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

Region lockout?

[Frac]

Deering went on to say that although there'll be no difference between the PSP consoles sold in PAL and NTSC territories, there will be regional encoding for movies, similar to that used on DVDs.

Great. Will there be regional encoding for games too?

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...

[PainKilleR-CE]

It's possible that the relatively low incomes that the working and middle classes in USA have, have lead to Minidisc players being too expensive for most people and their kids.

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.

Minidisc never really took off in the US because it had a poor selection of titles at launch and the hardware to record to Minidisc was too expensive initially. Plus, the format came out too soon after adoption of CDs spread. It's had a recent surge from some people looking for alternatives to CDs in car stereos, though.

No one is looking for pre-recorded minidiscs any more, though, which is a good thing since no one carries them anyway.

Region encoding is just bs, and the manufacturers of consoles would have less to complain about in terms of piracy rates if their consoles were region free. Fewer people (though admittedly probably not quite as few as some would like to believe) would be modding their consoles if they could import games and have them just work. Even the GameCube allows region switching without modding it, although it's not as simple as just putting in a game from another region, like the GBA. Unfortunately, the US is still big on region encoding, and it's still pretty hard to find a DVD player that comes region free out of the box, though it's not hard to find little 'easter eggs' that unlock region free operation for most of the current models if you look around on the internet.

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:Is there a market?

[SmallFurryCreature]

mmm, is there a market.

I could be wrong but isn't the gameboy the best selling computer/console ever? The portable entertainment market is gigantic.

Maybe it is different when you drive a car but when using public transport, portable entertainment becomes extremely attrictive. I think a good 50% is reading a book, listening to music or playing with their phone. Train/bus/tram travel is boring. A good piece of entertainment means youre time spent waiting is spend well. Perhaps even better then those who get there quicker in a car.

As for the playing movies bit, didn't that a HD mp3 player maker come out with one that could play movies? (not apple or creative). This one could obviously record movies (HD) but then again sony is a content owner. They might not be ready to let people do their own drm.