Sony PSP Hardware Completed

An anonymous reader writes "Sony CEO Ken Kutaragi has today announced that Sony has finished work on the Playstation Portable hardware, and the handheld is scheduled to be released later this year. No details have emerged on the pricing of the PSP, but Kutaragi stated that plans for movies on the UMD - the disc format the PSP will use , are now in the final stages."

Comments

portable media

[alatesystems]

Regarding movie playback, I hope that they allow for portable storage attachments, allowing use of the PSP as a portable media center. I'd buy one if it did this.

Chris

Re:portable media

[karnal]

On a related topic, Sony probably won't allow anyone to put anything on these UMD discs... but I know for a fact if I'm buying a handheld gaming system, I'm not going to put more money into a movie collection so I can watch them on the go.

I think they'll find that the majority of the market would agree with me as well. But I also say that as a guy who has no children.......

Re:portable media

[GoodbyeBlueSky1]

You would think Sony would have learned from their MiniDisc to avoid proprietary media with Draconian restrictions. Not that MD has been a total flop, but, you know, neither was BetaMax. Still doesn't make it a success.

Then again it's not like they can make a portable gaming system capable of playing DVDs (unless you consider an etch-a-sketch sized machine "portable").

But I do agree with you totally; I have no desire to re-buy my movie collection for such limited use.

Here's my suggestion:
First off, let me start by saying I thought the idea of divx (the circuit city one, not the avi one) was quite stupid. Couldn't see any use for it. But....what if there was a similar divx-type UMD disc (it plays for, say, a week then dies)? EA could pack in a free week's worth of LOTR for a PSP Rings game. Or Blockbuster could offer a $1 UMD add-on to any game rental. THEN I think I'd find ways to watch movies on the PSP.

Otherwise, it looks like one of those features I'd never use.

Re:portable media

[pocopoco]

They've already announced the PSP will have a MemoryStick slot and Sony already sells video recorders that record video onto those. So you can stop hoping and start complaining about Sony's stupid proprietary formats/lock-ins, etc..

Is it really finished?

[Cutriss]

It seems that this is more of just a well-timed announcement to try to steal some of the wind from Nintendo's sails. Everyone knows the PSP is going to be expensive, and the Nintendo DS having a lower-than-expected MSRP of $149 has surprised a lot of people.

I would not at all be surprised if it was just "finished enough" for an announcement. Sony has done this before.

DS

[StevenHenderson]

It will be interesing to see how Sony re-adjusts their pricing plan now that the DS low-balled them at $149. That makes it a necessity for Sony to be less than $250 to competitive...maybe even $200 I'd say.

Re:DS

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it is stated that their price in Japan will be 33000Y, over $300 American. I doubt they will be able to reduce the price much from there, considering the amount of industry people that are surprised at that price. Most of them expected it to come in at $499!

Re:DS

[gl4ss]

unless ds turns out to be another virtua boy with gamers.

(you know, a neat idea but just doesn't fly)

Re:DS

[tolan-b]

Considering the supposed sweetspot for home consoles is around $200, I can't see this getting much takeup except for early adopters until mass production brings the price down..

Re:DS

[mrgreen4242]

The DS has some protection from ending up as a virtualboy level flop... it plays GBA games, which is the biggest selling console still available (of all time?). That combined with its fairly low price should keep it from being a complete flop.

I still have high hopes for it as a game machine that will (eventually, with the right software) fullfill basic PDA and portable communications needs.

Seems like alot of PDA users have a machine that they want to do basic address book, note taking, etc with (things that that Palm, or even Newton) could do years and years ago, but want to be able to check their mail, do some limited webbrowsing and chatting, play games on, especially older emulated systems, and also use as a multimedia player on the go.

For games, the DS has an PDA out there licked from the start, and it has all the hardware you would need for web, email, chat, and basic PDA functions, just lacks the software. Sadly, I don't see any good way to get multimedia content onto the DS, otherwise it could really be a great all in one gadget. (The PSP tries to do that, but is going to fail due to the high cost of getting content onto it, and, for web/pda type stuff, lack of a touch screen/non-gaming type controls).

Re:DS

[TechniMyoko]

And the source that said that was called by Sony and told they were wrong. They admitted it shortly afterwards.

Re:DS

[gyrojoe]

Nintendo is, and hopefully always will be, about games. They have stated this numerous times before. When the Cube first came out it was criticized for not being able to play DVDs (you could get a Panasonic Q though). This strategy is somewhat similar to the Unix/Linux philosophy about command line tools. A tool should do one thing and it do it well. Having PDA functions in a gaming device (or similarly, a DVD player in a console) is almost like having a web browser as an integral part of the OS :)

In short, I am relieved that they didn't include PDA functions in the DS. I have a PDA already and I don't want to be paying for things that I don't need. If PDA functions are made available, great, I just won't buy it.

