War of the Worlds

Check out Sony's playstation portable (PSP) that is making waves all over.

Changing the way of the gaming world, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan launched their first mobile playstation on December 12, 2004. Since then this tiny PSP that fits in your pocket is taking the world by storm. Sony’s PSP (playstation portable) boasts of a host of multimedia features (Movies, Music, Photos, Video, Games) but is mainly geared for games.

With a display screen of 9.6cms x 5.5cms this baby is up for grabs. People stood in line as early as 3am waiting to bag this mobile beauty launched all over North America on March 24, 2005 for just US $249.99. Thereafter, this baby made its way into South Korea on May 02, 2005 followed by a joint launch on May 12, 2005, in Singapore, HongKong and Taiwan. Sony’s PSP is scheduled to launch in Europe on September 01, 2005. The official launch date for Europe was pushed back due to high demands from Japan, North America and other countries. Billions of units sold out in just two days! 

Sony’s PSP is apt for long hours of travel if you are a video game fanatic. And not just that, you can watch movies (UMD format) listen to music (MP3 format) view photos or videos all in the palm of your hand. 

UMD (Universal Media Disc) is the next generation’s compact storage media and Sony leads in future technologies. Yes, you guessed right. The new PSP has a UMD drive 60mm diameter with 1.8GB of digital data storage. Companies that support UMD movies are Disney, 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate Ent., Sony Pictures and Paramount pictures. Movies in UMD format are Spiderman 2; Hellboy; Once Upon A Time In Mexico; Pirates of the Caribbean to name a few. Sized at 170mm (W) 23mm (H) 74mm (D) and weighing 270g (incl. Battery) makes it a perfect mate to carry around. Izumi Kawanishi, Sony’s lead developer, also added a neat screen color feature that changes each month. 

The new PSP has a memory of 32MB and runs for 4-5 hours of play on full screen brightness. It also has multi-player features but does not require other players to own the same game. File sharing makes this possible and it’s a great idea to boost sales. When turned onto ad-hoc mode, this tiny console accommodates as many as 16 consoles at a given time. Video settings are hard-coded into the machine making it possible for region free gaming supported by wireless network (WiFi). 

Other features including swapping of memory sticks from digital cameras to PSPs and video playbacks. Images are crisp and clean on the TFT LCD display screen enhanced by 16.77m color (480 x 272 pixels). The main screen showcases icons on settings, photo, music, video and game. The setting icon allows you to personalize your PSP with mundane features like time and date etc. Sony’s PSP has inbuilt speakers that are tiny but loud enough for the deaf. If you still want to catch every tiny wave plug in with the headset provided. Future PSPs boasts of television broadcasts via WiFi and possibly internet browsing. Priced at US $249.99 Sony has set a trend in the new world of computer entertainment. 

North American Launch Games

Available at launch:

Available shortly thereafter: