The PSP is a very interesting console because its games are loaded onto specialized discs that are contained within plastic shells. The console also uses memory cards to store saves, and these are proprietary devices with flash chips. When Sony released the PSP Go, it ditched the UMD drive in exchange for 16GB of eMMC internal storage (and expandable memory from M2 cards).
Why did your PSP games disappear? It is a known issue with PSPs that have been hacked with custom firmware, users often lose their games from the ISO folder after updating the firmware. If your PSP is a hacked one that you purchased from the used market, do not update its firmware to an official Sony version.
As soon as you update the cracked firmware and install an official firmware version, all your ISOs will stop showing. When you plug the SD card into your PC or connect your PSP via a USB cable, you’ll be able to see the games. But your PSP won’t read them.
Why Did Your PSP Games Disappear?
On a regular PSP that hasn’t been hacked, your games shouldn’t just disappear out of the blue. Because there is no internal storage on a PSP, and it loads games into RAM from the UMD drive. Only the PSP Go has 16GB of internal storage because it got rid of the UMD drive.
And even if games disappear on that model you can just redownload them because they will stay in your library (cloud data). The only reason your PSP games aren’t showing is that you either have official firmware or a corrupt SD card with the game ISOs. Official firmware can’t read the ISOs from your SD card.
And a corrupt SD card that hasn’t been formatted properly will not be able to store your PSP game ROMs. Plug the SD card into your computer, and check to see if the ISO files are still there. If your SD card has the ROMs on it, your PSP was detected by the Sony network as a hacked unit and its access has been blocked.
You can fix this by flashing it with custom firmware. But be warned- it is easy to brick your PSP if something goes wrong during the flashing process. So make sure it has a decent amount of charge before you run the flashing/ updating tool.
Where Are PSP Games Saved?
Some portable consoles like the Nintendo Game Boy Advanced have EEPROM/ flash memory chips in the game cartridge. This is used to store game progress data. If you go back even further to the 1980s and 1990s, game cartridges had SRAM chips that were powered by a battery to retain saved data.
Unlike Game Boy Advance or DS, Sony’s PSP doesn’t keep user data in the cartridge (Universal Media Discs are read-only). Instead, it requires separate memory sticks (Pro, Pro Duo, etc.). If you don’t have a memory stick inserted into your PSP, it won’t be able to save any progress.
The PSP Go has internal memory and can save game data to this location. You can also expand the PSP Go’s memory with M2 cards.
How Do I Recover My Lost PSP Games?
If it’s an issue with the firmware, you can flash it back to a hacked version. A memory stick or SD card that has been corrupted or damaged is a lot harder to fix. If your ISOs are on an SD card that has been corrupted, you’ll have to format the whole thing and lose all games in the process.
That’s why you should always have backups of your PSP game ISOs on a PC or USB drive. If you accidentally deleted a saved file or ISO from your memory card, it is possible to regain the data with recovery software. But success isn’t guaranteed, and you might end up with a corrupted game file.
Can You Still Redownload PSP Games?
This may or may not work in the future, but it’s still possible to redownload PSP games that are attached to your account. Even though Sony doesn’t allow you to purchase new PSP games and has shut down the store, games that you own in your library can be re-downloaded. For this, the most reliable way is to open your downloads list from the account management tab.
You want to use the downloads list because going into the store might crash your PSP. If you can’t access your downloads list, try deactivating your system and reactivating it from the PSN account management section. After reactivating your account, go into the transaction management section and view your downloads list to see games you’ve already purchased.
When Did PSP Games Stop?
Officially, the PSP was discontinued in 2014, nearly a decade after its launch in 2004. And the manufacture of new UMDs stopped around the same time. The last PSP game ever released is Retro City Rampage DX in 2016, which is only available digitally (as Sony had no production lines left for UMDs).
Was The PSP A Failure?
Not if you look at it from a commercial standpoint, because it sold over 80 million units. Sure, the DS sold a lot more at over 154 million. But, the PSP is still Sony’s best-selling handheld and it showed people that portable games didn’t have to be simplistic.
The PSP represented a paradigm shift from portable games with simplistic graphics to proper AAA gaming in your pocket. After all, that’s what Sony promised when they released the console. If you look at it like that, the PSP was a massive success as it achieved PS2-level graphics in 2004.
Conclusion
The PSP was a revolutionary handheld and brought together some very interesting technologies. For starters, it used discs instead of cartridges. Plus you could play movies on your PSP, which made it a portable entertainment system, unlike the Nintendo DS which was a pure gaming device.
More importantly, the PSP came with an analog stick, making it a much better console than the DS for shooting games. And the PSP also had a better display than the DS.