Sony News from Pre-E3 Conference

[AgtFox]

Major things so far (it's still going on) is:

Playstation 2 and Playstation 2 Combo Pack is now priced at $149

Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal will have at least 8 player online capability.

I'll keep you guys updated.

PSP is about to be shown I believe.  It looks like a Lynx with the face buttons on the right side (look the same as a PS2 and set in the same place), a directional pad on the left and a widescreen LCD it looks like.  At least 2 shoulder triggers ala the GBA.  It's all black as well.  16x9 widescreen, but I missed the pixel numbers.  On-board memory will be 32MB with 4MB of VRAM, built in stereo speakers, on-board ports for controllers, headphones, battery recharge, etc.  Wireless ready (802.11b).

Battery life of about 10 hours with Lithium Ion battery.  Media is 3 times as large as a CD.

3D gaming is its major thing...will allow movie watching and other things.  It weighs 260 grams.

[Devil]

THANKS!!

Any more PSP details (price/release/importability) would be great!

[AgtFox]

EA is talking right now about their PSP commitment, no word on price...but they talked about PS2 interoperability, but did not go into it.  I'll let you know.

[AgtFox]

EA announced these games for PSP when it comes out next year:

NBA Street
NFL Street
Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf
Need for Speed Underground

They're showing them off right now in video.  Basically they look like PS2 games on a widescreen.  Graphics look like PS2 and everything.

They showed off other games earlier, but with no names tied to them.  One looked like a Square-Enix RPG game that looked kind of like Sword of Mana.

[AgtFox]

They're now showing the Spider-Man 2 movie trailer on the PSP with no slowdown and perfect look to it.  The PSP is actually being shown, so this isn't a set up.

[AgtFox]

They're now showing off FF VII: Advent Children on the PSP...they say it's about 70 min. long (the full movie).

Now they're showing an Incubus music video (note how all of these videos are tied to Sony in some way, shape or form )

[AgtFox]

PSP Release: End of March 2005 at the latest (US/Europe), end of 2004 (Japan).  No price yet.

[AgtFox]

Now I think they're starting to talk about the PS3 as they're talking about the Cell processor now.

[AgtFox]

Nevermind, they just talked about Cell and how the first prototype would come out in Quarter 4 of this year (not the Playstation 3).

The Conference is now done...anyone have any questions I may be able to answer from what I saw?  I would expect pictures to come from the staffpeople that went by tonight.

They are also planning on covering the Nintendo event that is starting in about 35 minutes.  I hope to keep you guys appraised of that via what I see and hear as long as work doesn't get too busy.

[Devil]

Great work!! Thanks!!