the PSP. The exisitng one is a media player that plays UMD games - much like the PS3.

Saying all of that, now is the best time to grab a second-hand PSP Slim, unlock it and enjoy all that it has to offer.

It's just ridiculous that one has to become a hacker or pirate in order to experience the games without pathetic load times, or to run apps and short portable games from the memory stick.

All of this, plus some atrociously shite marketing, never showing anyone what the PSP does or why to buy it, and no GT mobile or keyboard after 4 YEARS. It'd have been a good idea to have a commercial that actually says the words 'Playstation Portable', telling the hard of thinking what the letters PSP actually mean.

Many 'casuals' didn't have a clue for a long time after the system's launch.

SONY = IDIOTS, deserving of all of the problems they currently face.

just as long as psp, alimo. late 2004/ early 2005 depending on the region

"still no legal way of installing games to mem stick. " well .... apart from buying a PSN title.

Still, second analogue, never going to happen. All games would have to be designed with a dual control method... otherwise you're alienating those 50million who don't have a 2nd stick.

Either you get on with what the platform is offering now or buy a DS.

Not bad at all for their first portable product....no doubt they learned some very valuable lessons (hacked to bits'n all). Probably would not of sold as much if it wasn't so hackable.

I really hope they do better with the psp2, as the DS IMHO has dominated like the wii - undeservedly. I do own both (psp & ds), and the psp gets used alot more than the ds.

Very impressive numbers for their first ever portable. In fact that is more than twice the number of the original Xbox sold.

Unlike some fanboys here I've both the PSP and DS, and is capable of enjoying both and their respective library of games.

Those are very impressive numbers, especially considering many people had written it off before it even had a chance to take off.

I, too, have both a DS and a PSP and I think it's wise to own both consoles because both are great

There is nothing undeserved about the DS selling as much as it does - I would say that about the Wii though, it hasn't gotten as much fun games as the DS had two years after its launch.

I do enjoy both handheld, but DS have been more rewarding, PSP unfortunately despite having 50 mil still get lower consideration from devs/pubs for games.

Some multi platform games with strong franchise DID not ever appear on PSP!

@peak_performance

Remember this?

Hillarious

There's a psp store on the psp itself where you can buy games and download them onto the stick no??

burnout legends is worth a go eh? I've got dominator.... will check that one out.
And Star Wars on the PSP is good?

Both my DS and PSP have been gathering dust for quite some time now. I watch the occasional movie on the PSP during long commute, but for mobile gaming I use my iPhone.
Same goes for a lot of my friends.
I use my PS3 mainly for the Blu Ray, 360 for gaming/media playback and Wii for erm ... nothing tbh.
If someone would have told me this 5 years ago I would have laughed, quite hard.

Not bad Sony, not bad at all.

But please drop the price to £99 for the 'base' unit!

Actually EG, thinking of that, any chance of some PSP reviews of multiplat titles like Midnight Club and Star Wars to go alongside the main home console reviews in the future?

@Widge

It's not bad. Hardly approaching Ninja Gaiden / God of War, but you should be aware of that already.

I didn't mention Crisis Core, Jeanne D'arc ro Pirates!, as I've not played these - but heard they're great too.

Worms should be on PSN as a download, or be installable also.

I'm going to import Jeanne.... £15 or so from movietyme can't be bad. Esp with Ebay people insisting that you pay £25 or so.

'Not bad at all for their first portable product....no doubt they learned some very valuable lessons (hacked to bits'n all). Probably would not of sold as much if it wasn't so hackable.'

I was thinking the same until I realised the 3000 series is selling pretty much the same even if it is not hackable (so far).

Software sales might actually increase a bit during 2009 because of that. We'll see.

I'd quite happily buy a non-hackable 4000, I think the novelty of portable FF7 has worn off a bit now.
Well, no idea what the feature set of the 4000 will be.

I've got a fattie at the moment and really want to have one I can hook up to a TV.

4 years old and sadly going into oblivion.

Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea are worth the price of the PSP on their own.

I've been a power PSP user for years and I love my 2000, but (aside from occasional satnav use) generally use it only as a podcast harvesting media player for the daily commute.

Recently managed to break the inline remote I had for it, and now it's just a terribly unusable media player with a shitty on-off switch and a very inconvenient control layout that I might as well replace with a Nokia 5800 or N97 that I can make do the same things.

DS > PSP by a country mile.

@Widge

+1 to the TV out request, but I'd like to get the full experience out of my PSP too, i.e. running games from mem stick to improve performance. Therefore I'd want one that's unlockable and with a TV out.

It's all way too much faff thanks to our Sonypals, so I think I'll just stick with what I've got for now, and spend the ca$h on 360 games or an iPhone.

Burnout Legends is absolutely fantastic, also. Never gets old, apart from the load times. Wonderful title - basically Burnout 3 with Burnout 2 flavoured extras such as the mode where you chase and ram the criminal ala Chase HQ. Bravo to Criterion as usual.

In fact - I think I'll play this one later. It could do with living on my memory stick for quick acces, rather than in a pile of 15 slow loading UMDs. Thanks Sony.