February 5, 2005
Sony has announced that the new Play Station Portable, touted by many as the game console of the future (at least 2005) will arrive 6 days later than the long rumored March 18th day (street date 24th), that's the good news, the bad news we only get 1 million copies of the PSP to start in North America (some places are already taking pre-orders), expect tons of PSP fights, copies on ebay double the price etc., its bad enough we had to wait 3 months since it was launched in Japan Dec 12, now we have just a few, more bad news the gadget-geeks and gamers from Europe looking forward to getting the system will probably have to wait - some speculate as long as June. The company would make an official announcement about the European launch in the coming weeks. The many features of the PSP include Memory Sticks, on which music downloaded from Sony's online musicstore.connect.com, could be stored, (attempt to cut into the iPod to itunes market) and a 4.3 in widescreen display to watch movies and videos. Earthtimes reports the handheld device also has wireless capability which has greatly excited gamers because they can now have interactivity between the PSP and Sony's PlayStation-2. Games such as Twisted Metal: Head On will make use of this capability. The PSP value pack includes a 32-megabyte memory card, headphones, a sampler disc with songs, movie clips, at least two dozen games and game demos. The price for the value pack is set at $249. European retailers speculate that Sony may not have the capability to mass produce such a complex electronic device. Some insist that its purely a commercial choice - the US is the second biggest market after Japan for such products. Europe is much behind in demand numbers. The Sony PSP will go head to head with the Nintendo DS which will have about 3 million copies out around the launch on the PSP
