The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and currently manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. Its development was first announced during E3 2003, and it was officially unveiled on May 11, 2004 at a Sony press conference before E3 2004. The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, the United States and Canada on March 24, 2005 and in Europe and Australia on September 1, 2005. It is considered the first handheld video game system to use an optical disc format (Universal Media Disc).
Recently, a new slimmer and lighter version of the PlayStation Portable, titled Slim and Lite was announced on July 11, 2007 and Sony's press conference at E3 2007. It will be available in the US, Europe and Japan in September 2007 with various colours and a very different box packaging to the current PSP. Among these versions three were physically shown at E3 2007: a white version with a Star Wars imprint, a piano black version and an ice silver version.