Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EU PSP Release Delayed Until Summer

Posted by Zonk on from the keep-your-patience dept.

Gamespot has the news that the European launch of the PSP is to be delayed by several months in order for the company to build up enough units to meet demand. From the article: "Americans need not fret--Sony has promised one million PSPs for its launch in North America."

5 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Not only that... by black+mariah · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to a friend of mine that works at Gamestop they're taking a large portion of the PSP's that were bound for Europe and bringing them here instead. Retailers were told by Sony to go ahead and up their preorder limits because of the Euro delay.

    --
    'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
    1. Re:Not only that... by Hast · · Score: 3, Interesting

      PSP isn't region coded at all. Perhaps the movies will be but who cares about that?

    2. Re:Not only that... by black+mariah · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What I last heard was that the PSP had region coding abilities, but that Sony didn't intend to use them. Whatever the case, I'm sure that the region coding can be changed via internal software. I doubt a manufacturer would make it difficult to change since that would require more effort at the factory.

      --
      'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
  2. They're not that hard to get.... by ReKleSS · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you don't mind lack of warranty, PSPs don't seem that hard to find. I'm in Singapore at the moment, I managed to pick one up for S$375 (US $230 or so), which wasn't too bad. The only issue is the games being in Japanese, but Ridge Racers isn't a problem (finished it in 5 days), Puyo Pop Fever is in English, and Lumines is mostly in English... If you can be bothered looking there aren't too many barriers to getting one.
    Also, regarding some of the hardware issues... My square button is fine, I can't make UMDs shoot out, and I got 5+ hours playing Ridge Racers at min brightness on headphones. Those were my 3 concerns, and none of them occur on my unit (or my brother's, for that matter).
    BTW, I'm Australian so if I didn't grab it here I would have to wait until july or august.
    -ReK

    --
    md5sum -c reality.md5
    reality: FAILED
    md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    1. Re:They're not that hard to get.... by miaDWZ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm also Australian and got my PSP in Hong Kong on a holiday, only a few weeks after it was released in Japan.

      To tell the truth, it was more of an impulse buy. I went to this huge computer place (I forget it's name, something like Golden City) - they had PSPs everywhere. I just couldn't resist as I knew that it would be months, maybe years before it reached Australia.

      As a general rule, we are behind the UK in launches like this, who are behind the US etc. We didn't get the Xbox until a good six months after it was released in the US, and I feel bad for New Zealand who got the Xbox 1-2 years after the US got theirs.

      Anyway, getting back to my point, I'm now a little worried about my purchase as the thing is classified Region 2. Not Region 4, with the rest of Australia (for obvious reasons). Now with details of movies being released on UMD, I don't think I'll be able to play them due to this region coding, which is a real shame.

      I just hope that a mod-chip type device will be able to save the day bypassing region coding in both games and movies.

      So whilst importing may seem like a good idea now, just make sure you don't regret it in the future.

      Oh, also, before other people reply, I know the PSP's games don't have region coding *currently*. The technology is there, Sony's official comment was "There are no 'active' plans to utalize this 'feature'". Take that any way you like. Reminds me of the AOL story a day or so ago "Yes, we have the right to screw you over, but we won't. Trust us."