Sony Announces PSP Launch Date

Today we have word that Sony has announced a U.S. launch date and price for their upcoming PSP handheld. The date? March 24th, and the unit will retail for $249.99 when it hits the street. From the article: "the PSP Value Pack contains ... [a] 32 MB Memory Stick, headphones with remote control, battery pack, AC adaptor, soft case and cleaning cloth, movie/music/game video sampler UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos, and for the first one million PSP Value Packs shipped, a special UMD video release of the feature film Spider-Man(TM) 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment."

Comments

with this price

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

I assume they are shooting for a niche market, and therefore will not have to compete with the Nintendo DS (at least not yet). If they can get a foothold in the handheld market, this may be a way for a top down sort fo approach.

Re:with this price

[American AC in Paris]

The Game Boy, while succesful, has always been seen as a childs toy.

No, the Game Boy has always been seen as the undisputed king of handheld gaming. If you wanted handheld gaming, you got a Game Boy; that the market for handheld gaming systems has traditionally been saturated by younger consumers is not the fault of the Game Boy.

There has yet to be a single entry that has even come close to challenging Nintendo's dominance in this arena; while the PSP may stand the best chance yet, let's not re-write history to make the Game Boy seem like something it really isn't.

The PSP with its sexy design, playstation type games and ability to play movies will appeal to the same 15 - 25 male demographic that has made the playstation so successful.

The biggest reason the 15-25 male demographic has been the "big" demographic in video games has more to do with the relatively short history of video gaming in general than anything. You're seeing so many 15-25 year-old males because they're the ones who were playing Nintendo and Sega Master System back when video games really were considered toys for little boys--and by and large the only people playing them were little boys. Now that video games are becoming more mainstream--now that they're no longer seen as the exclusive domain of small children and nerds--you're going to see a much broader market for this kind of thing. Heck, we're seeing it already.

I'm not saying that PSP isn't going to become a serious force--it may yet, I honestly don't know--all I'm saying is that you're making some erroneous assumptions. The world of video games looks radically different today than it did ten years ago, and a lot of the old assumptions really aren't valid anymore.

(On a tangent: I'm not convinced that the "playstation-style games" are going to go over as well on a handheld-sized screen. Part of the reason handheld games so often look cartoony is that it is very, very hard to do the realistic, highly-detailed game environments we've come to expect from consoles on a small screen. What looks stunning on a television often looks cluttered, nondescript and smudgy on a handheld screen...)

Re:with this price

[EpsCylonB]

It plays Game Boy games, it's killer launch title is Mario 64. It's Nintendo which people associate with a "for kids" image. Bearing all that in mind it's fanbase is likely to be made up largely of former GB and GBA owners.

Re:with this price

[Bill_the_Engineer]

The biggest reason the 15-25 male demographic has been the "big" demographic in video games has more to do with the relatively short history of video gaming in general than anything. You're seeing so many 15-25 year-old males because they're the ones who were playing Nintendo and Sega Master System back when video games really were considered toys for little boys--and by and large the only people playing them were little boys. Now that video games are becoming more mainstream--now that they're no longer seen as the exclusive domain of small children and nerds--you're going to see a much broader market for this kind of thing. Heck, we're seeing it already.

I would have to disagree with your premise. I remember Pong, and I have personally owned a Intellivision, Magnavision, Atari 2600 & 800, Sega and Sega Genesis . I had friends that owned the Colecovision, Comodore 64, and Nintendo. At 37, I have to say that my age group 35-41 are pretty avid gamers. That said, let me make an observation.

I never got a Gameboy, because let's face it most Nintendo games are marketed to the younger crowd. I am more of a Grand Turismo type rather than a Mario-Cart type.

Also I have outgrown the platform games from the 80's, so I tend to go for First Person Games and the like. Sony recognizes this and produce products that appeal to me. They also know that I can afford the extra power required to run these games, so the PSP is born.

I fear that handheld devices are a dying market in general. PDA sales are down for the 3rd year in a row, and I don't see a huge growth market in handheld games. I wish Sony luck in their new venture.

$249? Ouch!

[XxtraLarGe]

I thought they were going for about $179 to be competitive with the Nintendo DS. Looks like it'll be a year or two before I even consider getting one of these bad boys. Besides, it's best off not to be an early adapter--hold back and wait for a decent game library to develop.

Re:$249? Ouch!

