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PSP Site Launches, Launch Titles Confirmed

Posted by Zonk on Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:42 PM
from the i-said-lunch-not-launch dept.
Portables (Games)
The Official PSP Website has launched with details on the system and games. GamesIndustry.biz has a list of the PSP Japanese Launch Titles we can expect when the system hits retailers. From the Article: With just over three weeks to go until the PlayStation Portable launches in Japan, Sony has revealed that buyers will have six games to choose from on day one, with around 20 games total due out before the end of December."
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PSP Site Launches, Launch Titles Confirmed 50 Comments More /

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  • Will these things be region locked, or can I order on from the Japanese release and play US games on it when they are released on this side of the pond?

    • Re:question (Score:3, Informative)

      by be-fan (61476)
      Sony has announced that PSP games will not be region-locked. I'm planning to import one from Japan when it comes out :)

  • Beautiful! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kc0re (739168)
    BLOCKED BY WEBSENSE. What would really be cool, although not very... ergonomic is if we could bring our memory cards and Playstation games that already exist and play them on the machine.

  • Mah Jong? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cowclops (630818) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:47PM (#10855918)
    A third of the release day games are mahjong.

    I guess those Japanese GOTTA have their mahjong.

  • Competition is good (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MinusBlindfold (775913) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:47PM (#10855921) Journal
    in this particular market.... Its pretty much just been Nintendo Gameboy in the mainstream... its good to see a name (Sony) that everyone is familiar with finally breaking into it. Hopefully this will cause pressure to reduce pricing of systems overall. I believe the new system coming from Nintendo will have a similar number of launch titles. The pressure is on.

    • Re:Competition is good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Goldfinger7400 (630228) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:56PM (#10856051)
      How exactly is this going to drive down pricing? The nintendo has always been priced very affordably. Plus, these PSP games are like $50 bucks while Nintendo DS games are $30, according to EBGames. As for launch numbers, I'm not terribly excited about any of that list for the PSP (albeit I'm not Japanese) whilst the Nintendo has Mario at launch! and tons more next!

      My prediction: PSP = GameGear = nGage = flop.
      • If I remember right they were showing DS games at $50 as well until Nintendo actually announced American prices for them. They'll probably do the same for PSP games until Sony starts announcing American prices. That won't be for a long time.

        Does anyone know, does the Japanese site linked here say anything about game prices?
    • Oh yah, like Atari (Lynx) and Sega (Game Gear) and don't forget NeoGeo (Pocket [Color]).

      This will surely get squashed.

        • Re:Competition is good (Score:4, Insightful)

          by real_smiff (611054) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:09PM (#10856226)
          they could, but they can't resist the tempation to put bigger processors in 'em. only Nintendo seems to have the discipline to balance speed with battery life properly (& realistically).

        • Re:Competition is good (Score:5, Interesting)

          by vasqzr (619165) <vasqzrNO@SPAMnetscape.net> on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:12PM (#10856250)
          You'd figure the GameGear/Lynx came out what, 15 years ago...they'd have figured out how to get 10-20 hours of out of the damn things by now.

          Anyone use a laptop back in 1990?

          $3,000. 2MB RAM. 386 processor. 40MB HD. 640x400 CGA screen. 2 inches thick, 10lbs, and you'd be lucky to get anywhere near 2 hours battery life out of the thing.

          What are todays laptops like?

          Half the cost. half a gig of ram. 1.5ghz processor. 60GB HD. 1200x800 screen. 1 inch thick. 4 lbs. 5 hours battery life. Integrated sound, DVD drives, wireless networking...

          You'd figure we'd have some pretty decent handhelds by now. We're better off emulating SNES games on our PocketPCs.
  • Then I might be able to learn a bit more about it on its official website. Does anyone have a translation that isn't taken from BabelFish or some other lame auto translation site? I'd like to know all the official specs and stuff.

