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EU PSP Launch Delayed To September

Posted by Zonk on from the woe-comes-to-the-old-country dept.

GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the European launch of the PSP handheld may be delayed until September of this year. June is currently assumed to be the earliest the platform could arrive in Europe, delays being caused by ongoing supply shortages. From the article: "The company managed to ship only half a million units in Japan in the month of launch, while in order to supply a million units to the USA for launch, the European and South Korean launches had to be bumped back. With both Japan and North America to keep supplied, the process of manufacturing a respectable number of units for the European market could be even slower, unless the firm brings new production capacity online."

28 comments

  1. Shortage? by EnderWigginsXenocide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they've got a shortage in the EU they could just move PSPs from the USA over. Afterall, the PSP hasn't been the blockbuster fly-off-the-shelf success that people thought it might be.

    --
    Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits
    1. Re:Shortage? by RealityMogul · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I live in upstate NY, and the local Wal-Mart has a sign that says "due to short supplies, PSP sales are limited to one per person". This is taped to the display that has been completely stocked since they arrived.

    2. Re:Shortage? by ILL+Robinson · · Score: 0

      PSP uses a region-based UMD movie format. Selling US PSP stock wouldn't work.

    3. Re:Shortage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Good point. Maybe that'll help Sony realise how annoying region coding is.

      Or they could just give the US and EU the same region coding.

    4. Re:Shortage? by siljeal · · Score: 2

      The funny thing is that the launch was delayed in Europe so more units would be available for the US launch of the PSP. It'd seem Sony miscalculated the demand more than just a bit. Good news for Nintendo, I guess, since they got their DS out in Europe.

    5. Re:Shortage? by Hast · · Score: 1

      Or they could just re-flash the US ones. It's not like it's a hardware limitation.

      And they'd have to do that anyways most likely unless they have all of the localisation already in place. (Which I doubt since at least my japanese PSP doesn't have any other languages than japanese and english.)

    6. Re:Shortage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Japanese PSP models also supports German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Russian. You should update yours here: http://www.playstation.jp/psp/update/ud_01.html

  2. Importing time by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

    Well im rather fed up with this wonderfull third class treatment .
    So my three steps are to

    1: Swear and moan about sony screwing up till i feel better
    2: buy one from liksang
    3: mod chip the machine if needed .

    Seriously Europe is a very large market and sony is handing this market to nintendo on a platter , not that i mind as the DS is a fine machine.
    oh on the issue of mod chips , i do not use them to play pirate games , i use them fro two reasons , playing imports and using homebrew

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    1. Re:Importing time by wongn · · Score: 1

      I don't see why the American market is being thought of as such a superior market to the European one - why is all of the potential production power being diverted only to that region at the moment? Especially as Region 2 PSPs are being produced (for Japan). It's this... ignorant attitude from Sony that would make me get a DS - but I can only afford one and a PSP is more what I want from a machine. Going to import one if it isn't coming out in June though - should organise it to get it jsut after the exam season...

    2. Re:Importing time by siljeal · · Score: 1

      The European market is smaller, and more importantly a lot more fragmented than the North American one. Gamers in Europe speak a dozen languages, while you get along just fine with an English version in the US and in Canada. That makes the NA market a lot more attractive.

    3. Re:Importing time by Hast · · Score: 1

      True, but I think that the potential buyers of a PSP are quite capable of using english. Other than that it's mainly just that they need to release games with different languages. And that's not really Sony's problem.

    4. Re:Importing time by MagicDude · · Score: 1

      It reminds me of a joke I heard once:

      What do you call someone who speaks three language? Trilingual
      What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
      What do you call someone who speaks one language? American

      Europeans do have a tendency to speak more languages that your average american, and one of the languages they speak is almost always english. It probabls has to do with the fact that the countries are so small, and there's a lot of travel between the countries with different languages. My cousin from Switzerland speaks German, French, Italian, and English. He tells me about how his conversations with his school friends frequently occur trilingually: Everyone can understand each other's language, but they each have a prefered language they like to speak in. It's quite amazing. Releasing English based PSP's in Europe is not a problem, and I can't imagine that language the only reason why they're holding back on shifting distribution of produced units.

    5. Re:Importing time by siljeal · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the potential buyers in Europe may very well be able to speak English and would not mind having the device and the games in English. But that doesn't change the fact that the market for that is bigger in the US than it is in Europe.

      And don't get me wrong: I would very much have loved to see Sony give us Europeans a nod and release English devices and games here ASAP. But it just ain't gonna happen.

