Following the second anniversary of PSP, Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced a reduced price for PSP hardware. Effective today, the PSP Core Pack will be available in North America for US$170, a drop of $30.

“We have always been passionate about making great entertainment accessible to everyone, and the new price for PSP, as well as the continued growth of the ‘Greatest Hits’ library, reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting and expanding the PSP community,” said Jack Tretton, President and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We are pleased that we are able to engineer savings for the consumer at this stage of PSP’s lifecycle, allowing more individuals to experience PSP for the first time. In particular, we have recently seen a steady rise in the number of teens adopting PSP as their primary handheld entertainment system, and we expect the new price will accelerate that trend.”

Now entering its third year on the global market, PSP continues to redefine the portable entertainment space, with key software launches and new entertainment features driving hardware and software sales. In 2006, hardware unit shipments rose to nearly 25 million units worldwide, with more than one million new PSP systems sold in North America in December alone.

Software shipments increased to more than 90 million units last year, and the platform is poised for further growth this year with a software release schedule that includes exclusive titles from major franchises, including God of War, Ratchet & Clank, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs, and Syphon Filter.

“Ready at Dawn couldn’t be more pleased with our success bringing Daxter to the PSP platform last year, and now we have another opportunity to blow away expectations of what a developer can accomplish on a portable when Kratos hits the ‘small screen’ in God of War,” said Didier Malenfant, co-founder and President, Ready at Dawn Studios. “PSP is an ideal platform for us to work on because we have a high level of freedom to be creative, and we can deliver gameplay experiences that rival ones you'd get from a computer entertainment system.”

Beyond gaming, movie studios continue to support PSP and are reaching the platform’s target consumer of young males by releasing blockbuster titles such as Talladega Nights and Wedding Crashers on UMD.

The past year also included the introduction of several new features providing more functionality and more reasons to pick up PSP for on-the-go entertainment. Delivered primarily via free firmware updates, these new offerings included: remote play, enabling PSP to access photos, videos, and music on a nearby PS3; TiVoToGo, for watching recorded TV programming; and support for RSS audio and video feeds (or podcasts). A new version of the Media Manager for PSP made it easier to transfer entertainment content from a PC to a PSP.

Later this year, Sony believes a slew of popular first-party franchises will drive further interest in PSP with new exclusives. Highly anticipated titles from third-party publishers include exclusives such as SWAT (official title pending) as well as key franchise titles like Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.

SCEA also continues to evaluate expanding PSP’s entertainment options as more and more PSP owners use their system for watching movies, playing music, and viewing photos. SCEA says it remains committed to driving the development and distribution of entertainment content for PSP.