Sony Europe Boss On PSP

Thanks to GameSpot for posting an article summarizing the recent comments of Sony Europe boss Chris Deering about the newly announced PlayStation Portable (PSP). Speaking at the ELSPA Games Summit in London, Deering gave no official hints regarding hardware pricing for the PSP, but said the UMD format software "could retail for anything up to 60 euros ($71) - the majority of games would sell for between 20 and 30 euros ($24-35)" - but note that normally-priced PS2/Xbox games in Europe cost around 60 euros. Deering also mentioned that movies available for the PSP will have region encoding, much like DVDs currently do. Finally, the original news report at UK publication Indie Magazine quotes the SCEE boss as saying: "I think [PSP] can be in fact synergistic and dynamically collaborative with GameBoy" - quite a different attitude compared to Nokia.

Comments

Let's actually hear something

[redune45]

I really am starting to get tired of the hype about the PSP. I am very excited about the system, but still isn't it about time that we were actually told something usefull about the system: Stats, Games, Price.

Not a games machine...

[Dot.Com.CEO]

I see the psp as the next generation of minidisc, a technology that, unfortunately, few people are aware of. I have been a minidisc user for years and I believe that with the netmd sony got it right. Excellent sound quality (compared with mp3s, at least), lightweight, and acceptable drm. The psp will be the minidisc of the video age. It will have music, video and games, all in a convenient package. I don't understand why the editors of /. (simoniker might be the only exception) and most other "online journalists" fail to see both the psp and the psx for what they are: multi-faceted hardware that does well in a variety of tasks. I don't care about the gaming capabilities of the psp myself, but I can't wait to have an acceptably good, truly portable format for movies. And do not doubt that Sony will permit recording of movies on those disks - maybe non-css encoded only (home movies, for example), but it is trivial to de-css a movie and mount the iso as a virtual disk in all modern OSs.

The only thing I think is stupid is the region encoding. That rules out sales of movies at airports for long flights, but I guess that a way will be found to overcome this limitation.

Re:Not a games machine...

[Inexile2002]

Portable MD players run $130-350. Portable CD/MP3 players from Sony run $90-150. None of these are what seems to be outside the reach of the middle class in the US.

You have a deeply skewed idea of what people can afford. $130-350 represents the entire monthly disposable income of more than half the families in the US. The "middle class" is a shrinking minority. I assure you, the number of mini-disk players in the backpacks of students in a given highschool varies in direct proportion to where that highschool is.

Is there a market?

[sebi]

From the original article:
âoeMaybe it might compete with people on the planes, but in the school yard I donâ(TM)t think people will be able to walk around with the PSP and treat it as roughly as you do with Game Boy. So itâ(TM)s trying for a new part of the market to escape the TV, for the shorter leisure time slots that are seeming to be a factor.â

Is there a portable market outside the one the Game Boy satisfies? Movies on the go might make some sense, but what about games? When you play the GB at home it's because it is the only current system playing classic SNES era games. I suppose the PSP would play Playstation era games. At home you can have that on your normal console and if it's not durable enough to be used on the go then why get it in the first place? Sony haven't got the same awe-inspiring back catalogue that Nintendo has, have they? If that is their idea of a modern Walkman then they are in for a surprise. The Walkman was great, because you could easily convert your music to a transportable version. I don't know that for sure, but I suppose that people bought much more music on record or CD than on tape. Now we are supposed to buy the films a second time? If you could copy the movie from a DVD to this thing that would be a completely different story, but in the current climate it is never going to happen.

Re:Region lockout?

[SmallFurryCreature]

Of course there will be. Evil gamers who buy imported games must be stopped because ehm because because..... else the terrorist will have WON!

Seriously what is it with region encoding. Aren't we supposed to have a global economy? Or does this just mean that manufacturers are free to produce where they want at the cheapest prices regardless of local condiditions but customers are not free to buy?

Nah surely that cannot be it. It would be like suggesting that all those open trade deals the EU and the US have with third world nations benefit the EU and US only.

Does anyone have a clue why some companies still insist on region encoding? Some anime companies seem to make it a point to make their dvd's region free. Doesn't this make it a lot easier to sell? One pressing, ship anywhere?

What is the problem for sony if I buy an imported japanese game. Hell if it uses dvd style region encoding for some weird reason japan and eu are the same anyway. I guess evil americans must be stopped.