On Tuesday, May 17, in honor of the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Computer Entertainment America debuted the PSP Factory in Hollywood to an audience of A-listers including Charlize Theron, Keanu Reeves, Drew Barrymore, Amanda Peet, Ludacris, Maroon 5 and Michael Keaton. Inspired by renowned pop artist Andy Warhol’s 1960s “Factory,” PSP Factory fused the worlds of music, film, photography, art and gaming to create a utopian creative community. Constructed at the historic Hollywood Center Studios, PSP Factory featured live installations to recreate the feel of making art in all mediums, allowing for an unprecedented interactive environment that brought to life the comprehensive entertainment experience PSP (PlayStation Portable) entertainment system offers – movies, music, photos, games, and wireless connectivity.
At the invite-only affair, multi-media galleries showcased the unique capabilities of PSP system and inspired the imaginations of famed artists David LaChapelle, Amanda DeCadenet, Patrick McMullan, and Todd James. Nicky Hilton, Greg Grunberg, Eve and Bai Ling explored a set built exclusively for PSP by artist-turned-documentary filmmaker LaChapelle, which allowed guests to view a trailer of his acclaimed documentary, Rize while real life “krumpers” entertained the crowd. DeCadenet unveiled a special collection of exclusive photos of Amanda Peet, Amber Valetta and Nick Valensi from The Strokes to Drew Barrymore and Fabrizio Moretti while James displayed his collection of PSP-inspired graffiti art.
Celebrities Stephen Dorff, Samantha Mathis and David Spade were the voyeurs as McMullan photographed Gary Dourdan, Ivana Milosevic, Rachel Hunter, Ione Skye and other guests live in the PSP Photo Studio. The exclusive event also gave Carson Daly, Henry Simmons, Jermaine Dupri, Nicholas Gonzalez and Cobi Jones a chance to hone their gaming skills on Wipeout Pure, Hot Shots Golf Fore! and ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin’ Trails on PSP systems as indie rock stars Interpol and Louis XIV provided a live performance. Guests were able to take a piece of the soundtrack home with a song from Interpol recorded exclusively for the PSP system.
Setting a new standard as the first-ever integrated portable entertainment system designed to provide consumers with a comprehensive entertainment experience including games, music, movies, photos, communication, and wireless networking, PSP launched in North America on March 24 to extraordinary consumer demand.
It is unknown if Sony will continue to have PSP Factory events, or if this was a one time shot. The Factory drew excellent response from those invited, but the exclusivity left much of the gaming media out of the picture, and thus details from the event are sparse.