    --
    Sounds like a scam, but it works. [wired.com]
    Free Flat Screens [freeflatscreens.com] | Free iPod Photo [freephotoipods.com] |

  • not impressed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by acvh (120205) <geek@mscigar s . c om> on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:49PM (#10855950) Homepage
    The games available at release and soon after do not look very interesting. Granted that the Japanese have different tastes in gaming, but other than Metal Gear it's a pretty bland list. I'm sure that the US launch will look quite different.

    And is it just me, or is this recent trend toward "Sponsored Links" a real pain in the ass? When I see text in an article that is a link I expect it to be relevant, not a redirect to a merchant site.
    • I'm not really sure what the fascination is with card game simulations, but so it goes. Then again, maybe I shouldn't knock it until I play it.
    • The games available at release and soon after do not look very interesting.

      Bullspit they don't! Mahjong Fight Club? I have no idea what this game could be about, but it sure sounds interesting to me! (I acknowledge that interesting does not necessarily equal fun.)

    • Re:not impressed (Score:3, Interesting)

      by DarkEdgeX (212110)
      I dunno, this alone has me wanting to buy one--

      Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (Capcom)

      Let the uber-accurate Capcom fighting games begin! (Now they just need to bring out a port of Super Street Fighter II and all will be right in the world).
    • '... The games available at release and soon after do not look very interesting ...'

      yes the Japanese games are different but there is a good reason. Firstly the system is not capable of running a full blown title as per PS2. So the designers are really forced to rethink their game style (and do they think) to fit the limitations of the hardware format. Take for instance konami [konamijpn.co.jp] with MG. They release MG but not *solid*, but Acid [ign.com]. Same franchise, different game style (with a card twist [ign.com]).

      Konami already mak

  • Sorry to be a shill for Sony, but that thing looks great. My camera has a memorystick, by the looks of it I can use the PSP to look at the pictures on a better screen than the camera's. Anyone know if it plays movies off the memorystick, or what the price is going to be in the US?

    • 19,800 Yen = $190 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kuwan (443684)
      Well, it looks like the Japanese price is 19,800 Yen which turns out to be about $190. I don't know if that's what Sony will sell it for here and I expect they might sell it for lower considering the Nintendo DS will be selling for $150. But who knows.

      --
      Sounds like a scam, but it works. [wired.com]
      Free Flat Screens [freeflatscreens.com] | Free iPod Photo [freephotoipods.com] |
      • I thought it was confirmed recently that the US price would be $199. Which is still considerably lower than many people were assuming. I can't help but think that they lowered it to compete with the DS. At that price, I might even end up with one in a few months.

      • Re:19,800 Yen = $190 (Score:5, Interesting)

        by antifoidulus (807088) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:11PM (#10856236) Homepage Journal
        It will be interesting to see how Sony and Nintendo plan to play the strong Yen. Nintendo's first ever loss came largely as a result of the weak dollar, and that was when Nintendo did not have any major hardware rollouts(ssoftware has a very small marginal cost to produce). The Yen has been relatively stable recently(varying from 110-105 to the dollar), but there is very little to suggest that the dollar will grow stronger any time soon. Quite the contrary, because of the huge trade and budget deficits that show no signs of abating, there is a very real chance the dollar could take a plunge, and Sony and Nintendo could wind up losing a lot of money for each American sale...

