Sony Computer Entertainment, or SCEI, has announced that as of January 2009, they have sold a total of 50 million PSP units worldwide.
The PSP was the first handheld console from Sony launched in December 2004 in Japan, March 2005 in North America, May 2005 in the Asia region and September 2005 in Europe and the PAL nations. In a short span of about 4 years, Sony has sold an overwhelming 50 million odd PSP units.
The evolution of the PSP is quite clear with the light and slender PSP-2000 being released in September 2007 after the initial PSP-1000. Sony went on to refine this PSP as well and came out with the PSP-3000 in October 2008 featuring upgrades such as a built-in microphone and an advanced high contrast LCD screen.
The PSP has seen more than 2000 games released on UMD and about 500 games that were made available for download. Sony has even launched several system software updates to keep the PSP compatible with newer games.
In the years to come, Sony will energetically support the expansion of the PSP platform offering a wide range of digital entertainment that is even interactive.