Sony · 2005–2014

SonyPSP

UMDs, Crisis Core, Monster Hunter and the best Final Fantasy remakes ever made.

[n] PSP games available

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Why it mattered

The PS2 in your pocket that Japan turned into a phenomenon

The PSP arrived in 2005 as the first serious challenge to Nintendo's handheld monopoly in fifteen years: a widescreen, a proper analog nub, Wi-Fi, and a little optical disc called the UMD that held PlayStation 2-scale games and, briefly, Hollywood films. In North America it did respectably against the DS. In Japan it became the Monster Hunter machine, the console schoolkids carried in packs, and in some years it outsold everything Nintendo had.

The library rewards digging. Square Enix put much of its second golden age here — Crisis Core, Dissidia, Tactics: War of the Lions, Birth by Sleep — and the Falcom, Atlus and NIS RPGs that followed are the ones collectors now chase. UMDs sit in clear plastic cases with a paper insert that yellows and a manual that is usually still there; the disc's own clear shell cracks at the hinge. Games are region-free, so Japanese prints are part of the shelf. We photograph every case and disc.

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Fast facts

ReleasedMarch 24, 2005 (North America; Japan Dec 2004)
Launch price$249 Value Pack — with a Spider-Man 2 UMD inside
MediaUMD — a 1.8 GB optical disc in a clear shell
Units sold~80 million worldwide
Best sellerGrand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories — roughly 8 million
Did you know?The first million North American PSP Value Packs shipped with a UMD of Spider-Man 2 — the film, not a game. Sony launched the format with movies alongside games, and for a couple of years studios released hundreds, until it became clear nobody wanted to buy a film they could only watch on a five-inch screen. Movie UMDs are now the cheapest things on the shelf.
Did you know?There are four main revisions: the original PSP-1000, the 2007 Slim & Lite (PSP-2000) that added TV-out and shed a third of the weight, the 2008 PSP-3000 with a brighter screen, and the 2009 PSP Go, which dropped the UMD drive for downloads, cost $249, and sold so poorly that it made the case for physical media Sony itself had been trying to close.
Did you know?PSP games are region-free — a Japanese UMD plays on a North American console with no modification — but UMD movies were region-coded like DVDs. That distinction is why Japanese PSP RPGs are so common in Western collections: importers learned early that the disc would simply work, and a large part of the library never left Japan.
Did you know?In Japan the PSP was carried by Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, released here as Freedom Unite, sold in the millions there and turned the handheld into a social object — kids hunted together over ad-hoc Wi-Fi on trains and in parks. The series moved to Nintendo hardware afterward, and Japan's Vita never recovered the audience.
Did you know?The PSP was the most hacked handheld of its era. A firmware exploit in a save file for Lumines, a modified battery nicknamed the Pandora, and years of custom firmware from a coder known as Dark_AleX kept Sony patching and re-patching. It also means a used PSP may be running modified software, so check the firmware screen before you buy one.
Did you know?Greatest Hits reprints for the PSP started in 2006 at $19.99, with the familiar red band across the top of the case. Because the PSP's first-party hits were small runs by console standards, for some games the red-band reprint is the common copy and the black-label original the scarce one — check which the photo shows.
Did you know?Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was a full, numbered Metal Gear Solid built for the PSP by Hideo Kojima's team and released in 2010, five years into the console's life. It sold well enough to be remastered for the HD Collection, and it stands as the last big-budget Western PSP release, arriving a year before the Vita was announced.
Did you know?The UMD case is transparent plastic with a paper sleeve and a manual, and it has one weak point: the disc's own clear shell, which cracks along the hinge and fogs with scuffs. A copy described as complete should have the insert, the manual and an intact UMD shell; the paper slip that lists other Sony games is a bonus.

Find your next PSP game

Start with a familiar favorite, explore a theme, or browse by what’s included.

Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

The grails

Trails in the Sky, Legend of Heroes, Star Ocean, Generation of Chaos, Tactics Ogre, Ys Seven, Persona 3 Portable, Riviera — the Falcom, Atlus and NIS runs that made the PSP an RPG machine.

Square Enix, portable

Crisis Core, Dissidia, Dissidia 012, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Birth by Sleep, Star Ocean — the years when Square Enix's best new work fit in a shirt pocket.

Sony's own handheld hits

Hot Shots Golf Open Tee, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, SOCOM, ATV Offroad Fury, Syphon Filter, Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus — Sony's studios, proving the PSP was a real PlayStation.

Rockstar, pocket-sized

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, Chinatown Wars, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, The Warriors, Manhunt 2 — Rockstar took the PSP seriously, and the sales showed it.

The import shelf

Japanese UMDs for the region-free handheld — Basara, Nanoha, Nayuta no Kiseki, Crisis Core, Dissidia — the RPGs and license games that never crossed the Pacific.

Arcade anthologies

The King of Fighters Collection, Samurai Shodown Anthology, Metal Slug Anthology, Capcom Classics Remixed, Sega Genesis Collection — whole arcade histories on one UMD, and now worth more than the arcade quarters.

Tactical espionage, pocket-sized

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Portable Ops, Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, SOCOM, Syphon Filter, Splinter Cell Essentials, Killzone: Liberation — sneaking, shooting and a lot of cardboard boxes.

Bring the kids

LEGO Indiana Jones, LEGO Star Wars II and III, LEGO Batman, Ratatouille, Kung Fu Panda, Ben 10, SpongeBob — the licensed shelf for the back seat of the car, 2005 to 2011.

Scoreboards and finish lines

Madden, NFL Street 3, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw, WWE All Stars, Micro Machines V4, Need for Speed, Hot Shots Golf, Wipeout Pure — sports and speed on a screen you could hold.

Japan's handheld

Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai, Monster Hunter Freedom, God Eater, Phantasy Star Portable, Patapon, LocoRoco, Tales of the World, Project DIVA — the PSP as Japan played it.

The subtitle shelf

Portable Ops Plus. Open Tee. 5-1-0. Tactical Strike. Blazing Trails. Size Matters. Everything the PSP did to prove it was not just a PS2 port — the title tells you the effort.

Complete in case, best condition first

Every complete PSP game in stock right now.

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Game with manual

Cart and manual, no box — the collector's middle ground.

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Loose discs

UMD only — tested, photographed, priced accordingly.

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Sealed

Factory sealed and photographed through the shrink.

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SonyPSP

The PS2 in your pocket that Japan turned into a phenomenon