For those of you living under a rock, Sony have announced that they‘ll be releasing a new handheld system called the Playstation Portable (PSP).

According to Chris Deering, President of Sony Europe, the console will be released in November 2004, although later statements by Sony Computer Entertainment vice president Masatsuka Saeki indicated a December release. It will be a simultaneous worldwide release so European gamers have no need to fear the usual delays.

We’ve been told the PSP will be using a new proprietary media known as Universal Media Disc (UMD). These are 1.8Gb discs encased in a similar fashion to Minidiscs and about 6cm across. The PSP will be the first kit to utilise UMD although Sony have indicated that these will be used in other devices too, perhaps even becoming another media standard similar to CD and DVD.

The PSP is to include some exciting connectivity too. According to Sony’s technical specs it will have USB 2.0, Memory Stick and an expansion port. On top of this it will have wireless LAN (i802.11), allowing for possible wireless multiplayer gaming. The final version is said to include an integrated analogue control and similar button layout to the Dualshock controllers we’re all familiar with. Moving on to the core of the PSP its processing is quite incredible, estimated at about ten times as powerful as PSOne. Sony has hinted at non-gaming applications for the PSP such as GPS tracking and playback of DVD quality movies, sadly the device is purported to be region locked unlike the GBA and N-Gage.

Developers are excited about this console too and a number of them have announced that they are working on titles for it.

• Koei (Dynasty Warriors, Kessen) are working on three titles to be ready for launch and though they haven’t named them it’d be a safe bet that at least one of them is a Dynasty Warriors game.
• Namco (Ridge Racer, Tekken) have announced they will try to release 2 to 3 games for launch.
• Capcom (Street Fighter, Viewtiful Joe) and Konami (Metal Gear Solid, Dancing Stage) are working on PSP too and each of them hopes to have one game ready in time for launch.
• Sega are developing for PSP too but will provide more information at the Tokyo Game Show.
• Dutch publisher, Playsoft is releasing a game called “PSP Racing” developed by Engine Software.
• Hungarian developer Humansoft is working on a “commando type action game” called Joe (also being released for N-Gage).

Sony themselves have said that they are working on ten first party titles to be ready for launch, one of which is alleged to be a Wipeout game. Oddly Square-Enix is still considering whether or not to publish for the PSP.

All this makes the PSP sound like a tasty bit of kit, but there have been concerns as to the pricing of the console. However these concerns were allayed by Chris Deering in an interview where he said that the price of the unit would be “comparable” to the GBA, considering an SP is currently retailing at £90 looks to be a very tempting proposition indeed. Even more encouragingly he said that, although some games could retail for between £35-£40, he expected the vast majority of titles, "given the time slots these will be played in will be more the £20 range" and with reference to movies on the UMD format, Deering suggested that these could retail for as little as £7. UG