Re:DS

[mrgreen4242]

I agree that adding any sort of PDA type functions to the DS firmware would have been a mistake. The needed space for a decent PDA and basic communications package would have added at least 4 or 6 megs of flash space (gotta be patchable!), plus some decent amount for user data, so maybe 8 or 12 altogether. The cost of also writing said software and supporting it would have added an unneeded expense to the system, which is not aimed at people who want a PDA.

Nintendo has stated they don't plan to develop any non-game software for it, and I am glad they have. It would be a disaster, as they seem to market to kids almost exclusively, and I don't want a Pokeman themed PDA suite. However, they have also stated that other developers should feel free to do this sort of thing. Even with that, I am still looking to the opensource/community for the best package in this games. Once some 'developer' cards become available, and some sort of development enviroment is released, this is the kind of software that homebrewers excel at. On the other hand, I don't want to wait that long, so maybe Palm wil get in on the act and release something snazzy with the Nintendo Seal of Approval.

Ideally I'd like just something basic: graphitti style handwrighting recognition, an address book, a notepad app that doubles as a universal document reader, an alarm clock/timer type program, a webbrowser, based on konqueor maybe, a simple email client, multo platform chat, or at least AOL, and a file management program to let me sync data back and forth from my PC to my DS wirelessly. A media player that streams audio and low bitrate video from a server computer would be kinda snazzy, too, but really superfalous(sp?). Some decent amount of on card flash memory, maybe 16 or 32 megs, would be plenty for what it needs to do. even 8 would probably suffice.

As it is I am hesitant to get a DS when they launch (I've got a GBA atm, and would get a DS before a PSP in almost any case). I'll either wait until it can double as a portable wireless web/email/chat device or a must have MMORPG or a price drop to $99 to get one.

Oh, as to the previous reply, the DS has integrate 802.11b so a USB syncing PDA cart would be uneeded, much better to utilize the wireless. Something like that for the GBA would be doable, but seems like the limited input capabilies and smallish screen would be a limiting factor.

Compared to the DS announcement...

[MMaestro]

This is newsworthy? No, seriously on the part of Sony.

No details have emerged on the pricing of the PSP, but Kutaragi stated that plans for movies on the UMD - the disc format the PSP will use , are now in the final stages.

Thats it? The disc format? Comon Sony, Nintendo just bitch slapped you with a release date AND a price of $150! At least give us a price range. Compared to the DS announcement this is a 'so what' announcement.

Sony certainly needs the PSP to make an impression at the Tokyo Game Show after mounting speculation that the handheld will slip to 2005, and rumours of discontent amongst PSP developers surfaced recently.

Personally, I think Sony should stop trying to beat Nintendo at its own game and get its act together first. They're not going in during the golden age of DVD players flying off shelves, nor are they going in with an entire library of games behind it. Best case scenario for Sony at this rate? They fight a long drawn out battle only to go down in flames a la Sega Game Gear.

Re:Compared to the DS announcement...

[hibiki_r]

The lack of a price range announcement IS a price range announcement IMO. If the PSP was going to cost $200-$250, the price would have been announced already. Do you think that a $350 price announcement would help them at all against the DS? I think that Nintendo would benefit from that kind of announcement more than Sony.

Sony is not the kind to hide good news, in fact, they'll overhype anything they have. Remember the PS2 as a supercomputer claims?. From their actions we can guess that it's going to be at least twice as expensive as the DS.

sony's should just keep quiet

[dr.fishopolis]

the psp seemed beautiful when it was announced, yet every detail released tarnishes it.

at this point, we have a $300, oversized-yet-portable game player with 3 hour battery life, and the ability to play movies on a propietary format that you can't record to... don't worry though, i'm sure you'll be able to re-pay for the movies you own, so you can watch them for a few hours on the 3" screen before the battery dies...

... but that IS a a nice screen.

all we need now is some kind of phone attachment, and sony can have their very own n-gage.

On the announcement...

[Bagels]

Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that this is Sony's way of saying "We toned down the hardware a bit so that our pricing/battery life could be competitive with the DS"? I don't mean to sound like a troll here, but they have had a *long* history of scaling back their hardware before it's released... look at the recent debacle over the PSX and all the features they cut from it before its release.

Damage control

[clu76]

I believe Sony is doing damage control by releasing this information. I have serious doubts the PSP will be sold by the end of the year. It's much more likely that they are just trying to delay consumers from buying the DS. If the DS does reasonably well pre x-mas, and gains a lot of momentum, Sony will have a much harder time selling their product. As nice as the PSP sounds, I really have doubts that it'll have the same impact the playstation had. imho

Re:Member of the Minority

[drinkypoo]

Unless you get pro quality gear, minidisc is not the same quality as a CD. Minidisc uses ATRAC3, a sort of cross between MP2 and MP3 audio, in order to achieve good compression. Sony units are known to perform an EQ pass to make the audio sound better. Only pro gear stores uncompressed 16 bit 44.1kHz audio on minidisc, and IIRC it only stores 30 minutes or so. The new minidiscs hold considerably more, and I don't know much about them, perhaps there's recording equipment that uses them now. Nonetheless the old minidisc gear that was uncompressed didn't fit in your hand, unless I missed a fairly important product.