PSP price: 19,800 YEN! ($185.48); battery life: 4-6 hours

[OB1]

And NOW it'll do very well. Just you wait and see.

I wonder if you'll admit that you were wrong about this particular thing as well?

[A Black Falcon]

You have to admit that comments like that do not inspire confidence in Sony here.

[OB1]

Sony could say that the PSP breaks if you play it in the sun and it'd still do extremely well. Nothing Kutaragi has said is a big deal.

[A Black Falcon]

Well sure, but I'm talking about what the actual battery life for most games will be, not how that will affect its sales... with this announcement I'm sure that Sony will be able to say on the box that it gets that 4-6 hours and lots of people will listen even if they will never actually see such times...

[OB1]

We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

[A Black Falcon]

Yup.

[Great Rumbler]

I remember back in the day when we said that and it was like a year and a half to the PSP's release.

[OB1]

And that it was going to cost $450 and be a complete failure. :D Yeah, I remember that too.

Oh wait, that was you two. :p

[Great Rumbler]

We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

I remember back in the day when we said that and it was like a year and a half to the PSP's release.

[OB1]

...

what?

[Dark Jaguar]

Not gettin' da point, quotin' to clarify... eeemaaaaaiil...

[Great Rumbler]

...

what?

*hits OB1*

[OB1]

...

[Great Rumbler]

That's right!

[OB1]

!!!

[A Black Falcon]

So when will the PSP come out in this country, finally? :D

[Great Rumbler]

Early next year, I think.

[OB1]

.00!!!!

[Great Rumbler]

.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001!!!!

[OB1]

[A Black Falcon]

Partially because of repurcussions of the PSP price announcement?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/11/22/...13756.html

Sony credit rating cut by Standard & Poor's
Increased global competition in its core electronics business prompts the first downgrade in over a decade.

Today, the globe's preeminent provider of credit rating and risk analysis, Standard & Poor's, downgraded Sony's credit rating from A+ to A. While often considered one of the more arcane aspects of a business enterprise, a company's credit rating has monumental impact on its borrowing power and subsequent ability to secure loans at favorable interest rates.

Osamu Kobayashi, the S&P analyst who outlined the rating change, said, "The downgrade and negative outlook primarily reflect Sony's profitability, which has been strained from product and price competition, especially in its core electronics business, where there is still uncertainty regarding sustainable improvement in Sony's earnings-generating ability."

"Sony has been undergoing major restructuring efforts to reduce fixed costs and increase its overall competitiveness," Mr. Kobayashi continued. "However, Sony's efforts to strengthen its product portfolio, including audiovisual products--a traditional strength for Sony--have lagged behind in an increasingly competitive market characterized by aggressive development and marketing of new products. There is a concern over the negative impact on Sony's market position."

The financial press is citing the earnings report Sony delivered to investors on October 28 as what prompted S&P to reconsider the rating. On that date, the company reported that fiscal second-quarter operating profit at its electronics unit fell 83 percent, to 7.2 billion yen ($69.7 million).

Analysts see the unit's faltering revenues as having put pressure on PSP pricing, announced the same day as its Q2 earnings. When Sony announced that the PSP would be offered to Japanese consumers at a price of 19,800 yen ($185), the industry expressed palpable shock at the diminutive sticker price.

While Sony has reportedly said the downgrade would have no impact on its financing abilities, The Financial Times called the downgrade "an embarrassment."

The last time S&P lowered Sony's credit rating was in 1993.

[Great Rumbler]

Hmm...

[Dark Jaguar]

That's interesting... Goes against my hypo as to the price drop... Of course, this doesn't make the GameFAQ idiots who said "Sony will make it cheap because they LOVE US" right because if the reason is wrong, the whole claim is wrong.

[Great Rumbler]

Love? Not likely. More like profit potential.

[OB1]

No, more like market dominance. They won't profit much from cheap PSPs! :)

[Great Rumbler]

I meant profit potential in a round-about way. As in, a cheaper PSP will allow them to sell more handhelds, which in turn will allow them to sell more games ,which in turn will make them more money.

[OB1]

Yeah I know what you meant. :p

[Great Rumbler]

You didn't act like it!

[OB1]

Well maybe that's because you stole my care bear!!!!

[Private Hudson]

Wait wait..

Is DJ saying that Sony doesn't love us?

...

...

.....

...

..:(

[Great Rumbler]

:D

[A Black Falcon]

The issue from the perspective of banks though would probably be that a lower price means that Sony is losing more money per unit, which means that they are making a big gamble that with the lower price they can sell enough units to make up for that fact and start making money off the software... and the lower they go the more they lose per unit. This price is extremely low so they must be losing a lot, and that's probably one thing that is reflected in that news.... we'll just have to see how well this gamble pays off for them.

