PlayStation Portable to miss March date in Europe News
PSP News by Games Industry.biz
Reports this morning indicate that Sony's PlayStation Portable will not launch in Europe until the second quarter of the year, with chip shortages blamed for this fresh delay to the system's arrival.
A spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg this morning that the device is now expected to ship in Europe in the first half of the year - the first time that Sony has ever indicated that it will arrive outside of the first quarter.
Speaking with the news service, Sony's Kenichi Fukunaga admitted that the firm cannot manufacture enough of the devices to satisfy demand in all three major markets - which has pushed the schedule for the European launch back.
The news came only hours after Sony confirmed that the PSP would launch in the United States on March 24th at a price point of $249.99, with around a million units of hardware expected to be made available in the launch period.
The PlayStation Portable was originally intended to debut worldwide in late 2004, but eventually only managed a limited shipment in Japan in mid-December, with just over 500,000 units shipped there by the end of the year.
The company's projections have always called for worldwide sales of three million PSP units by the end of its financial year on March 31st, and it's not clear how a delay in Europe will affect that target.
Meanwhile, the console's main rival, the Nintendo DS, is on schedule to go on sale in Europe on March 11th - and has already been on sale in North America since December 2nd last year.
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Comments: 1-38 of 38 in total
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gamingdave
04/02/05 @ 13:19
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Wasnt suprised in the slightest when it fialed to be worldwide release, am not suprised in the slightest to hear of another delay.
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GitSomE UK
04/02/05 @ 13:49
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Gah, might of known, we always get the shitty end of the stick.
Tossers. |
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"Nintendo have a bit of a dilemma. Rush software out to capitalise on this, or stick to making quality stuff and waste their head-start?"
eh? why would making a load of rubbish give them an advantage? they would only need to rush stuff out if they had competition the pressure is off they can make hay while the sun shines! Then rush stuff out when they have the psp for company ;) |
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Smiggs - I meant because without a range of software (something the DS currently lacks, and I'm speaking as a DS owner), the DS won't sell as many as it could in this window of opportunity.
And if Nintendo were to rush out a load of crap in the next few months, they would have a perceived big games library, which would help the DS sell - even if affianados (sic) know it's all rubbish. Make sense? Not sure it does to me :P
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 04/02/05 @ 14:15
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Tweakmonkey
04/02/05 @ 14:30
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So the DS will have lots of shelf space to itself for a while.
/still wondering how GAME will fit the new consoles in to the shops |
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"This is some PR stunt by Nintendo. "
I think you're joking, but just in case; A spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg this morning that the device is now expected to ship in Europe in the first half of the year - the first time that Sony has ever indicated that it will arrive outside of the first quarter. |
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All companies, regardless of industry, skimp on quality to get their product out on the market on time. Especially if it's a new product concept. The PSP is no different. It's a new design, and small flaws will be noticeable in first generation shipments.
I totally agree that a vast number of PSPs will not have that problem. I'm just prepared to wait a little longer until they're ironed out some the build quality. |
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"play.com has listed the PSP as 25/03/05 release and a price of £199.99"
Yeh, and Amazon.co.uk have it for March 18th at £179.99, though it states clearly "Please note: the release date and final UK launch details for the PSP console have not yet been confirmed. This information may therefore be subject to change." - they're just trying to get pre-orders in early |
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"play.com has listed the PSP as 25/03/05 release and a price of £199.99"
They quite often put release dates on something and are completely wrong. For Example, they had Mario Tennis on GC release date as 31/12/04. And then sometime in january. and now sometime in febuary (Which is now eventually correct). Just one example of millions. |
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RobTheBuilder
07/03/05 @ 02:42
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www.dvdboxoffice.com
£140 (depending on exchange rate) Preorder US PSP Value Pack INC delivery |
Comments: 1-38 of 38 in total
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