    6. Re:Importing time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      True, but I think that the potential buyers of a PSP are quite capable of using english.

      Notwithstanding the fact that while some might be capable of they may not wish to play their games with a dictionary in one hand.

      Other than that it's mainly just that they need to release games with different languages.

      Localizating (?) games involves more than simply "translating" to different languages.

      And that's not really Sony's problem.

      Except that SCE has to do QA for each market's version, a process which costs a lot more.
    7. Re:Importing time by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 1
      Seriously Europe is a very large market.

      A very large market of very old people. The demographics just aren't there I'm afraid.

      --
      Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
    8. Re:Importing time by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      I can't speak for Europe, but America's got that lovely conspicuous consumerism culture. iPods, DS, PSPs... be a badass in homeroom 'cuz you got the latest expensive status-symbol toys, right next to the Starbuck's cup.

      This is not to be confused with the geeky love of gadgets.

      How do you tell the difference? Take me, for example. I love gadgets. How do you know I'm not in the former subset? Next week, I'm getting an N-Gage from Cingular. :)

    9. Re:Importing time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a) It's only marginally smaller

      and

      b) To release in the US and Canada French and Spanish languages have to be added. Since only German and Italian are missing from that list it's not exactly an enormouse amount of extra work to get a game ready for Europe.

      Delays like these are just another example of Sony's hype machine.

    10. Re:Importing time by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      The fact that many Europeans speak English does not alter the fact that it is not feasible to release an English-only console in Europe. To do so in France, for example, would arouse such anger that your company's products would essentially be locked out of the French market for ever afterwards. (North American analogy: imagine releasing a product in Quebec with only English documentation.)

      Why they can't release the English version in Britain, of course, is another question. It's not like they ever localise the English menus to use British spellings...

    11. Re:Importing time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No need to mod chip, my friend. I've got my Japanese PSP right here running a Japanese game and a US copy of Wipeout Pure.

  3. If that's true, it's import for me by wheany · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If the rumor is confirmed, I will import mine. The delay means one other thing: Don't expect the price of the PSP to fall for a while.

  4. I keep hearing in my head by TheGuano · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...the Nelson laugh.

    Seriously, they "only" sold 575k of the stock they sent to us, why not just adjust their forecasts for out-of-japan sales and deliver to both markets?

    Don't tell me it's cause the other 500K are needed for dead-pixel exchanges? :D

  5. The PSP will succeed... by nunchux · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... But expecting mass hysteria for a spring release was wishful thinking on Sony and the retailer's part. Christmas time is the only time this works in the USA, primarily because parents have to placate their kids on a certain day and hearing the hot item is in short supply drives them into a frenzy.

    In the Spring, of course, consumers don't have to have it "right now." They can wait a few weeks... Or months. And it's easier for a parent to just tell the kid no, or for an older gamer to wait until the next paycheck or two.

    1. Re:The PSP will succeed... by Impotent_Emperor · · Score: 1

      I got my GBA as a graduation gift, so more PSPs may be sold as June approaches and kids in schools graduate.

    2. Re:The PSP will succeed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Summer is the killer season for handheld gaming... who wants to be inside sweating over a PC when you can be out in the breeze with your GBA?

      I guess that's a bit climate-based though. Maybe not so much for hotter places where you'd have AC, or colder places where it never gets hot enough to bother you. Still, it probably applies to ~50-100 million Europeans alone.

      Launching a handheld in September seems pretty stupid... too early for Christmas and too late for summer.

    3. Re:The PSP will succeed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      For the cost of a PSP and one game, you could buy two air conditioners.

  6. Translation from marketing-speak: by Andy_R · · Score: 3, Funny

    "We thought we could get away with loads of dead pixels, but it turns out that people don't want broken PSPs. Please wait while we find a supplier of LCDs that can make good ones for the same price we were paying for the rejects."

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    1. Re:Translation from marketing-speak: by fwitness · · Score: 1

      "Seriously man, I mean, don't they get broken pixels are just part of the manufacturing process? I mean, these customers keep returning them until they get a brand new one that has *no* dead pixels. That's just absurd. Yo, puff an pass man"

      It's ridiculous. I'm on PSP #3 and I'm basically just dealing with it. The wounds of early adoption hasve never been so disfiguring.

      --
      -- I have fans? Wow.
    2. Re:Translation from marketing-speak: by wongn · · Score: 1
      Please wait while we find a supplier of LCDs that can make good ones for the same price we were paying for the rejects.
      Curiously, Japan and NA had separate manufacturers for their LCD screens - they just both seem to be slightly faulty.