PSP official details announced

Retr0gamer

The details are on www.eurogamer.net

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57030

Looks like its coming sooner than expected. Battery life is stated at 4-6 hours for games which could be eh, rounded up but hopefully not. I'll believe it when I see the reviews.

The most surprising thing is the price. Its quite cheap, about 145 euros compared to the DS price of 117 euros. Either Sony are willing to make a huge loss on the system to give it a competitive price or nintendo are ripping us off with their hardware. Either could be true. No news on American or European launch date.

Jim

What happened to all the reports of up to €300 for a system?
Tbh that seemed to be the main reason people were buying the DS over it, that and the battery life. (the actual games don't seem to be an issue for most people)

Creamy Goodness

at them prices i'll consider buying both, sony must be willing to make a serious loss.

Retr0gamer

I'd say the Sony hardware is going at a serious loss. Hopefully this doesn't up the prices of the games. I was going to get both so the cheaper price makes me happy. If the PSP has no region coding I'll be importing.

Tusky

wow...that is very cheap. Must say if it does end up being that price I will be super impressed with Sony.

Dont know which one to buy now...depends on the price of the games I guess...

Kiith

i seriously doubt i'll get either one. the psp is too big to use it as anything other than a gaming platform, and i usually end up putting them down after about two weeks. i'll also stick to my iPod for music.

Jim

Think I'll stick with my GBASP, its handy enough to play when I'm waiting for things on my PC to load.

Placebo

guys 4 hrs ? thats a bit dodgy, this isnt music we are talking about.
You would want to play it in your bed for hours (with no wires)/

but its cheap nonetheless- i do think sony = loss too, they whole hardware spec seems expensive.

rainbow kirby

That battery life would put me right off. That's 4-6 hours with all possible battery-saving precautions taken. I like getting 15 hours out of my GBA SP.

L5

Ill be avoiding it like the plague until the battery improves. 4-6 hours? With normal use that means 2-3 hours, judging by apples 8 hours claimed for ipod, i got 4 hours MAX

honru

While battery life is still an issue, the pricing literally had me stunned. It'll probably land here at €200 with tax and that little extra bit added on cause it's Ireland, but if there's (hopefully) no region locking, I can just import one from the US. All I need to see now are the games, interested in Vampire Chronicle. I'll give it a few months to see if it's worth it.

Illuvatar

I could agree with some of you the battery life is not THAT GREAT but it could be worse. I'll most likely get one because of Sony's games (especially MGS Acid) and when I'm bored on the road it'll keep me busy. In the U.S. it's supposed to be (from what I've read) $149. Like I said that's what I've read. I'm not good with changing currency into U.S. dollars. And besides the entire point of buying one is to play the games not listen to music, watch dvd's, ect. those are just plus'.

Retr0gamer

But 4-6 hours is probably an exaggeration (emotion engine anyone?) And 4 hours still isn't an awful long time.

honru

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=7878

This morning’s PSP announcement has taken many people off guard, with its surprisingly reasonable pricing; and speaking to Forbes this morning, Ken Kutaragi has explained how this was made possible; or, in Kutaragi-san’s own words, how “[Sony] set a price that’s just right to hit a sweet spot.” Apparently this decision was reached, in part, by wandering around the Sony offices, asking employees how much they’d pay for one. It may not be the most comprehensive, cutting edge market research technique ever conceived, but the conclusions drawn do seem quite acceptable.

Quite simply, the machine is being sold for considerably less than it’s worth. Sony readily admits this and has conceded that it doesn’t expect to see any profit until the next fiscal year. Indeed, that has been based on projected hardware sales; although ones that may or may not be reachable.

Sony is looking to shift 200,000 units for the initial Japanese launch of December 12th (contrasting with Nintendo’s delivery of 300,000 DS’s ten days prior). It then expects to reach the 500,000 mark by the end of the year, hoping to touch the 1,000,000 point by March 2005. It will certainly be interesting to see if the reality reflects this fairly positive outlook.

