• 13 hours

    I don’t know anyone picking up a PSP again in 2026. I also don’t know anyone.

  • 20 hours

    Rose tinted glasses. Psp was cool but flawed and completely irrelevant today outside from nostalgia farming.

  • I just sold mine recently.

    Steamdeck makes it obsolete.

    Also, the psp controls were not very good. The stick is tiring to use, the movement buttons are a bit far apart. I did like the mp3 player when traveling and the movie on a umd gimic was interesting.

    I did like it overall at the time, but being able to choose to be not bothered with online services (as the article suggests) is just as viable with a steam deck. Except when I DO want to use an online service such as my plex or jellyfin, I can do that too. Movies on a plane streaming from home, amazing.

    • I gave mine away after hacking my Switch, which itself has now been superseded by the Steam Deck. Aren’t there similar form factor retro handhelds that can run PSP games now? Seems that would be a better purchase than an actual PSP if cost and size are a factor.

      • There are a ton! Check out the Retroid Pocket 5 if you’re wanting something which can run upscaled PSP (and far more), or the more recently released Retroid Pocket 6 if you want it to be able to run Switch and PC games also

        • There is certainly something to be said for original hardware, but practicality wins out over nostalgia for me.

  • 21 hours

    I just love the PSP. I have a 2000, but I rarely use it. But I use my 1000 quite a bit. Other than being re-shelled, it has a glass lens and an IPS screen. I think I might remove the UMD drive to do a big battery mod. Don’t think I’ve used the UMD drive once since modding it.

    Ys Seven and Midnight Club are my faves on the console. But Ace Combat X and Me & My Katamari are also way up there.

  • 19 hours

    I’m not everyone, it seems.

    Now, if I weren’t a big retro fan… but I am. I am also aware that all the Sony batteries turn into spicy pillows, that’s why I got rid of them and was happy stuff was re-released on the switch.

    Right. I still kept a psp go. And I liked Sonys portables.

  • 1 day

    PSA for anyone that might have a PSP sitting in a box somewhere:

    Go and check on the battery and make sure it hasn’t turned into a spicy pillow. Out of a sample size of 3 between mine and a couple friends, 2 of 3 were bursting out of the shell and required disposal.

    If your PSP battery is still good, look into charging it and playing some PS1 games on the go. It was the best feature of the console.

    • And a PSA for anyone who has a terribly dead or spicy pillow battery, OSTENT make great batteries which do an even better job than the originals. I opt for the 1,400 mAh ones, which give you more capacity with the same size!

      • 1 day

        Yup, I’ve had all 3 batteries get thiccc on me in the drawer. Funny enough, my old phones that were stored in the most horid conditions were fine.

    • I have a white Darth Vader PSP 2000 and the battery was absolutely a spicy pillow when I checked it. I would suggest to judt replace it if you still have the original battery as its at minimum 12 years old now.

      I swear I bought a replacement battery for mine but have no idea where its at.

      The other thing to look for is a damaged screen. Somehow over the years of sitting on a shelf, mine looks like shitty car window tint thats bubbled up and peeling off.

  • Me and my wife both have PSPs, we brought them with us when we got married. We now have steamdecks so the poor PSPs have sat in a box for a few years. Much better battery life than my deck lol

    • Check their batteries, just in case. They might have turned into pillows.

  • I picked one up today and then put it back down. I was cleaning and organizing.

  • I recently (a year ago) bought my first portable PS system, a Vita. Fantastic console, thriving ‘underground’ community. Just caught the tail end of all its online services working before they’ll be shut down this year.

    • They’ll be shut down this year? Have you got a source I could look at, cause that’s news to me.

      • Disregard that. I read something wrong… apparently it was about the store only and is old news.

        • Yeah, that was a thing. They planned to shut down the store and that didn’t come to pass for the Vita and PS3. Plan went through for the PSP though.

  • Me in 2004: “The PSP 3000 can connect to the tv using HDMI. But who actually has an HDTV??? I have no use for this…”

    Me today: “Huh…I actually DO have an HDTV now. I just don’t have a PSP”.

    Funny how life works…

    • No better time than now to pick one up!

      I went from being amazed that anyone would opt for native hardware for older gaming (I am a huge fan of retro handhelds!) to being amazed anyone would not want one. There’s something to be said about the original games on the PSP, it just feels ‘right’.

      And they’re relatively inexpensive (if you buy from Japan) to get one in nice shape these days. I’ve got another on the way from Tokyo right now:

      • 1 day

        That’s junk. It doesn’t work.

        Edit: wait, you seem like you know what you’re doing. $30, if you can get it to work, would be a great buy.

        • The word ‘junk’ on Buyee/Japan’s online marketplaces doesn’t mean what it does elsewhere. It can mean anything:

          • Not having a charger on hand, so it can’t be tested
          • Literally just dusty
          • They don’t know how it works
          • …all the way to actual issues (which typically I’ve found are things like muck in the power switches which isopropyl alcohol fixes right up!)

          Junk absolutely doesn’t mean they’re broken! Listings tend to go into a little detail on what is wrong with the consoles :)

          I’ve bought a TON of handheld consoles through Buyee. DSi’s (I got a great DSi LL in box with all the bits, barely used for $52 AUD), GBA SPs, I even got a launch Switch to jailbreak from Japan!

          I actually wrote a article on a ‘junk’ PSP from Japan, you can read more on it here:

          https://gardinerbryant.com/i-bought-a-junk-psp-from-japan-heres-how-it-went/

          • 20 hours

            I live in Japan and when I go to a Hard Off or whatever, “junk” is usually just for parts so it’s good to know it means different things on buyee. Thanks!

          • wow it was already modded whwn you bought it? and i love thesilver/white design it looks still so futuristic, great article!

            • Thank you!

              It was a surprise, since the listing had no indication it was jailbroken, but the fun thing was just how old that was!

              You never really know what you’ll get with ‘junk’ listings :)

          • Nice article, thanks. I’ve never really been into handheld gaming, but reading that made me want to try it out. Buyee also sounds like a very handy service!

            • Wow, that’s an amazing compliment, glad you liked the article and that it began to sway you to the (older) handheld scene :)

              Thank you!!!

          • 1 day

            I read that! I couldn’t find it again, didn’t realise it was you :)

            Thanks!

      • 1 day

        I don’t really care for most PSP games, but the system is a great platform for emulation of games from the 2d age, from the NES to the GBA, from the master system to the genesis and even the PS1.

    • I jailbroke mine back in the day and used an rca cable to watch pirated shows on an SD card through it.

  • Ah, the PSP… First personal device I owned that had a web browser.

    So much porn, lol.

      • 😂 Yeah, it was pretty good for that too. I always thought it was really cool being able to play multiplayer games like SOCOM via AD-HOC networking. No server, no internet/wifi, not even a link cable you had to remember to bring; just two devices talking to eachother and creating great memories.

        • I loved playing socom with others it was alot of fun even with the wack controls of the PSP

          I miss when they actually made shit truely local.

      • 1 day

        Sony knew the secret for success. If it can show porn it will be successful.

        • I remember reading an article going around a few years back about how the PS4 web browser was one of the most widely used ways to access pornhub.

          I think this is really the reason they took the web browser out of the PS5. Sure, piracy is one aspect of it but I think they did not like that kind if publicity.

  • I never has an original psp, but I had a psp-go. It was great! I primarily used it to emulate the nes and Genesis. Not many people liked the other slide out screen aesthetic but it was one of my favorite parts of the design. It reminded me of the Motorola sidekick.

    • I have a JP launch edition PSP as my prized possession - but always wanted a PSP Go.

      How were the ergonomics?

      • 1 day

        I love my PSP and all the games on it, but the Vita with it’s two analog sticks was 100% the better design.

        • 21 hours

          Yeah, I don’t understand how so many companies whiffed on the one vs two thumbstick design. Sony with the PSP, Nintendo with the 3DS, and Valve with the original Steam Controller.

  • @PerfectDark

    I had the PSP-1001 a few months after launch & felt like a huge tech upgrade over the DS at the time.

    I was wayyy into modifying it, (just going from memory) downgrading to firmware 1.50 & running games off of the magicgate pro duo to get faster load times & better battery life cuz that UMD drive sucked down juice fast.

    The modded in web browser was very cool, of course it was basic but neat. Typing was a pain.

    The custom firmwares were amazing.

    It was way ahead of its time.👍

    • felt like a huge tech upgrade over the DS at the time

      There’s a post somewhere on the internet comparing a racing game available on the DS and PSP, and the gap is HUGE between what they were both capable of. What that game was escapes me now, but it was an interesting time!

      • @PerfectDark

        Absolutely.

        My battery bloated & was desposed at the time where I was still actively using the thing.

        I just dug mine out of the closet & it won’t fully boot into the xmb for some reason, but the custom M33 VSH Menu comes up.

        … I don’t remember how to work the custom firmware any more lol it’s been too long.

        The UMD drive no longer works either.

        Bleach Heat The Soul 3 & 4 I think was the last game I bought, but was crazy the pirated games could be played online.

        Sony PSP-1000 with a bunch of various games. Grand theft Auto liberty city stories, ridge racer, wipe out pure, untold legends, coded arms, bleach heat the soul 3 & a couple of movies: resident evil apocalypse & xXx state of the union.