Sony Announces 'PSP' Entertainment Platform
As E3 gets underway in Los Angeles, Sony has unveiled a new platform for portable gaming and beyond. The device, dubbed "PSP," represents Sony's first foray into a market currently dominated by Nintendo. But Sony's continued lead in the console gaming space and vast reach within home electronics could give the company a distinct advantage over its competitors.
PSP will feature a 480x272 pixel TFT LCD display and utilize a Sony-developed storage format called Universal Media Disc. UMD is comprised of a 60mm optical disc that can hold 1.8GB of data. Akin to Sony's MiniDisc platform, each optical disc will be contained within a cartridge. Sony also plans to support the latest copyright protection to ensure publishers a secure environment for their content.
Although PSP will become part of the PlayStation family, Sony's plans for the device more resemble Microsoft's Media2Go efforts. PSP includes a USB 2.0 port for connectivity with other devices, along with a slot for Sony's Memory Stick media. PSP will additionally feature native support for MPEG-4 audio and video.
"Along with game applications, PSP will have a huge potential for delivering other forms of entertainment as well as live entertainment through the network, anywhere, anytime," said Ken Kutaragi, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "This is the Walkman of the 21st century."
Licensing for PSP developers is slated to be announced this summer, with PC-based development tools to follow in fall 2003. Sony has not said when it expects to bring PSP to market, but is already touting the importance of the product.
"Just as PlayStation and PlayStation 2 revolutionized in-home computer entertainment, we aim to become a new driving force in the portable entertainment platform arena," said Kutaragi.