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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games) Businesses

Sony Announces PSP Launch Date 520

Posted by Zonk from the brace-for-impact dept.
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."
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Sony Announces PSP Launch Date More

Sony Announces PSP Launch Date

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  • To be in that first Million?
    • 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.
    • 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
      • I hope eBay will not reward you for your speculatory activities.

        • Re:What's the best strategy.... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by poofyhairguy82 ( 635386 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @02:34PM (#11565275) Journal
          I hope eBay will not reward you for your speculatory activities.

          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)?

  • with this price (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 ( 718736 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:03PM (#11563413)
    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.

    • Re:with this price (Score:4, Interesting)

      by EpsCylonB ( 307640 ) <eps@@@epscylonb...com> on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:41PM (#11563915) Homepage
      Three handhelds will be with us this year, the DS [nintendo.com], the PSP [psphome.com] and an outsider, the Gizmondo [gizmondo.com].

      Out of the three I think the PSP is the most likely to succeed. Sony's strategy is very similar to that of the first playstation, they don't want Nintendo's market, they want to open up handheld to a new more mainstream demographic. The Game Boy, while succesful, has always been seen as a childs toy. The PSP with its sexy design, playstation type games and ability to play movies will appeal to the same 15 - 25 male demographic that has made the playstation so successful.

      The DS will also be succesful due to the current large Game Boy fanbase. However I predict that as Sony open the market up Nintendo's dominant share of that market will decline an they may well lose customers to the PSP if it gains enough momentum.

      It would be easy to write the Gizmondo off but its GPS features (cheap for its price) mean it could well find a market amongst older people. It could open up a new 25 - 35 year old market, people who use its navigation functions but also want games, music and film. However I do think there is a risk of the Nintendo and Sony marketing machines making the Gizmondo seem invisible.

      There are other factors which could affect the outcome of this handheld war. Most notably there are question marks over the PSP's battery life and loading times, these are things that shouldn't be underestimated.

      • Re:with this price (Score:5, Insightful)

        by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Thursday February 03, 2005 @01:33PM (#11564561) Homepage
        The Game Boy, while succesful, has always been seen as a childs toy.

        No, the Game Boy has always been seen as the undisputed king of handheld gaming. If you wanted handheld gaming, you got a Game Boy; that the market for handheld gaming systems has traditionally been saturated by younger consumers is not the fault of the Game Boy.

        There has yet to be a single entry that has even come close to challenging Nintendo's dominance in this arena; while the PSP may stand the best chance yet, let's not re-write history to make the Game Boy seem like something it really isn't.

        The PSP with its sexy design, playstation type games and ability to play movies will appeal to the same 15 - 25 male demographic that has made the playstation so successful.

        The biggest reason the 15-25 male demographic has been the "big" demographic in video games has more to do with the relatively short history of video gaming in general than anything. You're seeing so many 15-25 year-old males because they're the ones who were playing Nintendo and Sega Master System back when video games really were considered toys for little boys--and by and large the only people playing them were little boys. Now that video games are becoming more mainstream--now that they're no longer seen as the exclusive domain of small children and nerds--you're going to see a much broader market for this kind of thing. Heck, we're seeing it already.

        I'm not saying that PSP isn't going to become a serious force--it may yet, I honestly don't know--all I'm saying is that you're making some erroneous assumptions. The world of video games looks radically different today than it did ten years ago, and a lot of the old assumptions really aren't valid anymore.

        (On a tangent: I'm not convinced that the "playstation-style games" are going to go over as well on a handheld-sized screen. Part of the reason handheld games so often look cartoony is that it is very, very hard to do the realistic, highly-detailed game environments we've come to expect from consoles on a small screen. What looks stunning on a television often looks cluttered, nondescript and smudgy on a handheld screen...)

      • Re:with this price (Score:3, Interesting)

        by iamhassi ( 659463 )
        "It would be easy to write the Gizmondo..."

        That Gizmondo [gizmondo.com] sounds like a very interesting device indeed, bascially the PocketPC equivalent of the Tapwave [tapwave.com]. That 400mhz Samsung ARM processor should be impressive since the 266mhz Samsung ARM processor in pocketpcs ran games about as fast as a 400mhz Intel chip. GPS, camera, mp3 and movie player all in one.

        However at $400+ [gizmondo.com] it'll never sell, no way no how, not when the PSP can be had for $250 with it's excellent range of titles. But if it had a cellphone to

  • Buzzwords (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:03PM (#11563421)
    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'.
  • ...does it still spit discs? Does the square button still get stuck? Does it suck batteries like a vampire? And, most importantly: does it run Linux?