  • oro™ŽÀw“\èL (Score:5, Funny)

    by SkuzBuket (820246) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:49PM (#10855957)
    Wow this is really interesting. Take a look at this quote from their website:

    "oro(TM)uvOECXe[V"E|[^uvÌ""ÉæìA2004"N11OEZ15"ú(O EZ)æè"OE zE'åãE-¼OEÃ&#174 ; Zå--vw\"àÉÄoro(TM)ÌZÀÝ'uê½"ÁZêLðOEfo'vÜB
    ±Ìoro(TM)ZÀw"\èLÅÍAoro(TM)Ìtæ-ÊÉÄuÝñÈÌfnk e |[^uvuDZÅàÁåviÈ&#227 ; ""OEFS"Z®ïZÐ\j[ER"s...[^G"^eC""gjuSbWOE[T[Yvu±ÆÎÌ pY àÒÁ½ñ'åZ"TviÈ&# 227; ""OEFS"Z®ïZÐiRjÌf'oeðSyÝ'±ÆÅ&#22 0;B
    VOEg'ÑOE^Q[@ oro(TM)Ìf'oeNISeBð----&#19 0;B"

    WTF????
    • Well, if you'll recall from early episodes of Rurouni Kenshin, "oro" is nearly synonymous with "what the hell" or "huh" which explains the rest of the quote....

      Or you could go find your windows installation disk and/or find a place to download the japanese support for your OS...

  • Gameboy icon (Score:5, Funny)

    by ttys00 (235472) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:54PM (#10856030)
    I bet Sony is impressed that Slashdot gave them a Gameboy icon. From the 1989 Gameboy no less.
  • JoeLinux, Blackmonday; it will b an uphill battle for Sony. But they started out some 11 years ago with another battle. Who won? There's no question that Nintendo has a very good grip on the hanheld marked now, but they had a stranglehold on the console market before. And things have happened in other markets as well.

    I hope it will (fo once) be a battle where the better alternative comes out on top. Unlike the VHS - Beta battle, WordPefect - Word Battle, OS/2 - Windows battle....

  • Specs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rpdillon (715137) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:02PM (#10856151) Homepage
    I'm not sure whether to jump at this or the Nintendo DS. To be honest, I love the Playstation 2, but after all the anti-hype about battery life on the PSP, I think its a tough question.

    Certainly the hardware on the PSP is extremely impressive, but I question whether it's impressive enough to warrant the two hour battery life (or less) that I'll have to spend another $45 for a spare battery (BTW, I like that you can buy a spare battery!).

    DS might have taken the safer road with the long battery times while still providing a very good graphical experience. I'll probably end up waiting and seeing how much Sony can squeeze from the PSP, and see what games come out for what platform. After all, SOny did say that in "later revisions" of the firmware, they would be able to extend battery life out to 6 hours and beyond for high end games. Sounds ridiculous, but one can always hope.

  • PSP is toast (Score:5, Informative)

    by RzUpAnmsCwrds (262647) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:11PM (#10856245)
    If PSP isn't launching in Japan fo another 3 weeks, it looks like the system will completely miss the holiday buying season in the US.

    Meanwhile, Nintendo is launching the DS in time for Black Friday. Current estimates show pre-orders running in the 5 million unit range in both the US and Japan.

    Nintendo will have 5 million systems in the hands of gamers before Sony delivers a single PSP.

    The DS has better battery life and it's $50 cheaper.

    There will be lots of DS systems sitting under the tree this year. There won't be any DS systems there.

    Which system would you develop for if you were EA? The one that will have 5 million units shipped in the US before the end of the year or the system that will have none.

    • Re:PSP is toast (Score:4, Funny)

      by slashrogue (775436) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:42PM (#10856664)
      There will be lots of DS systems sitting under the tree this year. There won't be any DS systems there.

      You mean no PSP systems?

      Which system would you develop for if you were EA?

      Both, since I force my developers to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week with little or no compensation.

    • Re:PSP is toast (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Erwos (553607) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:49PM (#10856755)
      Sounds like the same advantages the Dreamcast had. Ask Sega how well things worked out sometime.

      The reason that the PS2 won wasn't that it had better graphics or was faster. It won because it had a DVD player built in. It was something utterly unrelated to game-playing that put the PS2 ahead - and that is what people are forgetting in the whole PSP vs. GBA discussion.

      If Sony turns around and gives people a semi-decent way to play video and music on their PSP, the entire equation gets altered dramatically. That $150-$200 PSP looks a lot better if it has more functionality.

