Sony’s PSP finally fades into that good night

The little handheld that marked Sony’s first foray into the handheld gaming space is saying goodbye to all territories this year.

Though US shipments of the console ended this past January, Europe and Japan have been seeing new arrivals of the PSP up till now, and they will continue to do so for at least a little bit longer reports gaming super-site Polygon. Japan’s last shipments will come this month (June) though, while European gamers will see an end to the PlayStation Portable some time near the end of the year according to Yahoo.

Brought into a landscape back in 2005 (was it really only in 2005?!) that it never really had a chance to dominate thanks to the Nintendo stranglehold, the PSP was not exactly a flop, but it wasn’t much of a winner either. Though a hit in Japan to some degree, the console struggled almost everywhere else and had few true triple-A games (if any) right from the jump. Personally, it frustrated me to no end since I really wanted to like the little device just because of the promise that it held for on the go gaming, and tried over and over to get into it.

Then came the digital-only PSP GO, which was a flop of the first degree which kind of finished off the beleaguered brand.  Shortly after that debacle, the PSP was replaced by the current Sony portable, the PS Vita; another handheld console that seems to be having issues with both hardware sales and games in some areas of the globe.

Goodbye PSP, we hardly knew ye.

Sources: Polygon, MCV