  • If they haven't (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:04PM (#11563431)
    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.

  • $249? Ouch! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by XxtraLarGe ( 551297 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:04PM (#11563443) Journal
    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.

    • Re:$249? Ouch! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by SilentChris ( 452960 )
      As I mentioned in another post, Sony is not competing with the DS. They're competing with just about every portable video player on the market (and the eventual iPod Video, whenever they decide to release one). The DS is a game player that's wireless. The PSP is a game player that's wireless, plays MP3s and plays movies (just pop a MPEG4 on a Memory Card). The only limitation to its success will be memory card storage costs. At $250, comparing the PSP to portable video players, with that quality a scre

    • Re:$249? Ouch! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Pxtl ( 151020 )
      Two launch titles I've seen so far are WipeOut and Armored Core. Those are easily two of the best console titles I've ever played. I've followed both series on the PS1 and PS2, and they haven't failed to impress - but never seem to pick up a massive following here for some reason.

      Meanwhile, the best stuff I see on the GameBoy is just Nintendo being formulaic - timewasters and remakes. I really can't find titles that make my happy for my GBA. While the DS has real potential with its sexy hardware and st

  • Meanwhile, over at El Reg ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by SpooForBrains ( 771537 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:05PM (#11563450)
    Some intrepid explorer has travelled to the US and has posted a pretty thorough (and glowing) review of the aforementioned device.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/01/review_son y_psp/ [theregister.co.uk]

    • Re:Meanwhile, over at El Reg ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rkischuk ( 463111 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:27PM (#11563725)
      I lost faith in the article after reading, "the PSP is the most important thing to happen in the video game industry since the launch of the original PlayStation".

      The LAUNCH of the original Playstation was a first-mover swipe to beat Nintendo with hardware originally developed FOR Nintendo as a SNES add-on. It had plain-as-grits graphics on a controller that was half-baked at the time (the non-lettered approach to button-naming confused almost anyone who had played any previous console). It was saved by severe screw-ups by both Nintendo and Sega. Sega beat Sony to the market with the Saturn, but the $399 price was WAY too high, and their rush to market meant that nobody had any time to develop games for it. Nintendo pissed off third-party developers by acting like a bully, and limited game size and (developer) profit margins with small and space-limited cartridges. The Atari Jaguar was still-born.

      Sony won that generation of gaming with games, and with CD technology. The CD Audio wowed consumers while Nintendo had their characters speaking in noises like Charlie Brown's teacher. Their developer-friendly attitude left Nintendo scrambling for 3rd party games. Cheaper game manufacturing let them cut game prices faster amd lower than Nintendo. If Nintendo releases a CD-based console and treated its developers with respect, the PSX would have come in a distant 2nd.

      That combined with his ignorance of Madden and SSX as A+ launch titles for the PS2 erode his credibility with me.

      • I think a bigger factor in Sega's rush to the market was their last-minute decision to change the graphics processor. That threw developers for a loop because now the system was 10 times harder to develop for. The Atari Jaguar suffered a similar fate at the hands of programming difficulty. The Playstation on the other hand was based on the MIPS architecture which is taught in most CS and CE degree programs so a lot of programmers were already at least somewhat familiar with it.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I just read that review. It plays mp3s, mpeg 4, can be connected to your computer, uses an 1.8GB disk for games. I was left with one question, how well does it play games?

  • Pre-order on Amazon.co.uk (Score:5, Informative)

    by danormsby ( 529805 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:05PM (#11563454) Homepage
    Here is the link [amazon.co.uk]. Unfortunately the UK price for the basic version is £180 or about $340. :-(
    • I don't think that's too bad. The first minidisc player I bought was 150 UKP, and my SNES was 150 UKP also when I bought it. Considering the extra engineering that has obviously gone into this, it seems a fair price to me.
    • The US price of $250 translates to around £157 when you add in VAT. So it seems that there is a £23 Sony UK price-bump-for-profits. That's not too bad really I suppose, 15% or thereabouts. Probably around the same as Apple's UK price bumps.
  • ... 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....

  • The 2nd Million (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The second million people receive a small note with a B&W picture of spider-man reading "You didn't buy fast enough. FOOL!."

  • It's all about the form factor. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bennomatic ( 691188 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:07PM (#11563481) Homepage
    Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me I've seen a bunch of gaming devices with this sort of form factor come and go over the years, and for whatever reason, they just don't catch. I call it the curse of the wide, center-screen game systems. Well, I don't, but I'm sure there's some curse that could be ascribed to this phenomenon.

