Sony, Nintendo pick March '05 for Euro console launch

Same time, same place, apparently

Both Sony and Nintendo have marked the week ending 18 March 2005 on their corporate calendars as the European launch date of the PlayStation Portable and the DS, UK games trade paper MCV has claimed.

That schedules both handheld consoles to appear just before the Easter break, which after Christmas is one of the busiest times in the gaming calendar.

Microsoft launched Xbox mid-March, and Nintendo launched its GameBoy Advance SP juring the same period, a few years back, too. As the successor to the SP, the DS might well be earmarked for a similar launch window.

It seems odd, however, that Sony would want to ship PSP in the same week. The two consoles may appeal to different age groups - kids and teenagers for the DS, twenty- and thirty-somethings for the PSP - but such is the anticapation surrounding each console, surely both manufacturers are not going to want to risk being overshadowed by the other. ®

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