      Similarly, Nintendo could also do something paradigm shifting (but I do not consider PictoChat to be any way, shape, or form to be a paradigm shift) to pull away.

      And, frankly, it might not even be features that distinguish the two. A single bad production run by either of them could ruin the product's reputation. Calling a winner before the race has started seems foolish to me.

      -Erwos

  • The prize (Score:3, Insightful)

    by arakis (315989) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:13PM (#10856271)
    I know many my-dad-can-beat-up-your-dad Nintendo people and their opinions on how this system is just derivative drivel. That argument is a loss despite being valid. The real prize here is that a company that both MAKES things and owns the means of production to ENTERTAIN people with that is throwing their hat into the ring. Does Nintendo make a better game system? Probably, although the final judgement is horribly subjective.

    Realize this device for what it is and not what refined old implementations it competes with now. This is a bona fide mobile communications/entertainment platform that also happens to play games. They made the screen giant and saw fit to include just one. Why? Look at the screen in the future and you will see.

    I am impressed with this from a company direction standpoint. This direction doesn't and shouldn't ever suit Nintendo. I believe they should focus on games and the marketing thereof. Sony on the other hand has albums to record, movies to shoot and entire mobile media platforms to leverage under one roof. This stuff is off the hook!

    May you live in interesting times.

    • Re:The prize (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Kirby-meister (574952)
      ???? Nintendo makes the DS and provides games for it...how is that not providing entertainment for the people who buy their hardware?

      The N-Gage was also meant to be a mobile communication/entertainment platform that happened to play games...

    • Realize this device for what it is and not what refined old implementations it competes with now. This is a bona fide mobile communications/entertainment platform that also happens to play games.

      Funny, the N-Gage tried to be something like that, and look what happened - it crashed and burned for the most part, and the GBA didn't slow down one bit.

      Granted, Sony doesn't have the insulting PR nightmare and subsequent backlash to deal with that Nokia did, but still...
  • One of the games (Lumines by Bandai) seems pretty interesting to me, because it's from the makers of Rez...

    But not interesting enough to buy unto the platform. I just hope it comes out for some other system.

    I don't even have a GameBoy yet, not sure why I would spring for a PSP with a lot less titles and an iffy future. They did at least price it well, perhaps it will have a fighting chance.

  • Region Free (Score:3, Interesting)

    by x40sw0n (830531) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:34PM (#10856539) Journal
    Liksang.com reports that the PSP games are going to be region-free.... meaning you could actually buy an import unit from liksang.com in december and play your US games when they get released. -In Absentia

  • 333 Mhz is a lie (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:38PM (#10856599)
    Sony continues to brag about the 333 Mhz processor in the system, but it's a lie. While the processor may technically be *capable* of running that fast, it's in fact been throttled to 222 Mhz. Developers have the option of running it even slower, but there is no way to run it faster.

    • Re:Uh huh... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by FortKnox (169099) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:53PM (#10856012) Homepage Journal
      Go back a decade.

      Raise your hand if you think Playstation can beat Nintendo. It has the games, the shelf-space, and the name recognition. And to top it all off, its a good product.

      Never underestimate the consumer. I don't think this generation of PSP will woo over customers, but I think its got a shot after a generation or two...

      • Re:Uh huh... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dead sun (104217)
        *Raises hand* I didn't doubt it for a second when I first played an N64. The first playstation was a decent system. The N64 is the nintendo system I don't own because everything about it sucked. The graphics sucked. The controller was the most awkward thing in the world. The only thing I'll give it is the lack of need for a multi-tap, but four player games didn't seem that common. Sony brought new and good things to the table with the playstation, Nintendo failed to do so with the N64.

