US Release Date, Price for PSP Set

by Ed Oswald

February 3, 2005, 11:30 AM

Sony announced Thursday that its PlayStation Portable will be available in retail stores on March 24. The unit will be released in a "Value Pack" for $249.99 USD and will include several accessories.

The Value Pack includes a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, headphones with a remote control, a battery pack, AC adaptor, a cleaning cloth and protective soft case, as well as a UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos.

For the first one million PSP Value Packs shipped, a special UMD video release of the feature film Spider-Man 2 from Sony Pictures Entertainment will also be included.

UMD is a proprietary disc format from Sony, which features the ability to store up to 1.8GB of data in a disk that is 60mm in diameter - roughly a third of the size of a compact disc. It also has what the company calls "robust" copyright protection to prevent illicit duplication of discs.

"PSP will evolve and elevate portable entertainment, giving users the freedom to play full 3D games, watch movies, listen to music and connect wirelessly on their terms, their time and their place," said Kaz Hirai, president and chief executive officer, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

PSP had a very successful launch in Japan; more than 800,000 units have been shipped, including a 200,000-unit allocation that sold out on the first day.

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Does this sucker have a hard drive? And what can it connect to wirelessly? Other PSP or LAN/WAN?

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No HDD, storage is is on the 32MB MS Duo, or on the 1.8GB UMD disk.

It has built in 802.11b, so you can play online from your livingroom or any other wifi enabled spot.. nice one...

I WANT ONE>.. Hopefully a EU/UK launch date will be announced soon...

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DS pwns! :P

I also heard that the value pack is a waste of money.

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Mark, from what I understand, the European launch date (at least as of CES) was supposed to be quite close if not the same to the US launch. Of course, we'll update this article if we're able to confirm.

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ds is a waste of money

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at least nintendo remembers what real gaming machines are supposed to be about...games...not dvds and the like, that's what dvd player are for. sony will include any feature they can to make a buck while nintendo tries to focus on gaming and advance gaming as a whole

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nintendo also is lowest in console sales. Guess their methods dont work....

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except gameboy is the best selling gaming unit ever.

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Nintendo has the most units sold because it has been the only one on the market thus far. There has never been a real threat. The PSP is awesome.

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exactly no "real" competition. Until now...

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Sure Sony doesn't stick to the gamming only but there gamming is still better than DS. Come on u see the games for gameboy SP there 2D crapy mario games like same graphics from like 8 years ago, guess what there selling them for $50. wtf that's not right!!

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shushi2005 and jcgamer60 is so right they have no competition till now cuz sony is comming to own them.

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