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PSP Pricing, Battery Life Announced
zmcnulty writes "The day has finally come: Over at TechJapan, we've got a translation of a Japanese BB Watch article stating that Sony has announced the Playstation Portable will cost 20,790 yen (about $195 USD) and is to be released on December 12th. Also, the battery life is quoted as being 4 to 6 hours. Not exactly what I'd call fantastic, but at this price, looks like Nintendo is in for some serious competition. Free your doubts about software too, as Sony has announced 21 titles will be released in December as well. Here's the official Japanese PDF press release regarding the PSP's release."
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/dep tpage.asp?wherefrom=search&searchword=psp
The preorder ship date on all of them is 12/20/2004.
Including game titles to be released in December:
Article
That's not really enough. Last time I used my GBA I was on a 12 hour flight. While it's good that the battery is removable it I don't perticaully want to have to buy several (presumably expensive) custom batteries for it. If they had used AA form factor (some digital cameras can take AAs and a special Lion pck) then I could just get a load of cheap rechargables for it.
I think most of the energy consumption will be taken by the screen rather than the drive. This because I'm a proud owner of a Sony MD and I know that Sony MD drives are extremely efficient. The top of the line MD models have ridiculous 100+ hours of battery life using 1 AA battery and one stick battery.
It appears that the UMD is very similar to an MD and if so, the battery life taken up by the drive would probably be similar.
Looks like the English press releases are up (still PDFs, though):
Release date, price
Package details
December launch title list
Also, I apologize for the error I made in formatting the original post. I was sleepy and in a rush.
Nintendo has the right idea, I think. $80 for a brand new Game Boy SP, with older models selling at even cheaper prices.
Just keep in mind that as of 11/21 that $80 Game Boy SP will be an older model. The Nintendo DS rings in at $149.
It'll be the heavy duty 3D processing that sucks up the juice even more.
All of Nintendos battery life times have been longer than advertised. Which is generally the opposite from everyone else.
And many plans are in the works for internet gaming and applications. Keep an eye out for DemaSked.
From the press release:
PSP features an integrated high output lithium-ion battery that provides play time of between 4 and 6 hours for game titles and continuous 4 to 5 hours for video viewing. (SCEI actual measurement) [...] Measurement conditions: display luminance set to maximum (180 cd/m2) and minimum (80 cd/m2) while volume is set to half of the maximum level, headphone in use and wireless LAN not in use.
According to the developer of the PSP in an interview, the PSP should be about as powerful as the PS2, and the batteries are replaceable, so you can carry a spare. Judging by the size of the new PS2, it's easy to believe they fit that kind of power in to a handheld. The question is: Do people really want to be able to take Metal Gear with them wherever they go? By the way, look at that trailer!! Wow if the graphics are that gorgeous, people could be buying a PSP to keep alongside their PS2 as another console.
Nintendo's portable systems are dominated by games like, say, Golden Sun, Megaman: Battle Network, and Pokemon. In each instance, the main character is extremely young, the dialogue is insultingly simple and/or convoluted
Oh, so you think Nintendo's the only one putting out simple, kid-friendly games? Go browse the PS1 and PS2 title lists at GameFAQs sometime.
And that's to say nothing about all the games for Nintendo systems which don't fit your "kiddie" criteria in any way, shape, or form. I notice you didn't bother to list any of those
and Nintendo pulls all sorts of crap like this.
I quote, from the page you linked to -
"Today, Nintendo does not actively censor the games it releases. Games such as the infamous Conker's Bad Fur Day, which include swearing, blood, and sex are now openly published under the Nintendo banner, as long as they carry with them a "M for Mature Gamers" rating."
And also, from a Wikipedia article -
"Upon the advent of the ESRB video game ratings system in 1994, the censorship practices were lessened. However, minor changes to games being localized for the U.S. and European markets are still made on occasion; these are largely left to the individual developer's discretion."
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I didn't say anything about violence in games.
've said it a dozen times on Slashdot: when I want a more mature game, I want a game that isn't insultingly simple to play, or where the main character doesn't act like a little kid, not blood and guts.
As said, Nintendo has tons of such games for their systems. Obviously, though, you haven't even bothered looking for any of them, and you're determined to paint a few titles/series as being indicative of their entire library.
Actually, the 32 megs of RAM was confirmed ages ago.
Posting anonymously since my company is under NDA (though I'm not personally working with this device).
Sony's requirements allow spinning the disk only during level loading and not during gameplay. It seems reasonable that they will relax this if you can pull something incredible off, but expect most games to make minimal use of streaming.
DS is NOT a GBA replacement. It's some sort of bridge between the GB line and the regular console gamecube (third leg they call it). The GB line will continue to get new upgrades independent from the DS. This is something Ninteno has been trieing to get people to figure out and you sir are one of the ignorant masses.