PSP shipments hit 50 million

Sony's original PlayStation and its PSOne redesign combined to sell more than 100 million systems. In making its challenge to the long-standing handheld market dominance of Nintendo, Sony might have been ecstatic to see the PlayStation Portable enjoy even half that success.

And that's about exactly where the PSP is today. Sony announced that it has shipped 50 million of the systems (PSP-1000, 2000, and 3000 models cumulatively) to retailers worldwide. Additionally, 200 million games for the system have been sold in to retailers since the PSP's December 2004 debut in Japan.

Despite the system's sizable installed user base, the PSP faces a number of issues. It was the only major console or handheld not represented in the industry-tracking NPD Group's list of the 10 best-selling games of 2008. Furthermore, no PSP game has managed to crack even the monthly top 10 list since March of 2008, when God of War: Chains of Olympus placed fifth and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII landed in sixth.