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Sony delays US, Euro PlayStation Portable launch

Bows out of the Christmas 2004 market

The Japanese launch is still on track for the end of this year, but the PSP will not appear in North America or European before the end of the Sony's 2005 fiscal year, which ends 31 March, 2005.

At SCEA's Destination PlayStation conference, the following statement emerged from the company: "We have received an overwhelming amount of support from the software development community with regard to PSP. In order to ensure that the launch timeframe is well supported, we want to allow developers and publishers sufficient time to optimise content for our new portable entertainment platform."

Another official quote emerged on various newswires attributed to SCEA's Teresa Weaver, stating: "We wanted to be sure there's a reasonable amount of software titles to launch with hardware."

Finally, a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) issued the following statement to journos this morning: "The response to PSP has been overwhelmingly positive from content providers throughout Europe, and it is our intention to launch PSP in Europe at the same time as it is launched in the US. We wanted to make sure that a reasonable number of software titles are released together with the hardware launch, and considering time necessary for US/European third parties as well as SCE first party to develop the titles, we have decided to adjust the European launch by a couple of months."

The delay won't come as a huge surprise to industry watchers, with Sony already pushing things close to the wire by reportedly delaying the release of the machine's final technical specs to the development community and already optimistically pinning its hopes on a global launch - something Sony has yet to pull off since its emergence ten years ago. And the Christmas launch date appeared to leave the company little room for manoeuvre should anything go wrong. And so it has proved, with even the Japanese launch, originally pitched for November, being pushed back to late December.

Still, importers won't be too concerned, and online retailers will no doubt do a roaring trade in the run up to Christmas. Nintendo will also be mightily pleased that it will have no competition for its forthcoming DS machine - not to mention the fact that it will be under less pressure to reduce the price on the GBA this Christmas.

Copyright © 2004, GamesIndustry.biz

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