[SilentChris]

As I mentioned in another post, Sony is not competing with the DS. They're competing with just about every portable video player on the market (and the eventual iPod Video, whenever they decide to release one). The DS is a game player that's wireless. The PSP is a game player that's wireless, plays MP3s and plays movies (just pop a MPEG4 on a Memory Card). The only limitation to its success will be memory card storage costs. At $250, comparing the PSP to portable video players, with that quality a screen... it's a steal.

Re:$249? Ouch!

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that Sony IS competing with the DS. It's called the PSP (PlayStation Portable), not the Sony MediaMan. It's sold in game stores. Most interest so far has been from the gaming community.

Who would buy such a device?

1. Children

They don't usually make high-end purchases themselves. Parents will likely make them choose ONE portable game platform. Higher platform cost PLUS higher software cost (and we are talking $15-$20 more PER GAME, plus Memory Stick costs) will be a dealbreaker for many parents. Oh, and no Pokemon for the PSP, ever. Lots of kids like/want Pokemon.

2. Adult Gamefans

Large disposable income, so higher costs aren't a problem. But the PSP is not pocket-sized (like iPod or Game Boy Advance). Only question is- where do they play it? Commuting? Sure- hope you can save frequently. At work? No. While driving? Hopefully not. At home? Why play on a four inch PSP screen when you can play essentially the same game on your much larger home screen. Who chooses to play Grand Turismo on a MUCH smaller screen?

Nintendo DS also offers unique content with a touchscreen component- seems like a better value to me. PSP Networking assumes you have 3 or 4 pals who also have $250 to drop on a handheld only (versus $175 for DS WITH A GAME). Again, why play on the four inch screen versus the 27 inch? What's the killer app? Nintendo already has Mario, Mariokart, Zelda, and Metroid games for the DS, all proven brands with unique DS elements and enhancements. The Metal Gear game for the PSP is a turn-based card game, not a regular port. More money for less content? Who wants that?

Also, what's special about, say, Grand Theft Auto on the PSP? You can take it with you? Where? Where do wealthy adults go where they have no access to a TV but can play games? Business meetings? I can get a CAR with a Playstation 2 in it, why do I need a handheld at all? Kids don't control the TV all the time, that makes sense to me. Mom watches Survivor, you play Mario. Mom drives, you play Mario. Mom is on line at the supermarket, you play Mario. Kids have a LOT of free time to carry games around and not a lot of control over finances or the household.

3. Adult nongamers

I buy the multimedia argument. But why on earth would this person pay extra to be able to play games? If they are not a gamer, the idea of portable Playstation is unlikely to excite them. Can you get e-mail on it? If not, no business use whatsoever. The screen quality is excellent, but it uses proprietary media. I can watch a portable DVD player and use my regular DVDs with a similar form factor and much lower cost. If money is no object, a laptop is the obvious solution.

FYI, I have no dog in this hunt- handhelds are not that useful for me. But if I were buying a system, I would be sold on Nintendo's lower cost, unique content, and the Nintendo brand's reputation for quality.

If the PSP was only slightly more expensive than the DS, and the software was similarly priced, the bigger, better screen and movie capability would make me think twice. But, it's cheaper for me to just get an XBox as a second console at this point- the games would be CHEAPER than the PSP ones. And the console is half the price.

The PSP strikes me as a solution in search of a problem. IMHO, Sony should have focused only on games and delivered a better gaming experience for a lower/equal price to the DS. Only Nintendo offers serious competition in the handheld gaming category. They can be beaten.

EVERYONE else in the electronics biz will offer media devices soon, including Apple, which already locked up 70% of the portable music market. If iPod Video lets you transfer the content of your own DVDs from your home computer the same easy way iTunes lets you transfer your music from CDs, Sony is royally screwed. No one is going to want to move individual files onto memory sticks (does that even work with files from commercially available DVDs?) when they can just plug in a cord and walk away. Good luck with 128MB memory sticks when Apple advertises that you can carry entire seasons of Buffy or the entire Star Wars trilogy around with you on the iPod Video. But, hey, you can play a Metal Gear Card Game on Sony's entry into the category.

Re:This should be exciting.

[SilentChris]

The same way Macromedia Flash made it feasible to create a whole new genre of cartoons (web-based). If you put easier tools in the hands of the artists, more (and sometimes better) art is created. You honestly think GTA3 would've been successful if they were still drawing out individual sprites using assembly, like they used to?

Re:handheld gaming

[hobbesx]

Nintendo DS has already pwn3d handheld gaming ... PSP is too little, too late. Too bad, so sorry.

Nintendo SNES has already pwn3d home consoles for 5 years, PS1 is too little, too late. Too bad, so... Wait? What!?

