PSP official price revealed 12 DECEMber

[Ty]

Looks like SONY won't be making money on PSP hardware for a long while. I must say the price is very attractive if true. I might even get one not at launch though, gotta wait for better quality games and final thoughts on battery life.

This is the first statement wrt Sony you've made that I completely agree with 100% (and was planning to do as well - wait for the games at least).

 

[Lazy8s]

Vince:

I hope people had a stop-loss order on Nintendo's stock.

Wrong company to be worrying about.

This news finally confirms that PSP won't take the bulk of the Game Boy market since it priced itself out of contention. The GBA has near a 70 million unit sales potential and clearly sits within the definition of the portable gaming mass market with its around-$80 price tag.

Conversely, this news also confirms that PSP is a loss leading investment which risks Sony finances that are already troubled.

 

[Farid]

Looks like SONY won't be making money on PSP hardware for a long while. I must say the price is very attractive if true. I might even get one not at launch though, gotta wait for better quality games and final thoughts on battery life.

Who are you, and what have you done with PC?

All jokes aside, i agree that the best thing to do is to wait at least the second batch of hardware, correcting the possible flaws and problems the initial models would have.
But the best thing to do, is to wait, until a migration to a lower process, like i pointed it in my other post, and therefore win maybe an hour or two of battery life, also by that time, "bigger" batteries would be available from third parties at a cheap price, and more interresting games would also be released.

But... $185, no region lock, that is horribly attractive... Must resist!

 

[London Geezer]

Yeah it's just..... WRONG. I am B R O K E. And this is wrong.

 

[wco81]

Does anyone see the likelihood of shortages? Sony said they were allocating 1 million each to US/NA and Europe.

It could be a situation like the PS2 or the iPod Mini just earlier this year.

May need to preorder for launch or otherwise have to wait months later to find them in good supply.

 

[PC-Engine]

Whatever it is..it's artificial.

 

[London Geezer]

Not sure about the artificial shortages this time around. I mean with PS2 they were in the position to mess around with people's heads, this time i don't think they're in the position to play the big guys, since any little mistake will come back to them in the form of Mario and big hammers in their heads.

I think they need to get as many PSPs out of the door as quickly as they can.

With PS2 they could do whatever they wanted to do for a year or so... It's different here, Nintendo will kick Sony's asses if they play around...

 

[wco81]

I read somewhere that their production capacity is 3 million of the broadband engine. But not sure if that was for a year or for a quarter.

They are trying to ship 2 or 3 million by the end of their fiscal year, which is like March?

So it would make sense if they're only allocating 1 million to each of the 3 main regions.

With the unexpected low price, I think the demand will outstrip supply. I really wouldn't be surprised if people are going to try to make money on eBay this spring.

There's an EE article somewhere talking about how 50% of the cost of making the thing comes from chips they make. The main thing which is sourced from another company is the screen from Sharp.

There was also a piece in Gamespot about how THQ or Activision had 4 games planned but only one would be for the US launch. They had a shortage of developer's kit. So they are allocating the ones they got to the launch title and the other 3 games will have to release later in the year, possibly around the holidays.

 

[one]

Whatever it is..it's artificial.

Artificial? Yeah, I bet some bastards buy 10 of cheapo PSP now that it costs only $200 and put them on eBay

 

[marconelly!]

I have the SR71 (EX71), and have never seen them in white here.

I have seen them on bunch of sites that sell audio equipment.
I've heard they are actually quite popular with iPod users as they are higher quality than the stock ones.

 

[Berserk]

Does someone know if you can use memory sticks from another brand like Sandisk and with larger capacity? This is important because the memory sticks are much cheaper than those from Sony.

 

[McFly]

Does someone know if you can use memory sticks from another brand like Sandisk and with larger capacity? This is important because the memory sticks are much cheaper than those from Sony.

Yes, no doupt.

Fredi

 

[Berserk]

Hmm I read now that the PSP only supports the smaller DUO sticks, not the regular ones.

 

[wco81]

Yup, the Duos which are even more expensive than the regular Memory Sticks.

So Sony can make some money back on the flash memory, in return for this low price for the PSP.

Also expect $40 PSP games.

 

[Spidermate]

Looks like SONY won't be making money on PSP hardware for a long while. I must say the price is very attractive if true. I might even get one not at launch though, gotta wait for better quality games and final thoughts on battery life.

Don't be silly. It has been mentioned in a report that because Sony was behind most of the internal hardware of the PSP, they were able to drop the price as low as it was, which didn't surprise me none. I was expecting them to price it at $149 minimum and $179 max. Anyway, they expect to establish a profit on the PSP around April of 05.

And what is this about the battery life? If it was officially annouced, then how could it change? What makes you think Nintendo isn't lying about their battery life? :?

Speaking of battery, does anyone know where it'll be placed on the PSP? It looks kind thick to go near the gripping area.

 

[marconelly!]

Hmm I read now that the PSP only supports the smaller DUO sticks, not the regular ones.

Yes, that has been known for a while. MS Duo and MS Duo Pro only. Regular ones are being slowly phased out. Almost none of the new Sony electronics supports them, from what I can see.

 

[cthellis42]

And what is this about the battery life? If it was officially annouced, then how could it change? What makes you think Nintendo isn't lying about their battery life? :?

I assume he means real-world testing of the released product. And yes, both the PSP and DS need it before we can see the full picture of their lifespan and vouch for their released estimates.

Hmm I read now that the PSP only supports the smaller DUO sticks, not the regular ones.

Yes, that has been known for a while. MS Duo and MS Duo Pro only. Regular ones are being slowly phased out. Almost none of the new Sony electronics supports them, from what I can see.

Size matters--especially on devices like this. Yes, it seems like it will eventually go Duo's way, and even right now on places like NewEgg or from SanDisk, the price difference is little if at all. Since DUO's can use a converter to work in non-DUO products, I rather expect it all to move that way eventually. (Retains compatability and I imagine saves some cash in manufacture.) At which point it will end up being a lot cheaper.

Though I see some "high speed" MS out there as well... I'm not sure if that can be DUO-ized, or if they can bring the huge-capacity ones down (2GB and higher--when they make them), so I imagine we'll see both formats around for a while still, for one purpose or another.

 

[marconelly!]

High speed = 'MS Pro' and 'MS Pro Duo'. They really do have quite fast transfer speeds, btw.

 

[Vince]

High speed = 'MS Pro' and 'MS Pro Duo'. They really do have quite fast transfer speeds, btw.

No, I think there's a new format out there which is 'MS Pro [Duo] High-Speed.' Which brings it upto 3 levels: [MS], [MS Pro], [MS Pro HS]. I could be wrong though, I'm not sure what supports it.

 

[wco81]

For the purposes of the PSP, it looks like you have to get a 256 MB or above to get the Pro Duo. According to the Sonystyle.com page, the Pro has the fast speeds, something like 80 MB per sec or minute. It doesn't list the speeds for the regular one.

The other advantage of the Pro is that it works in more extreme temperatures.

The thing is, it'll be interesting how you load MP3s on a MS Duo from your computer. Most memory card readers in the US support MS but not Duo. So you have to use that adapter thing and slide it into the MS slot on the reader.

Will you be able to just drag MP3 files onto it from your computer and then the PSP will recognize it? Or do you have to run some Sony program in order to load MP3s from your computer?