Joshua

SONY ENTERS PORTABLE GAME MARKET, CUTS PS2 PRICE

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced this week that it will
take on the market-leading Nintendo GameBoy with a new handheld video
game system called the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which features
advanced graphics capabilities, a wide-screen display, and a small
DVD-like disk drive. Additionally, in a bid to counter-attack one of
the Microsoft Xbox's more obvious advantages over the PlayStation 2
(PS2), the consumer electronics giant slashed the price of its PS2
video game console and released a new version--at the old price
point--that includes the broadband networking adapter that SCE used to
sell separately.

"There's a new member of the [PlayStation] family, and it's not the
PlayStation 3," said SCE President and CEO Ken Kutaragi (the so-called
Father of the PlayStation), referring to the PSP. "The baby is still
in the incubator, but as the father I can look in the window and see
his face, and he is very cute." The PSP will ship about the time of
the 10th anniversary of the original PlayStation, he said, and will be
"the Walkman for the 21st century."

The PSP will debut in late 2004, the company said during briefings
this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.
The new product will feature several innovative features, including a
5.4" 16:9 wide-screen backlit LCD display with a resolution of 480 x
272 pixels, and will use a new DVD-like disc format that SCE calls
UMD. UMD disks, about half the physical size of a DVD, will hold 1.8GB
of data--almost three times the storage capacity of a CD-ROM. The PSP
will also include stereo speakers, USB 2.0 ports, a laptop-like
rechargeable lithium ion battery, 3-D-graphics capabilities, and
MPEG-4 video support.

On the video game-console front, SCE dropped the price of its PS2
console from $200 to $180 and introduced a new version of the console
for $200; the new console includes a broadband networking adapter, a
built-in infrared (IR) receiver, and better DVD movie playback
capabilities. Although critics might charge that SCE is simply trying
to meet some of the technological advantages in its primary
competitor, the Xbox, the company wasn't offering much in the way of
kudos for its competition. Instead, Kaz Hirai, president of SCE US,
declared victory for the PS2 in "the battle for [video game] console
supremacy." Predictably, as I write this, reports about Xbox price
cuts are starting to filter in as Microsoft moves to counter the
effects of SCE's announcement.

__________________
The Apexer formerly known as SnotRocket.

"Like I ****ing said, "Ok, so I hear it may be a repost. Blah But I had never seen it, so..." **** you Canta." -Jenny 12/4/2003

raimin

You never compete against the gameboy and win...

RIP my gamegear
RIP my neogeo pocket
never did buy the lynx

ray

turbografx 16 portable!