Re:Pricey

[redivider]

Why are people willing to pay $400+ for an iPod, but for a powerful gaming system, video player and an audio player, all in one $250 is too much? Sure you don't have 20GB of space, but that's really the only difference. Plus you can play PS2 quality games and watch movies. You can't really compare this to the Game Boy or DS since it's not *just* a game system.

I *was* expecting the price to be lower, but I don't think it's that outrageous.

How about a game

[Telvin_3d]

With all that bundled in, it would be nice if it came with an actual game. I am not buying the PSP to watch Spiderman.

A portable mini-entertainment center

[jangobongo]

Looks to me like they are marketing this as a portable mini-entertainment center. By including the Spiderman 2 movie, they are differentiating themselves from other handhelds.

I'm wondering how much the UMD disc movies will cost. Will people really want to buy yet another version of their favorite movies for $19.99 (price amount is just a guess)?

Re:A portable mini-entertainment center

[Queer Boy]

Will people really want to buy yet another version of their favorite movies for $19.99 (price amount is just a guess)?

Will people really want to hold passive entertainment for 2+ hours?

Re:Meanwhile, over at El Reg ...

[rkischuk]

I lost faith in the article after reading, "the PSP is the most important thing to happen in the video game industry since the launch of the original PlayStation".

The LAUNCH of the original Playstation was a first-mover swipe to beat Nintendo with hardware originally developed FOR Nintendo as a SNES add-on. It had plain-as-grits graphics on a controller that was half-baked at the time (the non-lettered approach to button-naming confused almost anyone who had played any previous console). It was saved by severe screw-ups by both Nintendo and Sega. Sega beat Sony to the market with the Saturn, but the $399 price was WAY too high, and their rush to market meant that nobody had any time to develop games for it. Nintendo pissed off third-party developers by acting like a bully, and limited game size and (developer) profit margins with small and space-limited cartridges. The Atari Jaguar was still-born.

Sony won that generation of gaming with games, and with CD technology. The CD Audio wowed consumers while Nintendo had their characters speaking in noises like Charlie Brown's teacher. Their developer-friendly attitude left Nintendo scrambling for 3rd party games. Cheaper game manufacturing let them cut game prices faster amd lower than Nintendo. If Nintendo releases a CD-based console and treated its developers with respect, the PSX would have come in a distant 2nd.

That combined with his ignorance of Madden and SSX as A+ launch titles for the PS2 erode his credibility with me.

Re:$250 for a handheld?

[DarkEdgeX]

It'd be in a lot better shape if there were a way to write your own UMD media (especially if it were an RW format so you could reuse the media a couple thousand times). MemoryStick sucks.

I'll never understand why they didn't adopt 8cm DVD media. IIRC, UMD only holds 1.8 GB, while DVD-1 (single layer) can hold 1.46 GB and DVD-2 (dual layer) can hold 2.66 GB. And Sony already uses this media for some of their camcorders (and the only 8cm media I can find in the store is made by... Sony!).

My take

[jvmatthe]

Here are the factors that stand out to me:

• Minimum of $250 for system with memory stick, headphones with remote control, battery, ac adaptor, soft case, cleaning cloth, and a demo disc.
• First 1,000,000 buyers also get a Spider-Man 2 movie that plays on the PSP.
• Launch titles that are mostly franchises and remakes, including a whole pile of EA Sports games.
• Low-end games cost $40, with others presumably costing more. (Wal-mart's online store shows $49.92 for many games.)

That prices me right out of the market at $250, even with all that bonus crud thrown into the box. But that's not the worst of it, since the big stores, the ones most likely to have anything to sell, will be selling bundles that include two or more games and other needless crud. As of right now, EB Games has one way to buy the PSP and it's a bundle that costs $400. GameStop's got bundles that range from $380 to $480.

Look, all I want is basic system with a charger, a (small) memory stick, and one game. I don't need headphones or a remote control or a soft case or a cleaning cloth or a demo disc. I don't have any desire to tote around Spider-Man 2 to show off to friends. I don't doubt that the folks who can afford the PSP will think it's the bee's knees, and I'll even envy them their new toy, but I've got better uses for my gaming cash. With the robust used GBA game market, I'm going to get a much better fun-for-dollar return sticking with my 'burning GBA.

Sorry, Sony, you lost me on this one.

Re:handheld gaming

[tgibbs]

Yea, Nintendo DS is fine, if you're a TEN year old. What a load of crap.