        Look at the PS2, it ha

        • Re:Uh huh... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by thatguywhoiam (524290) on Thursday November 18 2004, @01:50PM (#10856772)
          Now, turn it around and look at the game boy and the PSP. The PSP hardware looks like it's going to eat batteries in no time flat. Remember the Game Gear? The PSP has no library. It's PS2 vs. Game Cube with the big N on the winning side this time. The PSP is just another Sega Game Gear or Atari Lynx. Nothing special, plain old portable with fancy graphics and no battery life. The DS brings fantastic innovation, like the wireless networking. We'll see about the second screen, but it's at least a move towards something creative.

          I generally agree with your points - although there are a two great big caveats worth pointing out that might change the game.

          Convergence - my pet theory is that the PSP is not designed simply to take on the DS in the game space, but also the iPod/MP3 player market, the nascent portable video market, and some of the wireless gadget market. Of course it is way overpowered to compete with the oh-so-simple GameBoy, but that's a hint right there. The PSP has 802.11, and will play MP3 format. These are big design decisions from Sony's point of view, particularly the MP3 support as up until now they have stuck doggedly with ATRAC.

          Furthermore, we have seen some interesting moves from Sony in regards to expanding the PS2 beyond its original game console roots, such as the EyeToy. With the extra hardware in the PSP they can leverage the thing to more powerful pursuits, like ad-hoc WiFi videoconferencing for example. Nintendo could do something like this as well but historically its this space where Sony really shines.

          Form factor - the PSP is probably sexier than the DS. The point is up for debate depending on your taste of course but I can easily see the sleek black PSP appealing to the older (read: richer) crowd more than the DS. I have not played with the DS yet but I have concerns about that touchpad deal - we should all applaud Nintendo for pushing the envelope but let us not forget they have pushed it too far in the past (*cough* VirtualBoy *cough*). I don't think its a disaster or anything but it hardly seems like the kind of feature people will instantly get - and want- when they first see it. Perhaps the software innovation department will help out here.

          Sony obviously has a problem on its hands with the late launch of the PSP in terms of Xmas sales but I would hardly count them out of the game just yet. Nintendo has the jump on the early market but who knows, we may just see the same phenomenon with the handhelds that we have witnessed over the last 1.5 years with the consoles - that consumers have often chosen not one or the either, but both.

          • Re:Uh huh... (Score:3, Insightful)

            by dead sun (104217)
            I don't know. I don't get that same weird feeling about the DS as I do about the N64. Sure, maybe Nintendo will continue to flog the horse of bringing back older games to the portables. That's fine with me as long as they keep releasing new, innovative, and good titles.

            I think they've made some new room to work with, and so long as the second screen interface doesn't suck half as bad as the N64 controller I don't see much change in N's domination.

            But, it's all rampant speculation. We'll see how the world re

      • Re:Uh huh... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Metroid72 (654017)
        And may I ask how do you know it's a good product?

        Remember that the experience of a product like this is a very complex equation. In no order:
        1. Quality of the games
        2. Diversity of the games
        3. Platform durability (it is a portable system)
        4. Ergonomics (I hate the original PS controller's crosspad, and the fact that the GBA only has 2 face buttons, don't even go with the original Xbox controller, remember the headaches of the Virtual Boy and the original GBA screen?)
        5. Battery life (Yeah, yeah you can buy

    • Re:launches in japan.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oberondarksoul (723118) on Thursday November 18 2004, @12:59PM (#10856100) Homepage
      "Real" games? What do you mean by that? If I were to tell you that I'd developed a game where a fat plumber collects mushrooms and jumps on turtles, you'd probably react the same way, yet Mario's one of the most popular series of games that's ever been released. Wait until you actually see the game in action before you pass judgement.

      • Re:launches in japan.. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by FLAGGR (800770)
        The thing is, the idea of a plumber collecting mushrooms and jumping on turtles is so retarded that its funny, the thought of a game with pink lizards that use magical space eggs that spread love to an all-girl japanese school is so scary I think it might be illegal ;)

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