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

Messed up link

[Grant29]

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!

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.

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.

Processor Shortages and Sony

[TarrVetus]

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?

Re:Processor Shortages and Sony

[basilisk12]

Sony has a joint venture with Toshiba that does all of their manufacturing. Rumor has it that they have only one 90nm capable facility, so they need to split time there between the PSP and the chip for the slimline PS2.

Re:Processor Shortages and Sony

[TarrVetus]

Rumor has it that they have only one 90nm capable facility...

That explains why Sony is spending $1.6 billion on the next plant for the PS3 Cell processors. I guess all of those unit shortages are eating into their profits and reputation, so they need a bigger plant for the next generation of processors.

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.