    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 original GBA seemed to sell pretty well.
    • The PSP is all about good packaging. Maybe you don't like "buttons-on-the-sides-screen-in-the-center" format, but no matter how you slice it, this thing is sexy.

      Maybe this is something you should reserve judgement on until you hold one. I, for one, really think Nintendo messed up in the packaging department far more than Sony did...the DS is just huge - effectively twice as big as a GBA SP. The "pocketability" of a system is key, and I think the PSP has it.

    • I agree. Further, I tend to discount people's opinions when they say things like "the thing is sexy." That kind of thinking sets back geek culture at least a decade!

      For the record, I own an Atari Lynx. Some of the games for it seriously give Gameboy titles from the same era a run for their money -- things like KLAX, Rampart and Todd's Adventures in Slime World. Really nifty things. It really wasn't like the Jaguar at all, there were some really nice games for it.

      But I can't help but think that it was
  • ...or is it still appallingly low?

    and what about the flying carts of death issue when you put a little twisting force on the console? fixed, or did they just attach a warning sticker to stay away from PSP players?

  • Metal Gear Acid, eh? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xXunderdogXx ( 315464 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:07PM (#11563491) Homepage Journal
    Sony said around 24 titles would be available at launch or in the days following, representing all of the industry's major game publishers and genres. Games include "FIFA 2005," "Metal Gear Acid," "Need for Speed Rivals" and "Twisted Metal: Head On."


    Metal Gear Acid: Best Played While Tripping.

  • ok but... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Tepshen ( 851674 )
    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.

  • Only 3 things missing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by digitalgimpus ( 468277 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:10PM (#11563519) Homepage
    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!
    • They should have used Bluetooth 2.0 EDR instead of IrDA or Wi-Fi.

    • Re:Only 3 things missing (Score:4, Informative)

      by Drey ( 1420 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:17PM (#11563619) Homepage
      From the specs at the end of the article, reformatted to pass a /. whitespace lameness filter:

      Main Input/Output
      -----------------
      IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi)
      USB 2.0 (mini-B)
      Memory Stick Duo(TM)
      IrDA
      IR Remote

      Looks like it has Wi-Fi.
    • 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.

      Am I missing something here? On the second page of the article, it clearly lists WiFi as an addition, as well as how to disable it when not in use.

      Another post was right on though... Bluetooth would've probably been the better choice.
    • 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.

      I imagine the goal here is to get you to also buy a PS2 for home.

      2. WiFi instead of IrDA.

      A wifi interface probably costs $10 in their volumes, sucks tons of power, and also has certain IO requirements that may not easily be met by their processor. IRDA, however, costs just a few cents, uses very little power, and is a fairly simple
    • I agree on (1).

      As far as (2), from TFA:

      PSP features an unmatched 4.3-inch, 16:9 wide screen TFT LCD that displays full color (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel high-resolution screen. PSP also comes complete with built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector and diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and play online via a wireless network. Up to 16 PSPs in the vicinity can also be connected to each oth

    • Video out would be good to have; however it would generate issues like having to support multiple WW TV standards.

      WiFi is there already as everyone else pointed out.

      Space must to be at a premium in the PSP phsyical package, so why on earth would any designer choose to use the relatively huge CF format rather than the dinky MS Duo?
    • 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 wondered the same thing, but if the UMD disc format is opened up and cheap enough, then you could burn things to those. That kind of eliminates the need for a large memory stick. Maybe that is their plan...?

    • >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'd think this point is a good one if the use of memory stick would compromise the overall design/functionality. but i don't think so. putting a CF reader would have required more space. this isn't quite like sony digital music players not playing mp3 - that we

    • Looks like you already got whipped pretty big on the WiFi snafu.

      For a device where space is a premium, SD or MMC would be a better choice. CF cards are nice but are larger in volume than even the large Memory Stick size, Memory Stick Duo is closer to SD in size.

      Normally, I prefer CF, but the more functions you cram into a portable device, the more space becomes a premium. Sure SD is often a bit more expensive than CF, but not much more, and still cheaper than equivalent Memory Stick or Duo capacity.
  • Meta Gear Acid is a card battle game.

    Beware! :-o

  • Sorry, but I think I will sit this one out. I this release announcement extremely upsetting for a couple of reasons:
    • $50 more than the Japanese release. Now, to be fair, I am not sure extactly how the US package differs from the Japanese package, but I would have hoped for a game for the extra $50 bucks.
    • The Spiderman 2 movie is only available to the first million? I can't believe they wouldn't make that a standard packin.

