What was the PlayStation Portable's first North American release date?
Answer
March 24, 2005
The PlayStation Portable first launched in North America on March 24, 2005.
Sony released the PSP in Japan earlier, on December 12, 2004. North America received the handheld in March 2005, while Europe followed on September 1, 2005. The staggered rollout made the PSP one of the most prominent dedicated gaming handhelds of its generation.
The North American launch package was called the Value Pack and included the handheld, a memory stick, headphones with a remote control, a case, and other accessories. Sony also released the system with the Universal Media Disc format, which was used for games and some video content.
The PSP competed most directly with Nintendo’s DS. Later models included the slimmer PSP-2000, the PSP-3000, and the digital-download-focused PSP Go, which omitted the standard UMD drive.