PSP's opening price in Japan revealed

[Kolzig]

PSP™ ENTERS THE MARKET ON DECEMBER 12, 2004 AT 19,800 YEN IN JAPAN

Sony Computer Entertainment Sets Price and Launch Date for the Long-Awaited PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable), the New Handheld Video Game System

That means 145 euros, so is Sony going the Microsoft Xbox-way™?

Sell as much PSP machines as possible and meanwhile losing piles of cash in the production costs?

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/041027ae.pdf

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/041027a.html

At the same time Sony will also release PSP Value Pack

PSP™ VALUE PACK TO BECOME AVAILABLE ON DECEMBER 12, 2004 AT 24,800 YEN IN JAPAN

That's 180 euros.

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/041027be.pdf

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/041027b.html

[Tanukitsune]

The battery lasts half as much as a GBA SP, so the batteries are as long lasting as the Game Gear's, it looks uncomfortable too....

But it's much cheaper than I excpected....

[Kolzig]

Oh it's quite certain that the price will be a lot higher in Europe than it is in Japan.

And yeah the battery life does really remind me of Game Gear

[Twilo]

And yeah the battery life does really remind me of Game Gear

The Game Gear didn't come with a rechargeable battery.

It ate AA's 6 at a time.

4-6 hours is fine; like a PDA.

[Kolzig]

Fine then Twilo, spoil my moment.

[Jayel]

145 euro?

jebus the LCD panel alone may cost more than that.

and I see the regular package doesn't come with a case or a fliplid or any kind of screen protection. wonderful.

[SiN]

i dont really like the psp, but to your average joe, its looking pretty good. its at a shockingly competitive price, and is coming out at a very close date to the DS.

the battery life isnt all that bad ... its quite respectable really. mind you, they did say "on average" 4-6hrs, which means the battery will most likely last 3-4 hours ... which is kinda rubbish.

i dunno about the whole deal now ... about 10 minutes ago, i thought nintendo had this round won, with the psp being delayed & all. however, seeing as they have a close price & release date, i see this being a very close one to call. the only flaw i see in sony's plan is that the PSP feels a little rushed to me ... it might have its fair share of bugs.

either way, im buying myself a ds

SiN

[guybrush_guy]

I'm really excited about this, I'm glad that the battery is rechargeable. in the future their will probably be newer batteries that give it longer life.

on slightly different subject concerning Nintendo DS. the presales in japan have sky rocketed, so the DS does have a chance. compared to the PSP i think the DS will make the same amount of money.

[Kolzig]

PSP Battery Life Not So Hot?

Ken Kutaragi spoke to Japanese website Impress PC Watch and cleared up a few details regarding the PSP's battery life, basically saying the quoted four to six hour window will fluctuate from game to game. He said, "A puzzle game will last longer, but Ridge Racer will probably be shorter than that." He added that the short life span will be addressed in later revisions of the device, saying "in the future, we'd like a single charge to last for a flight between Narita and New York." That's about a fourteen hour flight.

Hmm...

[Farbror]

How come the PSP eats so much battery, and the DS don't?

[manny_c44]

The screen uses more power, the processors use way more power (judging from early graphics previews) and to spin the UMD disc, alot more power is used than if you're just reading off of a flash card.

I think I'll wait a year to decide between the handhelds, neither of them have stunning release titles anyway, so we'll see what happens.

[Kolzig]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n10/nwt/dssoft/movie/dssoft.html

Wowzers!

[Salka]

It looks really awkward to use...

[Farbror]

Well, in the movie, everytime someone was using it, it was placed on a surface. We never actually saw anyone holding it.

I'm fearing Yufster may be right...

[hermes]

erw - I just got a gameboy SP - a real nice hot red one....

My first gameboy since 1989 - and it is fantastic.... I felt like a little kid whose dreams just came true...

But now the ds comes and I'm not the cool kid on the block anymore :\ (which in this case is the block of dreamy-like happiness in my head - away from university and important grown up stuff...)

[Chris]

The SP is way cooler than the DS. I'm still in love with my GBA but I have no intention of picking up a DS.

[hermes]

Now this is innovative (feel the magic XX/YX)

-

we can talk about one new minigame that's not been seen before: yacht. In this particular game, you simply have to maneuver a sailboat to your lady, who's fallen in the water. The catch is that once you play the game a few times, it gets harder--thanks to the presence of swimming sharks. Moving the boat is handled by blowing into the DS's microphone while carefully gauging how hard you have to blow to get the boat into rescue position.

wooouhuu

[hermes]

The SP is way cooler than the DS. I'm still in love with my GBA but I have no intention of picking up a DS.

Do you have hands-on experience with the DS?

But yeah I follow you - the SP is a masterpiece of design and general coolness... I'm happy just looking at it....

[Chris]

Do you have hands-on experience with the DS?

Yes, which you would know if you read our site. Well, I guess that article doesn't actually specify that I was using the DS. But I was. Also I was the guy who wrote "IDLETHUMBS.net, go there" on the DS chat program in the feature art. So there. Also I played Mario, this wacky Pac-Man game, WarioWare DS (which was actually pretty fun), and a bunch of other stuff I don't even remember anymore.

[hermes]

I was not being sceptical about your statement - as in as Do YOU (haha chris) have hands on blablabla...?

And you shouldn't be here now - you should write a Halo 2 preview - so leave me alone and buckle down 'cause we need content....

[Kolzig]

One thing though is for certain, there's about +15 games in the DS launch & "lauch" titles that I find very interesting.

And more to come of course.

[Kolzig]

Microsoft execs comment on PlayStation Portable

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=5363

[jp-30]

Just had a few minutes playing Ridge Racer on the PSP.

Well. Goddamn, that was fun. Pretty interesting analogue joystick too, it slides, not pivots, but it's all totally natural.

Never been interested in a buying a console before, but given Planet Moon's exclusive PSP developments, I might just be swayed.

[manny_c44]

So I guess the directional disc thing is kind of like that queer one slapped onto some ancient NES controllers...although I suspect that those NES dealies were just for show, I'd never used one that worked properly.

I agree 100% on your planet moon notion, but who knows how long that'll take...and at the moment there's only 1 really interesting PSP game, Lumines. Did you play that per chance?

[jp-30]

I agree 100% on your planet moon notion, but who knows how long that'll take...and at the moment there's only 1 really interesting PSP game, Lumines. Did you play that per chance?

Well, planet moon have been working on Infected for a year now, though I still don't know anything at all about it, but I do trust that company wholeheartedly to make something wickedly entertaining. But you're right, who knows when it's gunna be released.

And Ridge Racer was the only game that I got to play on the PSP.