[N_A]

I too said that I thought Nintendo is in some deep shit the moment they announced the DS and Sony announced the PSP. Apparently, it looks like what could be a repeat of the N64 vs PSX in terms of media choice, storage media, game library. Sony's influence will simnply bleed from their momentum of the PS2 over to the PSP.

The problem is, Nintendo should have did some solid work with releasing the next Gameboy, something comparable in power to the GC like the PSP is to the PS2, THEN experiment with the DS.

In terms of the current competitors, I think if Sony is trying to threaten the iPod, Gameboy, and Palm all at once, you haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until Microsoft starts, they'll take home the cake. They'll have a gaming machine, a cell phone, and a Pocket PC all in 1, and then every salary/business man in the world would have one of those.

[A Black Falcon]

Convergence has all the buzz, but has it produced any RESULTS? I haven't seen much. As far as I can see anyway it seems like something that "everyone says is big" but doesn't actually have THAT huge a popular support... at least not in the US... though with stuff like the failure of the PSX in Japan there is some degree of it there as well.

As for how the PSP will do... it will do well as a game console. As a music player or a movie player? I doubt that it'll exactly be competing with the iPod anytime soon. Movies... who knows, it depends if people want to buy films that they can ONLY play in their PSP (yes, I know about GB Video, but that's kids cartoons and only like half an hour, not full movies...)... they try to move into other markets but gaming is the main one and it's where their support will come from. Older age group than past handhelds? Yeah, seems so. But I don't see it destroying the iPod or becoming a major film release platform or anything.

The DS has just as good a chance at some of this too. Nintendo wouldn't do it, but if they wished they could compete with PDAs (the wireless network chat program that comes built into the DS is one thing it does in the realm of 'using touchscreens for things other than games'...)... music? There is already a third party GBA addon that plays music, and for radio, and movies have stuff like GB Video... none are focuses for the system, but it does them and that's all that's really needed (if it's really needed at all).

Sony's influence bleeding over? Somewhat. But Nintendo's hold on the market won't be forgotten, and some people will choose the DS because it's out now and not six months from now or something or because it is truly innovative, which the PSP is most definitely not.

[OB1]

Actually you'll be able to convert movies to MPEG4 and play them on Sony's memory sticks.

[Great Rumbler]

Which would involves using a DVDR drive to convert your DVD movie into MPEG4, getting a Sony memory stick, and then tranfering the movie to the memory stick. Not exactly a quick process and you wouldn't be able to hold very much content on the memory sticks.

[OB1]

If you don't already have a dvd-writer you're a loser. They're like $40.

[Great Rumbler]

Well the other points are still valid! You'd have to get a big memory stick is you want to hold an entire movie, unless you feel like turning down the video quality.

[OB1]

It's the same situation as that awesome compact flash reader for the GBA, but built into the system. That's awesome.

[Great Rumbler]

I was going to use that for MUSIC though, and maybe some Aqua Teen episodes, not full length movies.

[OB1]

Music, why? That's stupid. Just get one of those pen-sized mp3 players.

But yeah, stuff like Aqua Teen or Arrested Development is perfect for a GBA or PSP. That's what I'd put on the memory sticks, not full-length movies. Pfft, your GBA CF player defence applies to the PSP memory stick thing! Silly boy.

[Great Rumbler]

You were talking about MOVIES, so I came and said why MOVIES are going to work that well with a memory stick. Der.

[OB1]

Movies as in videos. Like how we call clips of games "movies".

But movies are definitely possible, depending on the compression and the size of the memory card/stick.

[Great Rumbler]

Well, in any event I won't be getting a $200 portable machine to play music and Aqua Teen on when I can just get that DS add-on for about $50 including the memory card. Of course I may get the PSP for other reasons, though.

[OB1]

...



It's called an added bonus, kiddo.

[Great Rumbler]

You're so mental, OB1.

[OB1]

Yes you are correct, I am mental.

Man, I always thought that insult was the dumbest thing in the world. Even when I was younger I thought the people who used it were such idiots, thinking that the word mental is a bad one by itself. Yes I know they meant it as "mentally retarded", but without the retarded part it just doesn't work as an insult. It's like shortening "great big dork" into "great". "Hey you're such a great!! ROFL!!".

... yeah.

[A Black Falcon]

I don't care that the GBA has a third party SD-card-attachment, so why should I care that the PSP connects to a PC... yeah some people might, mostly for music, but the process to use it for anything else is far beyond most people's intrest. And the PSP's batteries won't last long enough to use it as both a game machine and player for movies or music or anything anyway... :)

[OB1]

Yeah because you'd use all three functions at the same time.

[A Black Falcon]

More than one before charging sure... or more accurately you'd wish you could...