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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."
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.
including multiple non-interactive game demos
Wow... I never thought a marketing drone would be able to come up with such a convoluted way of saying 'commercials'.
fixed their japanese launch problems
(like "launching" disks and the flakey square button)
I don't feel the need to preorder... I'll wait for the 2nd generation.
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.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Some intrepid explorer has travelled to the US and has posted a pretty thorough (and glowing) review of the aforementioned device.
n y_psp/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/01/review_so
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
Here is the link. Unfortunately the UK price for the basic version is £180 or about $340. :-(
Omnis amans amens
I don't think so at all. It's not just a game console: it's an MP3 and movie player (MPEG4s). Granted, the big limitation for awhile will be storage (memory sticks don't hold much), but you shouldn't be comparing it to Nintendo's machine. Personally, I'd compare it to any of the various video players out right now. For a screen like that, it's a steal.
... We haven't gotten any product konwledge yet. I will say that we won't be able to get it until day one here in the us. I personaly haven't touched a handheld device since my OLD SCHOOL original gameboy. But, this has promise, and with the recent release into the consumer channel of an affordable 1GB memory stick, I could actually see myself buying one. Gasp, I might actually own a portable gaming device. Hmmm.. one quesiont for the masses, would you prefer this device or a portable media center....???? feed back apreciated.
Hmmm... Technology... anyone have a match?
Go reserve it at your local gamestore. I think at most places it's a $50 deposit, but it means you don't have to worry about not getting one.
Winner of The Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
The second million people receive a small note with a B&W picture of spider-man reading "You didn't buy fast enough. FOOL!."
How would being able to "take advantage of object-oriented development methodologies" make any difference to the consumer or the way the games look/play?
SIGFAULT
It just doesn't seem very comfortable or thought out. In a time when systems are getting smaller, more portable and comfortable to hold, this looks like something designed in the 80s. It may have great games, but how is it going to sell if it doesn't look cool? Maybe I'm suffering from too much iPod exposure, but there is definitely something to good packaging, and my $0.02 says that the PSP just doesn't have it.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Metal Gear Acid: Best Played While Tripping.
How much are the games? 50-70$? I think I might just stick with my outdated gameboy at prices like that. Tetris has served me well for almost a decade and I think that is value Sony will be hard pressed to compete with.
1. Video Out (how cool would an S-VIDEO port on there be). Hook up an S-VIDEO --> RCA adapter, and hook it into any TV, and play full screen. Oh how life would change.
2. WiFi instead of IrDA. Come on, what were they thinking? IrDA sucks, WiFi has so much more going for it. IMHO that was a poor choice.
3. Drop Memory Stick Duo and use Compact Flash. Lets face it... I'm a Clie owner myself. CF is the better of the two. It's price per MB is much cheaper. Not to mention you can buy them anywhere, and they are improving in capacity and speed.
I'm sure it will be a success regardless, but if it had those 3 things, it would be the ultimate killer device. A must have for anyone.
I'm curious how long it will take until someone gets Linux running on this thing. Sounds like a good device for it. Then we could (perhaps) use a WiFi or Bluetooth USB adapter!
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?
...which cannot be used with the PSP?
This is not the Playstation 3. The PSP is a portable media player designed to play last-generation games in a compact form factor. Compare it to the Nintendo DS.
Assuming you knew this already, I suppose you meant that Sony will port older games to the new architecture? PS1 games may be ported to PSP, but licensing issues and a general lack of funding tend to limit the selection of titles.
Nintendo SNES has already pwn3d home consoles for 5 years, PS1 is too little, too late. Too bad, so... Wait? What!?
This rating is Unfair ( ) ( ) Fair (*) Funny
Sigh... If only. Modding would be so much more fun.
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.
Sinch
$250 isn't a bad price considering what the system can do, but where it starts to hurt is the memory sticks that it uses! 1GB Sony Memory Stick is ~$200USD 4GB Sony Memory Stick is ~$900USD those prices are insane where as you can buy and entire PVP, MP3 player, and handheld game system (NDS) for cheaper cost per GB of storage if they brought their memory costs down this would be a killer piece of hardware
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.
I too was going to post a "WTF?" post, but are you saying the SDK for the PSP has native and at least somewhat optimized support for OO?
First, I find this interesting, do you have a link to back it up? I tried to Google 'PSP "object oriented"' but I got a lot of false positives for PSP, mostly from something called a "Personal Software Process".
Second, that would make sense and you probably should have made that more clear in your original post; I'm keeping up with the PSP news but I haven't been obsessive about it, and this is the first hint I've heard that there is anything special about the SDK in that regard.
OO certainly isn't a miracle drug, but for game development, it's a better start than an assembler and a handful of libraries.
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)?
