PSP North American Launch Date

captain writes "According to PSP411, Sony C.E. President and CEO Ken Kutaragi announced today at CES 2005 that the PSP will have a North American launch in March, followed by Europe around the same time. In Japan, the near-PS2 quality portable gaming device sold only about 500k units on account of GPU shortages. While the price and exact date aren't entirely clear, the USD equivalent of the Japanese sale price is a little under $200USD. Some are speculating that the price could be even lower to contest Nintendo DS's long-held portable gaming throne even further." Some good writeups about the announcement at Gamespot and 1up.com.

Comments

I will never buy a sony launch platform

[MakoStorm]

Because I was one of the massess that felt the sting of the PS2 Disc Read Error monster.

Sorry Sony, I am going to wait 2 years before I will buy it.

However I love my Nintendo DS :-)
Nintendo Hardware = Tank.

Re:I will never buy a sony launch platform

[xgamer04]

This didn't have anything to do with the console (logic) itself, but with the way that the catridge connection was designed. Nintendo made a huge effort to make sure that the NES in America wasn't perceived as the "toy" that the Famicom looked like in Japan, so they made it look more like a VCR. The "zero insertion force" connections were very susceptible to dust, though, so it got the reputation of being unreliable. Mine still works, though.

Re:Brilliant

[Jane_the_Great]

This article was posted to the games section, Sony was mentioned in the summary, and doing a google search for "Sony PSP" yields, as the first result, "IGN PSP: PlayStation Portable Games, PSP Cheats and PlayStation ..."

There are lots of things to complain about with pretty much everything that gets posted to Slashdot. You have stumbled upon one thing that is not a problem.

Every time an acronym gets posted, it should be explained? That seems a little silly, don't you think? How hard is it for you to talk some personal responsibility and figure out what the acronym is referring to in the context it is given. And for fuck's sake, Sony is mentioned, there's a Playstation icon used - what more do you want?

Nice troll, btw.

Price

[telstar]

Sony will likely take a big loss on the device in order to challenge Nintendo, just like Microsoft did with the XBOX to challenge Sony. The difference between the two is that the XBOX could be used with standard non-proprietary media and converted to a stand-alone media center ... bringing no more revenue to Microsoft. The PSP, as I understand it, requires that users either use Sony's new disc format or Sony's memory stick. They're almost guaranteed to derive at least some profit from the sale of games or memory for the device. Seems to me that Sony can afford to take a huge hit in device price to encourage more users to buy.

Re:Processor Shortages and Sony

[stratjakt]

It's an artificial shortage to drive up demand, silly.

Look how wildly popular the PS2 was when there weren't enough for it's christmas launch. The DS was the "hot item" this year.

You get all kinds of free publicity, every time some housewife is bludgeoned to death in a Wal-Mart parking lot, everyone watching the news thinks "now that's the perfect monetary expression of the christmas spirit! Must buy!"

Tickle-me-elmo's and Cabbage Patch dolls still sell well, based on Christmas shortages past alone. They get ingrained in the public mind as some sort of "gotta have it" perennial christmas favorite.

Re:Erm..

[j.bellone]

I thought we'd already heard how the PSP is poorly made, ha sno battery life and we shouldn't touch it incase it falls apart/gets scratched.

And the Nintendo DS interferes with Television signals; what's your point? Every system has problems when it's first launched. Yes, you are right though, the major problem happens to be the battery life of the system.

The damn thing is rechargeable, extra batteries are more than affordable, and I don't plan on playing this thing for more than an hour at a time (if that at all). Sure it may not be a viable platform of entertainment for you, but hell, everyone has different needs.

For me, it all comes down to what the games bring. At first I didn't like the DS at all; after watching people play it, playing some games myself, I'm reconsidering buying one. Sure there aren't *that* many games that I want to play, but I'm sure some will come out. I feel the same way about the PSP right now; but not having played one myself I'm reserving my choice until I get that chance.

TLA?

[E IS mC(Square)]

Something like TLA (TLA Licensing Agency)?

Re:Nintendo V Sony

[UWC]

I suppose as has been pointed out countles times, PSP is aimed at a significantly different market than the GBA is. And the DS is kind of floating out there in some weird other market that probably intersects with the GBA and the PSP in some areas.

At $200 with $50 games, the PSP is in more of a luxury range than is the $80 GBA SP with games ranging from $10 to $35. I've not made the following comparison before, and it still might not be valid, as there are several orders of cost magnitude difference in this parallel, but it's like assuming that since some manufacturer is introducing a line of luxury cars, Ford will start losing buyers of its Taurus. Obviously, the market size and selection is significantly larger than the handheld gaming market, which, again, is why I'm still not sure I'm making a valid comparison.

My point, though, is that the PSP may draw away a few older gamers that didn't have much other choice than to buy Nintendo (you know they don't want an nGage), but its larger effect is more likely that it will draw a new group of people into the handheld gaming market. I doubt the new influx of consumers will be enough to dethrone Nintendo's dominance, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Re:Not to hard to take out the DS

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry but I played at least 12 different games that were blockbusters on my DS the day I got it.

there are over 1000 games that will play on the DS right now.

or are you trying to ignore the entire SP game selection that works awesome in the DS??