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Play Station Portable
Launches in Europe with Games & Movies
Monday, September 1, 2005
Until now, the only Play Station Portable's
within Europe where players that were imported
from Japan or the US and to date, over 5 million
PSP's were sold worldwide. Now that Sony has
just launched their PSP within Europe, they
are predicted to sell out very quickly as well
as expected to become the UK's biggest launch
ever for any electrical good item.
At present, there are between 25 and 30 games
available for the PSP throughout Europe. There
are also 18 movies made available on the player's
proprietary UMD optical disc format in the UK,
although this is expected to hit 100 movie titles
by the Christmas season. Currently only Dreamworks
and Warner support the UMD format. The PSP comes
as standard with a game sampler CD and the Spider-Man
2 movie.
Many of the current games take advantage of
the player's Wi-Fi connection for multiplayer
gaming as well as to connect to the Internet
via a wireless hotspot to download new levels,
racing tracks, etc. depending on the game. The
player is currently shipping for £17.99 in the
UK and €249 throughout Europe.
Sony released its new Play Station Portable
(PSP) in Europe expecting them to sell out quickly.
This is predicted to be the biggest launch for
an “electrical good” in the UK ever. Stores
opened at midnight to capitalize on early sales.
The small console can play video games, movies,
display photos and video images, and store music.
ITN reports the portable is expected to be the
number on Christmas gift this year. The price
is £179.99 (or €249).
There are currently 25 to 30 games available
for the PSP in different parts of Europe. Movies
can be played on the portable as well. Currently
only two studios support the Universal Media
Disc (UMD) format, Dreamworks and Warner. This
is Sony’s new mini disk DVD design that is capable
of holding 1.8GB.
The movies and games are viewed on an 11 cm
screen. So far only 18 movies have been released
in the UK but it is hoped that 100 will be available
by Christmas. Sony has offered a free Spider-Man
2 movie with each PSP purchase.
Until the PlayStation 3 comes out, this player
will surely bring extra income to Sony, especially
since this targets a different area of consumers.
For example, while consumers may have a console
under their TV, they may also want one to carry
about, which not only means buying a new portable
console, but also the games to play on it. Even
if their upcoming PlayStation 3 does not do
so well at the start, they will still get a
lot of sales on this PSP alone, not to mention
further sales on the PlayStation 1 & 2 for another
while yet. While the original PlayStation has
been on the market since 1995, they are still
selling very well, although the housing of the
player has been redesigned and compacted since.
*Article courtesy o f Seán Byrne and www.cdfreaks.com
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