Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • History [ ] Background [ ] After the massive success of 's of throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with little in the way of market competition, and 's massive success with its and around the same time, Sony decided to enter the handheld market as well. In 2004, it released the (PSP) to compete with the as part of the. After a slow start in the worldwide market, it was invigorated in Japan with multiple releases in the series. With the series being less popular in western regions, it failed to revive the platform in the same way. The PSP ended up being a mixed result for the company. It was seen as a success in that it was the only handheld video game platform that had ever significantly competed with Nintendo for market share in a meaningful way, selling almost 80 million units in its lifespan, roughly the same amount as Nintendo's had during the.

Despite this, it had still only managed to sell a little over half of what its actual market competitor, the DS, had sold, which was over 150 million units by the end of 2011. Rumors of a successor to the PSP came as early as July 2009 when reported that Sony was working on such a device, which would utilize the PowerVR SGX543MP processor and perform at a level similar to the original. Tehnicheskij pasport na mnogokvartirnij dom obrazec. Through mid-2010, websites continued to run stories about accounts of the existence of a 'PSP 2'. Reports arose during the that the device was unveiled internally during a private meeting during mid-September held at Sony Computer Entertainment's headquarters in Aoyama, Tokyo. Shortly after, reports of for the handheld had reportedly already been shipped to numerous video game developers including both and third-party developers to start making games for the device, a report later confirmed by Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick.

By November, Senior Vice President of, Patrick Soderlund, confirmed that he had seen that the PlayStation Portable successor existed, but could not confirm details. In the same month, released pictures of an early prototype version showing a -like slide-screen design along with two analog sticks, two cameras and a microphone, though the report mentioned that overheating issues had since caused them to move away from the design in favor of a model more similar to the original PlayStation Portable device. Throughout 2010, Sony would not confirm these reports of a PSP successor, but would make comments regarding making future hardware., President of revealed that his studio, despite usually being more involved with software, had a continued role in future hardware development at the time. In December, CEO stated that Sony aimed to appeal to a wide demographic of people by using multiple input methods on future hardware; buttons and joysticks for traditional handheld game system users, and touchscreens for users. The device was officially announced by Sony on January 27, 2011, at their 'PlayStation Meeting' press conference held by the company in Japan. The system, only known by its code name 'Next Generation Portable', was announced to be a handheld gaming device that aimed for quality visuals, which was later clarified to not be taken at a literal level because, according to David Coombes, platform research manager at, 'Well, it's not going to run at 2 GHz [like the PS3] because the battery would last five minutes and it would probably set fire to your pants'.