PSP pipedream a little less piped.
Yesterday, Sony made an official announcement handling the japanese launch date, price and battery life issues that were in question. No, we’re not out of the loop. We’ve seen the updates. We’ve heard the news. We’re just a day late…but we brought pictures!
Japanese launch date 12/12/04. Pricing, well, that depends. For starters, there’s the starter pack. Your price is 19,800 yen (about $186 USD) since the only way you can get it is to import from overseas. The starter pack consists of the PSP unit, a battery, and an AC adapter.
For the elitists, err l33t, there’s the value pack. 24,800 yen (approx $234 USD) will get you a bundled AC adaptor, battery, 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphone set with remote control, soft-case and hand-strap. Not a bad upgrade, considering the memory stick will average retail for around $33 USD alone. And the headphones are just sick.
We’ve mentioned sightings of the PSP headphones and remote control dongle before. Like most Sony personal audio devices, there is a small thumb controller attached to the headphones cable that lets you control volume, track selection, and fast forwarding. We’re not sure what other features will be controlled at this point. Funny to notice that it almost appears like an iPod jog dialer.
The elusive battery and it’s lifespan have been dodged by Sony executives for several months. We finally know that the battery will last “between four and six hours for game titles and continuous four to five hours for video viewing”. It’s lithium-ion, and we only hope that it doesn’t heat up like Li-Ion laptop battery packs do.
The PSP Memory Stick Duo will eventually be available in different sizes like it’s cousin Sony’s MagicGate Memory Stick Duo. The only difference is it says “PSP” on it. I guess that makes you cooler if you have one. Now go show your friends and make them feel inferior.
The PSP is not a lightweight handheld (half a pound without battery) and thus being said, droppage will occur. If you invest this much into a system, it’s best to protect it by investing just a few dollars more and getting a soft case. I’m heavy into portables, but I’m not about to put any of my units through stress and abuse cases. I’d rather play on the safe side and get the soft case.
If headphone dongles don’t excite you, perhaps a set of alternating current adapters will. This is a picture of the AC plug and adapter that will come with the unit, in case you were dying to know what it looked like. Nice set!
I hope that this update makes you happy. Thanks to all the dozens of people that emailed me and informed me of the news. I feel like I have an army of pikmin at times, and that can’t be a bad thing to have.
Make your mouth happy. Preorder the Sony PSP from Lik-Sang.
Comments
I wonder how much Sony is willing to lose for this price. Funny they change the speculated price right after Nintendo releases it’s pricing. I bet they will make up for the price of software. Tiger Woods for PSP is selling for 52USD at launch.
I wonder how much Sony is willing to lose for this price. Funny they change the speculated price right after Nintendo releases it’s pricing. I bet they will make up for the price of software. Tiger Woods for PSP is selling for 52USD at launch.
Hahah,
I think your required by law to buy one Jason, since you run a blog about portable gaming devices… = )
I think they priced it cheaply because they expect users to end up buying it more than once like all their products.
I give it a week before someone sees a Disk Read Error on their new PSP. One accidental drop is all it needs.
I also give it one day before at least 40% of PSP owners end up with bad or reasonably irritating screen scratches.
I give it at least a year before someone accidentally catches the internal circuits of the unit ON FIRE from the heat generated by the moving parts. 
It occurs to me that the battery life given is 4 to 6 hours with
headphones and the volume all the way on half with the wireless mode turned off on a minimal disc access game like Mahjong.
So, if you’re like me and prefer to crank the system in your headphones on a game like -say- Metal Gear Acid, you’re suddenly looking at the 2 to 3 hour battery life AGAIN. One thing to note is that the Nintendo DS battery figures have the ONLINE components ON.
The Nintendo DS is still the better handheld. While the first generation of DS games is mostly using 2D components, the truth is that the Nintendo DS has the potential to put out games that rival and beat current PSP offerings in terms of graphics AND sound.
The Nintendo DS is also much more rugged, and better equipped for being a portable system. The PSP is just begging to shatter when dropped.
Will I get a PSP? Probably not in 2004, 2005, or even 2006. I have yet to see at least 5 titles I would want to buy. Maybe it’s because I’m too intelligent for racing games and I would rather play a new Metroid game than a new Ape Escape game.
You have been served my opinion on the matter.
Which is fine. Although, when it hits the USA next Summer/Fall….
E3 will have passed and Nintendo will have already shown a few shots of what the GBN is capable of. The war is not over by a longshot.
> You have been served my opinion on the matter.
Be careful dmg, you’re almost looking like a nintendo fanboy again…oh wait, I just saw your website again. Ok, go ahead.
I looked around for available import PSP’s. I couldnt find any sites that had pre orders open. Well I preordered mine from a duo (Team) that is getting 10 units. pspimports@gmail.com Not sure how many they have left out of those 10. They might even be sold out. They’ll ship Worldwide.
O i never sed that i hate Nintendo this comment is only whit the DS VERSING the PSP i owned a the frist Nintendo, super nintendo i had a 65 and all the gameboys thats all the past see the this iswhy im going whit the PSP it seds 4 to 6 hrs the litheum bettry rechargs just a little evey time it be on and trunerd off so ur not going to play a PSP or a DS for 6 strate hrs i mean come on maby the DS last longer but look at the size of it if the PSP was the size of the DS of cuse it would have more battry life ya know see im buying the PSP becors maby i dont wanna play games maby i wanna hear some music or do ete it dose whit the DS its big if u dont have like a big or some thing to put it in its pritty big in ur pocket..
You can play american games on japanese psp’s. You only have a disadvantage when you buy an american one as it is region 1 and will NOT play all english umd movies.
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that is one hell of a price. so how is still getting the DS???