Vital New PSP Details Revealed

Today Sony held the PlayStation Meeting 2003 in Japan, unveiling some interesting new details about PSP, and the release timeframe.

Sony Computer Entertainment today revealed that the PlayStation Portable system, originally announced at this year's E3 in May, will ship for a worldwide launch in Q4 2004, with a prototype of the machine to be unveiled at next year's E3 in May 2004.

The company said that it will also reveal the game line-up for the system at next year's Tokyo Game Show, which takes place in September 2004 - over a year from now.

SCE positioned the PSP as the "21st Century Portable System", with the intention being to "integrate all forms of digital entertainment."

Whilst it was good to finally get some solid details on when to expect to see the machine itself, the games, and the actual launch, it's still a fair wait, especially considering some gamers hoped it would launch close to the new PSX unit, which will ship in Japan this year.

Sony also explained more about the system, revealing the following new specifications:

• 3D-CG Game
• 7.1ch Audio, 3D Sound
• ATRAC3 plus, AAC, MP3 for Music
• AVC (MPEG 4) for Picture/Movie
• 16:9 Widescreen TFT LCD
• Embedded Wireless LAN (802.11)
• Li-ion Battery
• Extension for GPS, Digital Tuner...

These specs have surprised some, confirming the unit to be even more advanced that was previously though after the announcement in May.

In particular, the audio capability of the machine stands out as being particularly impressive. With a widescreen TFT display, and the ability to play out video and audio on par with your average DVD player, these latest PSP specs are certainly exciting news for gadget and games fans alike.

In addition, SCE revealed that PSP will have regional coding built in, making PSP another non-import-friendly machine, despite GBA being cross-region compatible.

Although the PSP project is still intangible to the games world, with nothing more than three or four Powerpoint presentations since May to detail the machine's existence, the final product is something we're definitely excited about.

Stay tuned for more on PSP, PSX and - naturally - PlayStation 3.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com