A new addiction is born: Half a million units of the PSP were sold within the first two days of its release. © SCEA.

How easy it to get hooked on PSP?

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. says that its PSP — short for PlayStation Portable — is already addictive.

The company reports that more than half a million units of the integrated portable entertainment system, which offers 3D games, music and movies as well as communication and wireless networking, were sold within the first two days of its North American release date of March 24, 2005. (Each PSP value pack carried the suggested retail price of $249.99.)

It’s not surprising. Nielsen Entertainment‘s Video Game Industry Benchmark Report, released early April, found that nearly 40% of U.S. households own at least one of the following game systems for gameplay — PC, home console or handheld device. The study also found that 23% of gamers own all three types of gaming devices.

“The launch of PSP was everything we hoped for, with extraordinary consumer demand driving sales of hardware units alone upwards of $150 million in first week sales,” says Kaz Hirai, president/ceo, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “Consumers are clearly voting it the product of the year in 2005.”

The Hardware
So what makes the PSP so hot? In addition to portability, the unit promises a 4.3-inch wide screen, high-resolution TFT display, high-quality full-motion video and high-fidelity stereo audio. The PSP plays movies as well as games, displays digital photos and supports digital music playback in both MP3 and ATRAC formats.

To store all those games, photos, movies and music, the PSP has adopted a newly developed, compact, high-capacity (1.8GB) optical disc called Universal Media Disc (UMD) as its storage medium. The unit offers a range of accessories and connectivity options; including Memory Stick Duo, USB 2.0, IR port and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN. Wireless capabilities allow software and data to be downloaded to a PSP and saved onto a Memory Stick Duo.

Gameplayers are being wooed by the PSP’s graphics rendering capabilities, which Sony favorably compares to the PlayStation 2. The PSP comes with built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector and input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and Wi-Fi wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and play online via a wireless network. Up to 16 PSP systems in the vicinity can also be connected to each other directly, allowing for wireless head-to-head competition.

Twenty-four PSP titles were released immediately, including Gretzky NHL. © SCEA.

The Software
Sony has further enticed gamers by immediately offering 24 titles for the PSP, with an additional 23 titles in North American development and 100 titles in development internationally. Top computer games publishers, including Activision, Capcom, Eidos Interactive, Electronic Arts (EA), Koei, Konami, Namco, Sony Online Entertainment, Majesco and more, have jumped on the PSP bandwagon.

The games are a mix of genres — sports, action adventure and fantasy titles. Players can tackle everything from Sony Computer Entertainment’s Ape Escape: On the Loose and Gretzky NHL, to Activision’s Spider-Man 2 to Capcom’s Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower. Game Rush @ Blockbuster retail outlets have actively promoted the fact they will sell, rent and even trade such popular PSP titles as Sony’s Wipeout Pure and Twisted Metal: Head On, EA’s Need for Speed Underground Rivals, Namco’s Ridge Racer and Konami‘s Metal Gear Acid. Meanwhile, videogame rental service GameFly (www.gamefly.com) is offering hot PSP titles for rent, play or purchase online.

“It’s the sexiest device I’ve seen since the iPod,” says Sean Spector, co-founder/vp of marketing/business development, GameFly. “What the iPod did for music, PSP could do for videogames.”