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
EBWorld.com $400 pre-order (price subject to change). includes 3 games of your choice and an "accessory" to be named later. you can cancel up to 10 days before the release. Gamestop - retail stores - $50 deposit for value pack only. no games to buy minimum. my plan is to get 3 and sell 2 on Ebay to pay for mine. i have 1 order with EB and 1 Gamestop. just need to go to another Gamestop and pre-order there. the Spiderman 2 UMD pack-in is a great little bonus from Sony that should help my auctions!! thanks Sony!
um, can you name me a single gaming device (or any electronics device, for that matter) where the price started low and went up without improving the specs?
you always start "too high" and then lower the price as the demand picks up.
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.
That's only true in an environment where the tools are "democratic," that is, are available to everyone.
Flash is relatively inexpensive. Anyone can make a Flash cartoon, and thus, lots of people do. 90% - nay, 95%, or more - of those are crap, but with so many out there it's inevitable that things like Homestar Runne crop up among them.
But not everyone can afford the pricy development kits and licenses that Sony sells for development on their systems. Hell, not everyone can afford those homebrew kits they made available for the PS1, or PS2 Linux.
It is this that tears the "ease of programming" argument to bits -- since it costs so much to make games for the system, only the people who can afford to hire really good programmers do so.
You honestly think GTA3 would've been successful if they were still drawing out individual sprites using assembly, like they used to?
If it were still somehow in 3D, then yes, I think it would. It takes less time to draw 32 or so really good sprite frames than to make one really good 3D model and animate it. Or at least, that's how it seems to me.
Battery life has been measured at 5.5 hours when playing Ridge Racers (one of the more disc intensive games).
The flying disc thing is something you can _make_ it do if you try really hard. It's not something which happens in normal use.
The square button is something which some people complain about, but most don't even notice.
Personally, given the US launch price of $250, I'm even more glad I imported mine from Japan for $350 and got it early.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
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!).
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
Considering the GBA is the number one selling console, how can you make that statement?
- 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.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Because they didn't want you to be able to pop a PSP disk in your computer and make copies of it for your friends. Which is exactly what's happened with the two other consoles that use standard media types (PS2 & xbox) The only one that doesn't, the Gamecube, has no piracy problem.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
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.
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.
It is expensive when you consider the fact that you'll have one more version (UMD) of your favorite movies to purchase that won't work on any other system. I've read else where that Sony doesn't plan on selling UMD writers so that you could copy your currently owned video content to the UMD format.
Granted, the big limitation for awhile will be storage (memory sticks don't hold much), but you shouldn't be comparing it to Nintendo's machine.
But with that Playstation brand name, people are going to be thinking of it as a video game system above all else, which, like it or not, positions it squarely against both the GBA and DS in the marketplace.
Personally, I'd compare it to any of the various video players out right now. For a screen like that, it's a steal.
People are more likely to get a DVD player (that can play, you know, actual DVDs) than this. The screen quality is irrelevant if you can't watch what you want on it.
That brings us to video playback off of memory stick. Maybe you might be able to get video onto a memory stick, but I'm still not sure Sony hasn't put some kind of restriction, in that regard, into the console. Does anyone have information on their stick video playback function besides "[Video}: "Memory Stick": MPEG-4 SP,AAC"?
I hope eBay will not reward you for your speculatory activities.
The PSP sold in Japan for ~$185 USD right?
So Sony is charging $65 for a pair of headphones I don't want or need, and a memory stick that's too small to be useful?
I'm not at all impressed.
No, he's not. If there's enough PSPs to go around, then there might be a shortage initially, but afterwards the resellers won't be able to find enough buyers on Ebay. You'll be able to go on Ebay and get one for a little less than what it would cost in the store, and the reseller will lose money. The same thing happens all the time with sporting event tickets.
If there really AREN'T enough to go around, you'll have a hard time finding one no matter what people do on Ebay. If this happens, get mad at Sony for screwing up the distribution.
Remember the days when Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility?
PSP looks like it'll have better developer support than the GameGear ever had, and a huge leap in graphics over Big N's current offerings. I might just have to get a new portable game platform.