Well, as a 50+ year old gamer, I see it exactly the other way around. The DS offers some real innovation, with features such as dual screens and touch/stylus control that aren't available elsewhere. The games aren't all just rehashes of console games. And it looks like it will have a good mix of 3D and 2D games, especially since it plays GBA games (in fact, you can have a GBA and DS game plugged in at the same time), while the Metroid demo demonstrates that its 3D capabilities are good.

A portable PS2 missing one of the analog sticks just doesn't excite me. I don't do that much gaming on the go, and if I want to play PS2 style games, I'll play it on my big screen TV and PS2 at home. Nor am I all that interested in watching movies on that little tiny screen. If I want to watch a DVD while traveling, I'd rather watch it on my laptop, which at least has a decently sized screen. But I think that the PSP will sell well with the kiddies. Features like movie play that aren't that appealing to adults will be more successful with kids who don't have their own TVs, laptops, and DVD players. I can imagine a parent setting a kid up with a movie on a memory stick to keep him quiet on a long auto trip.

iPod = Cool, PSP = Expensive Kid's Toy

[MMaestro]

People are willing to spend $250-400 on an iPod because its : A) looks cool, B) is cakewalk to use compared to other mp3 players and C) because you don't look like an idiot for staring at a 6 inch screen trying to select the right playlist. Compared to the PSP which : A) looks like the GBA (not SP) hence looks like a toy, B) plays video games (again childish) and C) plays movies? Whos gonna hold the screen upright to eyesight level for 90-120 minutes at a time? This isn't a portable DVD player where you can tilt the screen or a TV thats generally unmoved.

Re:iPod = Cool, PSP = Expensive Kid's Toy

[diamondsw]

If you haven't noticed, video games are no longer relegated to "child's play". They have very much moved into the adult mainstream. The styling of the PSP is much more reminiscent of expensive adult toys (cell phones, PDA's, Sharper Image stuff ;) than of the plastic associated with kids' stuff.

No, the PSP is very interesting. If they can just open it up and let us get our own content on it and improve battery life, it could be THE portable media center.

Re:What's the best strategy....

[Impotent_Emperor]

I hope eBay will not reward you for your speculatory activities.

If we don't compare it to Nintendo

[mcc]

Personally, I'd compare it to any of the various video players out right now.

Well, probably not the DVD players, since UMD doesn't have exactly a certain future.

But if you're right, and we shouldn't be comparing the PSP to the Game Boy, then the thing we should be comparing it to is the Tapwave Zodiac.

The Zodiac's original model costs about the same as the PSP (the newest model is $100 more), but the memory upgrades cost much less than the PSP's and both come with the same amount of memory, 32MB. The Zodiac plays games, mp3s and video that you load from your computer, it has a more centrally-positioned analog stick, and it seems to be slightly smaller than the PSP. It definitely doesn't seem to be as powerful for games as the PSP and the screen definitely isn't as nice, but it has a vastly larger feature set since it's a fully functional PalmOS PDA and the screen supports stylus input.

In this case the PSP doesn't at all compare poorly to the Zodiac but it doesn't seem it would be automatically be one's first choice of a buy between the two either.

Re:$250 for a handheld?

[ATN]

So's the gamecube market share. Microsoft and Sony seem to be making plenty of profit despite all this horrid piracy.

Re:What's the best strategy....

[aichpvee]

You've got to remember though, DS came out before the biggest shopping holiday of the year. PSP is coming out before what? Though in all likelihood you're right, there are a lot of morons out there who will pay premium to have something a couple weeks early.

Re:What's the best strategy....

[poofyhairguy82]

I hope eBay will not reward you for your speculatory activities.

I hope that Ebay does what it was created to do- match an able buyer and seller. Who are you to cast aspersions towards this entrepreneur? If someone is willing to pay him a higer price for the unit on ebay because they did not take the steps neccesary to get a unit before it was released, then why is it negative for this person to offer such a product? Why is making money a bad thing?

In all truth, the parent posters plan probably won't work- but not because some enitity (such as EBay) decieds that his plan is too immoral to succeed. It won't work because this sort of speculative buying is best for shortages, which with Video Game products usually only happens around Christmas. There will probably be enough units for early adopters when it releases, and the parent will most likely have to sell the units at a price lower than they were aquired. But this failure will be a result of the parents lack of understanding regarding the Video Game economy, and not because what he/she planned to do was immoral.

If you think selling game systems on Ebay is immoral, how do you survive in a world where a lot of Wall Street money is procured through much more evil means? (such as insider trading) Do you not buy anything for big companies, for fear that that product is provided in an immoral fashion (such as slave labor)?