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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.
The original link was messed up. Here is the correct link: Link. I also got a mirror if needed.
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199 Gmail accounts!
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.
A friend is returning from Japan and was contemplating joining the hordes selling the Japanese model on ebay, for up to $400 each. I explained the logistics and other troubles he may encounter and thankfully he elected to drop the scheme. Though he is bringing in the Capcom Travel version of Settlers of Catan for me 8^)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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.
THIS ACCOUNT IS OFFICIALLY RETIRED/RETARDED.
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.
In Japan, the near-PS2 quality portable gaming device sold only about 500k units on account of GPU shortages.
If I recall correctly, the PS2 had a similar problem on its launch--there was a shortage of CPUs.
Who supplies Sony with these processors, and why can they never meet demand?
I got so sick and tired of acronyms while working in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), I came up with my own. S.A.M.B.A. Society Against Making Bad Acronyms.
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.
I'm f#$king magic!
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.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
I have had all kinds of issues with my Playstation 2. Most of them caused by moving and or dropping the console on the floor. I've been able to fix them all thanks to the information one can find on the internet.
The last time I messed up my PS2 was when my cat ran into it and it fell about a foot and a half to the floor. When I picked it up the disk drive was stuck in a semi-in, semi-out position. I took the whole think apart, which required me to seperate the disk drive from the motherboard. When I put everything back together again it worked better that it had in a year.
So even though I agree that early adopters accept a certain amount of fishiness when it comes to consoles, it can also be a useful learning experience for those who like to deal with hardware issues.
Go Gusties