    Sure, I might be nitpicking a little bit, but with all the recent press, Sony

    • Re:Thanks Sony, Now I'm Officially Not Interested (Score:4, Interesting)

      by radish ( 98371 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:33PM (#11563800) Homepage
      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.

      • Re:Thanks Sony, Now I'm Officially Not Interested (Score:4, Informative)

        by incom ( 570967 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @08:52PM (#11568816)
        "Battery life has been measured at 5.5 hours when playing Ridge Racers (one of the more disc intensive games)."
        Umm... how about no [gamespot.com]:
        Q: How long does the PSP's battery last?
        A: The short answer is that it depends on what you're doing. The longer answer is that Sony has stated that the battery should last around six hours. With simpler-looking games, like Lumines or Mahjong Fight Club, that definitely seems to be the case. But with more graphically intensive games, like Ridge Racers, the battery doesn't last quite as long. Based on our estimates and a few battery-draining tests, Ridge Racers seems to last somewhere between 90 minutes and three hours. Playing with the wireless networking switch flipped on will also further reduce your battery life. The system has an auto-sleep function that stops the wireless drain, but that switch is there for a reason. Turn it off when you're not using it.

        "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."
        I wonder what led to the discovery of the problem then, if it wasn't during the course of normal use.
        "The square button is something which some people complain about, but most don't even notice."
        http://www.gamersmark.com/news/2005/01/1/5166/ [gamersmark.com] 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.
        "Personally, given the US launch price of $250, I'm even more glad I imported mine from Japan for $350 and got it early."
        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.
    • with the value pack in japan, psp is 26,000 yen. so $250 is about right. you just don't have the same choice as in japan to purchase without the value pack for $200.
    • It's about the same price (and same configuration) as the Value Pack version of the Japanese release. No word yet on whether the US will get the 'regular' version without the memory stick.

  • Pricey still (Score:4, Informative)

    by sosuke ( 789685 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:20PM (#11563644) Homepage
    $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

  • How about a game (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Telvin_3d ( 855514 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:21PM (#11563662)
    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 am not buying the PSP to watch Spiderman.

      Sony knows this, which is exactly why it's a movie that they're making a 'special' promotion over.

      I ( and many others, from what I gather ) would prefer a cheaper system that plays great games and does nothing else... but being Sony, they have to try to sell proprietary memory and movies...

  • A portable mini-entertainment center (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jangobongo ( 812593 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:23PM (#11563678)
    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)?
    • I'm wondering how much the UMD disc movies will cost.

      I'm expecting that within a week, somebody will have a process that will Rip the contents of a DVD, convert the content into a (MPeg4?) format that is appropriate for UMD and provide a process for burning a UMD compatible optical disk.

      The question is, will it be Sony? If Sony really wanted to knock MS and Nintendo out of the building, they would provide the ability to Rip a Sony/Columbia DVD into a UMD disk without an additional licensing cost.

      Unfor
    • Will people really want to buy yet another version of their favorite movies for $19.99 (price amount is just a guess)?

      Will people really want to hold passive entertainment for 2+ hours?

  • ...movie/music/game video sampler UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos...

    So for $250 you get a portable game system with game demos that you can't even play. It seems like you should at least bundle something that people can play with. What good is a game demo that you can't play?

    --
    Join the Pyramid - Free Mini Mac [freeminimacs.com] | Free Flat Screens [freeflatscreens.com]

  • My take (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jvmatthe ( 116058 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @12:39PM (#11563880) Homepage
    Here are the factors that stand out to me:
    • 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.

  • WOW! (Score:2, Redundant)

    by jav1231 ( 539129 )
    Sony owns Paint Shop Pro!?
  • Forget it. No way am I paying $250 for a portable game system. Maybe if they let you write your own UMD carts then maybe it might be worth that price (portable movie player). But at $250 for device then $50 or so per game no way.

  • GameGear (Score:4, Interesting)

    by White Roses ( 211207 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @01:29PM (#11564520)
    The last handheld I had was a Sega GameGear. Bought it in the UK, and bought a bunch of games to go with it. The main game I played had the secret code of 2-1-2-down-up. I really enjoyed the color graphics, as compared to my sister's GameBoy (first gen - she still has it). Alas, my GameGear died about 2 years ago. Not even the venerable Halley Wars would load.

    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.

  • Official Launch Lineup (Score:4, Informative)

    by mackman ( 19286 ) * on Thursday February 03, 2005 @01:35PM (#11564584)
    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

  • DS vs PSP (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheBeno ( 856105 ) on Thursday February 03, 2005 @01:37PM (#11564599)
    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.....

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