Do not touch -Willie
Ape Escape®: On the Loose, Sony Computer Entertainment America
ATV Offroad Fury®: Blazin' Trails, Sony Computer Entertainment America
Darkstalkers Chronicle(TM): The Chaos Tower, Capcom
Dynasty Warriors®, KOEI
FIFA 2005, Electronic Arts
Gretzky(TM) NHL®, Sony Computer Entertainment America
Lumines(TM), Ubisoft
Metal Gear Acid(TM), Konami
MLB(TM), Sony Computer Entertainment America
MVP Baseball, Electronic Arts
NBA, Sony Computer Entertainment America
NBA Street Showdown, Electronic Arts
Need for Speed(TM) Rivals, Electronic Arts
NFL Street 2 Unleashed, Electronic Arts
Rengoku(TM): Tower of Purgatory, Konami
Ridge Racer(TM), Namco
Smartbomb, Eidos Interactive
Spider-Man 2(TM), Activision
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, Electronic Arts
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix, Activision
Twisted Metal: Head On(TM), Sony Computer Entertainment America
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade, Sony Online Entertainment
Wipeout® Pure, Sony Computer Entertainment America
World Tour Soccer, Sony Computer Entertainment America
youre all being absolutely ridiculous saying that the DS, priced at $180, is better than the PSP at $250. I've owned both systems and the DS simply has nothing on the PSP right now. It doesnt have a single game or anything good coming out down the line. I owned my DS for like 3 weeks and then put it up on eBay. I've had my PSP for a few days and I'm blown away by it. The screen is huge and bright, the games use REAL 3d, the speakers are loud and crisp, the interface is simple and elegant, it plays Mp3 audio and Mp4 video flawlessly and the design is fantastic. I've got Hot Shots Golf and Ridge Racers and both of these games have already given me several hours of fun. I'm looking forward to Metal Gear Acid, Gran Turismo and some great looking 3d platformers. The Nintendo DS has NONE of this. I wish it did. I'm an old school Nintendo guy who has bought every Nintendo system since the NES, but seriously, Nintendo is gonna have to really work to win this battle. The PSP is just that much better than the DS. I think Sony's only flaw here is in not announcing a bare bones package with just the system. Mine cost 19,000 yen which works out to around $180 and I certainly didn't need a small 32MB card or a set of headphones.....
The sales for 2004 (from here appear to agree fairly well with the overall numbers the previous poster had, with the PS2 just barely outselling the GBA (note: you'll have to add the GBA and GBA SP sales yourself) in 2004, and both of them putting the smack down on everything else.
System - Sales this week - Total this year
Nintendo DS - 221,625 - 889,400
PlayStation 2 - 112,970 - 2,503,532
PSP - 85,059 - 245,078
Game Boy Advance SP - 80,271 - 2,340,693
GameCube - 29,991 - 588,528
Game Boy Advance - 1,270 - 194,148
Xbox - 499 - 36,379
Swan Crystal 70 - 7,388
PSone 40 - 13,939
Overall numbers for the year are available here and agree with what the previous poster had:
Worldwide Hardware Sales (End of 2004)
PlayStation 2 - 81.39 million
Xbox - 19.9 million
GameCube - 18.03 million
Game Boy Advance - 65.74 million
Nintendo DS - 2.84 million
Sony PSP - 0.51 million
N-Gage - 1.3 million
PSone - 101.73 million
I'm too lazy to cut and paste any more, but everything I turned up from a quick google search seemed to agree fairly well. Overall-- PS1 is in the lead, PS2 is in second, GBA is third, followed by the Xbox and the Gamecube.
ARTHUR:
It is King Arthur, and this is my my Knights of the Round Table. Whose castle is this?
FRENCH GUARD:
This is the castle of my master, Guy de Loimbard.
ARTHUR:
Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Sony PSP.
FRENCH GUARD:
Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen. Uh, he's already got one, you see.
ARTHUR:
What?
GALAHAD:
He says they've already got one!
ARTHUR:
Are you sure he's got one?
FRENCH GUARD:
Oh, yes. It's a Japanese... (I told him we already got one.)
FRENCH GUARDS:
[chuckling]
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.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I just glanced through the PSP specifications and features listing and saw this in the Codec section:
[Video]: "UMD": H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile Level3
[Video}: "Memory Stick": MPEG-4 SP,AAC
[Music]: "UMD": linear PCM,ATRAC3plus(TM)
[Music}: "Memory Stick": ATRAC3plus(TM),MP3(MPEG1/2 Layer3)
UMD video is H.264/MPEG-4. Everyone here remember the weird Sony president cameo at Macworld? And if you haven't already read Bob Cringley's article regarding the future of the Mac Mini, do so. I wonder if there might be some further connection with Apple & Sony and video playing using Sony PSP as the portable hardware. Steve Jobs doesn't want to have any part of the portable video player game, so maybe he'll let Sony have it, as long as Apple gets the digital content distribution rights. How long before UMD burners become available?
You can't even program in C++ for most of the other handhelds, which is a PITA if you are used to programming using OO. There's no compiler, or it's 8-bit and precludes having a C++ compiler, etc.
The GBA can have stuff compiled in C++, but if you start actually USING the functionality, you bog it down with virtual method tables and RTTI and it's slow as crap.
So, by virtue of being significantly faster and having more storage than most other handhelds of the past, it can take advantage of C++, where the others could not.
I'm certain that's all that it meant.
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)?
Open Source Sushi
I wonder what led to the discovery of the problem then, if it wasn't during the course of normal use. http://www.gamersmark.com/news/2005/01/1/5166/ Thousands of PSP returns out of only a few hundred k psp's sold? Sounds pretty serious. And it also sounds like there are no plans to fix the problem. It's too bad that sony didn't have prices as low as the japanese launch prices here, with thier basic pack working out to $185USD, $250 minimum at US launch looks pretty high.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.