To get close to these figures, there will be a fundamental need for a wide spread of top-notch games: and that’s something many would still call into question. This concern is made all the more poignant by Kuturagi’s response to questioning about early software releases: “We have to get the momentum going first on PSP sales.” That jars uncomfortably against the argument that games are a primary factor in momentum-gathering for hardware sales.

As Tokyo-based analyst from UFJ Tsubasa Securities, Kazuya Yamamoto, observes: “Sony will put up a good fight by setting a price that’s cheaper than expected. But everything still depends on how widespread it can become as a games machine.”

evad_lhorg

tbh honest i was lookin forward to ds more but im not liking the line up. metroid and viewtiful joe are what im after. no zelda yet either.

ObeyGiant

For those considering importing, remember that the menus will all be in kanji, possibly with no option to switch languages.

But I'm sure for some people that added bit of esoterica will just increase its appeal.

rainbow kirby

It'd make me work harder at my Japanese!

Peteee

first post!

the price surprised me, (interesting method of pricing too) i'll definetly be picking this up when i go on co-op along with a healtily sized memory stick so it'll double as one of these new fangled mpeg layer 3 players.

about the battery life, it could be better, but my experience with sony batteries is good (camcorder battery especially, still keeps 110 mins charge even after 2 years and countless charges)

does anybody know if it an infolithium battery, its a proprietry (i think, this is sony after all) system that tells you exactly how much battery life you have left, depending on current battery usage i.e palying mp3's is gonna be differnt from playing GT4. tis pretty handy to know how much battery time is remaining imho

Placebo

well on the other side 145 isnt ALOT of money, comapred to some music players (ipod = reaching 400) this plays videos and what not so its quite good.
Im more leaning towards sony than DS.

honru

Good news, the PSP will be region-free;

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=7890

After yesterday’s announcement of an official Japanese release date, the question of whether or not the PSP will be region-locked has once again surfaced to the fore. And the good news is, as suggested by certain murmurings on the SPOnG forums yesterday evening, it’s not region locked (at least, not for games). Speaking to IGN on behalf of SCEA, Molly Smith stated “For games on PSP there is no region code. However, due to language and system issues, quality assurance procedures are done in each territory. Therefore, we recommend purchasing both the hardware and corresponding software in the same market/territory.”

Clearly, Sony doesn’t want potential PSP owners importing willy-nilly, and they are cautioning people against doing so. But equally clearly, many people aren’t going to be remotely deterred by those slightly vacuous words of warning. Sony has brought up issues of possible regional differences between multiplayer features, and of course, the fairly obvious points that Japanese games are mostly written in Japanese (or even spoken, with regards to certain virtual pet games). But, at the end of the day, the PSP is being released in Japan soon: and that is enough of a reason for many to investigate the possibilites.

So there are potential problems, and there is still no official word on the possibility of universal UMD movies, or rather the issue of regional coding is still “undecided”; but it seems that Sony has followed Nintendo’s suit, and the most determined gamers will be able to select what they want from where they want.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle in acquiring an early import is the simple fact that the initial shipment is for only 200,000 units. Take into account the size of the Japanese gaming public, and the enthusiastic fanboys from everywhere else on the globe, and there probably won’t be enough to go round without paying some sort of ludicrous premium. Not that we're saying we're not tempted.

the_syco

If one of them can play DVD's, I'll think about buying it, as the cheapest portable DVD player is about €500!

Retr0gamer

Looks like I'm sold:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=57

And I will be importing. The game will probably be crap and FFVII should have been left alone but I'll still get it just like FFX-2.

i_am_dogboy

the_syco wrote:

If one of them can play DVD's, I'll think about buying it, as the cheapest portable DVD player is about €500!

A handheld console that can play dvd's? Not any time soon, sony are using their own format disks for the movies on the PSP, and i think it's doubtful that you'll see many of them get a european release....

To be honest there's nothing to attract me to either of the handhelds except the prospect of sending stupid pictures to some stranger who just happens to have a DS and be in the same train as me.

Peteee

Frankly any one who says that PSP's or DS's should paly DVD's should take a look at the size of dvd's

they dont really fit in your pocket do they?