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PSP North American Launch Date

Posted by Zonk on from the not-a-lot-of-detail,-there dept.

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.

12 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Nintendo V Sony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I think that no matter what happens, Nintendo will be hard pressed to keep the throne... or at least hard to keep 50% market share.

  2. Bahhh by yorkpaddy · · Score: -1, Troll

    bahhh, bahhh, new product, must buy.

    --
    "brxref .k.p ,.by xprt. gbe.p.oycmaycbi yd. cby.nci.bj. ru yd. am.pcjab lgxlcj" don'
  3. Brilliant by gowen · · Score: -1, Troll

    The PSP is coming to America. I've long thought that America could do with a few stronger influence of pacifism and socialism on its political scene...

    Oh wait, you meany "Playstation Portable". In which case *Why Didn't You Say So?* Some of us have interests outside of computer gaming you know (Lives, too, I've heard).

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  4. Which division of Nintendo do you work for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Just curious. :)

  5. You %FaiQl It? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    there are only series of internal and shower. F0r something ccol are the important what provides the Engineering project

  6. I was thinking the same thing.. by Viewsonic · · Score: 0, Troll
    Who wants a portable system that only lasts an hour and a half with a game that actually uses the processor for 3d? I can see the Japanese being suckered into it, but not the USA. They didn't have any idea how awful the system life was on these things when they came out.

    Now that we all realise it's just another Gamegear in another case. I'll pass.

  7. Be nice! by Id+guy · · Score: 0, Troll

    Come on man! It's about time that Nintendo gets a little knock back!Those morons have had it coming for years! The PSP is really going to fix thier heads!

    1. Re:Be nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      They already had a "knock back" when the PlayStation took dominance over the N64. I highly doubt that Nintendo is in anyway moronic about the handheld industry.

      They have a tighter stranglehold on the handheld game industry than Microsoft has on the desktop OS industry. Afterall, Linux and Mac have taken whole percentages away from Windows dominance. There hasn't been a non-Gameboy handheld system to take away more than 1% market dominance (worldwide) from Gameboy ever. The Wonderswan came close with 3% in Japan but so much under 1%, close to 0%, worldwide since it didn't release outside of Japan.

      Think about it. Microsoft completely wipes the floor with Apple in desktop OS dominance sure, but if M$ released an "iPod killer" would it kill iPod just because it's from Microsoft? I think not. Just because a company is #1 in one product they sell, doesn't mean they're gonna be #1 in every product they sell. Palm OS's higher popularity over Windows CE/Pocket PC is another good example of this.

      Sony's console dominance in no way determinds their future handheld dominance, which won't happen. Afterall, Nintendo's handheld dominance didn't determind them to get back the console dominance did it?

      Also about seeing Mario, Zelda and Metroid on other systems... it's not going to happen. Nintendo themselves said the day they go too bankrupt to make a new console, is the day they stop making games too. People seem to think that Xbox is #2 worldwide when it's not, Nintendo in fact makes more money from the game industry than anyone else does. If anything, you'll see Jak, Rachet & Clank, and the Getaway joining Crash Bandicoot and Spyro as ex-Sony-exclusives on Nintendo's systems.

  8. Re:Cheap Media Player by Kamalot · · Score: 0, Troll
    It only plays specially formatted MPG4 movies up to 320x240 resolution.

    Files have to be named in a special 8.3 naming convention, all upper case as well, or the PSP won't see them.

    An hour f video fills up a 512 memory stick.

    Read about it here:

    You can only use the memory stick duo pro. All other memory stick formats are unrecognized by the PSP.

    The video aspects are underwhelming, unintuitive, unfriendly and unimpressive.

    http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000980024404

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0, Troll

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Re:I will never buy a sony launch platform by Chemical · · Score: 1, Troll
    Nintendo Hardware = Tank.

    Ah yes, I remember the NES. The flashing purple screens. The futile attempts of blowing the dust off the cartridge. The crossing of fingers and praying that the game would load. Just trying to get the thing to start up was half the fun :)

  11. Re:Erm.. by Kamalot · · Score: 0, Troll

    So, you are going to buy a system knowing that it is broken, but hoping you can spend more money on the battery to fix it? I also like how you doubt that you even play for an hour. Why get one if you aren't even going to play? Your thinking astounds me.