Quote:Posted by
Luke Campbell at 03:20:54 PM EST on 02.25.2004.

Couldn't wait to see whether Sony could cut into Nintendo's stranglehold on the portable market? The wait's going to be a bit longer now, as Sony has announced the delay of their PSP handheld; while the PSP will still launch in Japan during this year's holiday season, US and Europe retailers won't see it until 2005. However, the delay is not a very long one: the system is still expected to ship globablly before the March 2005 end to this fiscal year.

"The reason we pushed it out here is we wanted to be sure there's a reasonable amount of software titles to launch with hardware," said Teresa Weaver, a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony systems have typically shipped earlier in Japan and then hit other regions later, and analyst P.J. McNealy says, "With many of the roots of the gaming industry being in Japan, it's traditional to pay homage and release a hardware product there first and then release in the U.S., even though the U.S. is a bigger market."

Either way, this development could allow Sony's loss to become Nintendo's gain: with no direct competition, Nintendo can either keep the $99 GBA SP price point in effect, or lower the price to attract an even larger userbase before the PSP takes flight. this may also allow Nintendo to release their DS handheld without playing second fiddle to the PSP.

So how many games does Sony want for its PSP? Electronic Arts reportedly plans on having 8-12 games ready to go for the PSP launch, and THQ has stated 2-3 titles will be available, so third parties are making an effort to give the PSP a sizable library right from the start. Could we end up having too many PSP titles to choose from? That would be a welcome problem for consumers, no doubt.

The launch price has still not been clarified, but it rumored to be in the $199-249 price range. We will know more as E3 nears, so stay tuned!

Source: CNN

Quote:I wonder if they will make a Granturismo PSP game and Jak and daxter?

A Black Falcon Wrote:No it wouldn't. It would be better.

And I didn't say a time in '06.

Quote:Thing is, I don't care that Nintendo thinks it's just a 3rd pillar (and no, they don't think that, which is why, from what I've heard, it'll be GBA compatible).

Quote:What I mean is, I believe Nintendo is just saying this whole 3rd pillar thing as marketting. I don't think the makers actually consider it a 3rd pillar. I accuse them of lying to us about what they think it is. That's what I mean.

Quote:For that matter, since I'm fairly sure this 3rd pillar thing is marketting, I won't pay a lick of attention to it. Seriously, it's a portable system. Why would the public think it's anything but another Gameboy? It would have to look so incredibly different from the GB that it actually LOOKS like a 3rd kind of system to really make people think that. I believe the last time they did that was with the um... virtual boy... No that's not a comment about how this will be a failure because of that, because I don't think that. I'm just saying it would have to be on THAT level of difference to really make someone think it's something totally different from a Gameboy. I'm talking from a customer's viewpoint because that's who's opinion will matter, not Nintendo's.

Quote:Now maybe it WILL look so utterly different that it'll just have to be considered a 3rd kind of system, and honestly there's a decent chance of that, but I'm leaning towards it basically looking like an SP with a second screen on the side.

Quote:- UNCONFIRMED: Sony has allegedly finished the prototype of PlayStation Portable, it is reported that the rechargeable battery can last for 10 hours, but the finalized version will have a longer lasting battery. The PSP is tentatively scheduled to launch in Japan on December

Quote:New Features and Concerns
Posted on February 16 by Josh
Topic: News
I was sent some information today from a reader who has been involved in a focus group for the PSP. There are some interesting statements made by Sony during this particular focus group, which causes, at least me, some concern. Namely, some features which have been included on the spec sheet may not be included at time of purchase. Here is what we have learned…

* The user will have the ability to save progress on the PSP version of a game, and continue the progress on the PS2 version of the same game (and vice versa). So if you own both the PSP and PS2 version of a game, you can use the saves on both versions.
* Sony mentioned that they may sell a bundled package of both the PSP and PS2 version of the game to save the user cost in using this feature.
* Some of the features mentioned on the specs sheet may not be available until after launch. Mentioned in particular was the WiFi and the ability to play MP3s.

Those of you who follow other Sony news will recall that something similar to this has happened recently with the PSX (released in Japan). The uber-PS2 was not shipped with all features, and was just recently upgraded to spec with a firmware upgrade. While I do not like the fact that some promised features won’t be activated until a future date after launch, I do understand that Sony wants to get this device out on the market before the holiday season. We'll keep you updated when more information becomes available.

Thanks goes out to JiggaWhat for the info.