The planned launch of a portable edition of Sony's hugely popular PlayStation game console series is eagerly awaited by game fans and retailers here, but analysts are more cautious about a product claimed by Sony to be as revolutionary as its Walkman.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc unveiled the PlayStation Portable (PSP) at Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, the world's largest game trade show earlier this month, although Japanese gamers will have to wait till the end of the year to get hold of one.
The PSP is Sony's weapon in the battle to win a share of the ?400 billion (US$3.5 billion) global market for portable game consoles, a segment currently 95-percent controlled by the Nintendo GameBoy series.
Sony boasts the hand-held console, measuring 17cm by 7.4cm and weighing 260g, will be capable of producing graphic and sound quality equal to Sony's hugely popular PlayStation2.
"The display screen appeared very big and showed very clear images," said Kenji Saeki, a technology journalist for GameWatch magazine who tried a mock-up of the PSP in Los Angeles.
"With the PSP, Sony is targeting adult men aged between 18 and 35, who have high disposable income but not much time at home to play with home-use game consoles. I think the product is attractive enough for the targeted group," Saeki said.
Businessman Kenichi Ogawa, 35, said he would probably buy one when the PSP hits the market.
"I would not want many fancy functions, just good visuals, good games and smooth control would do for me," he said as he surveyed game stores in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district. "The price will be the main concern for me."
Sony has not announced the retail price, but Japanese media have suggested it is likely to be between ?20,000 and ?30,000 (US$175 and US$260).
It is due to go on sale to the public in the US and Europe early next year.
"This is the Walkman of the 21st century," Ken Kutaragi, Sony Computer Entertainment president and chief executive, said as he introduced the new console in Los Angeles.
"We are targeting worldwide sales of 3 million units by the end of this fiscal year" to March next year, a company spokesman in Tokyo said.
caution
Since Los Angeles, Sony has been cautious about releasing information about the PSP, however, and refused media requests to try it out. The spokesman said Sony had no immediate plans to showcase the product to the Japanese press.
Industry analysts were more skeptical about the new console's appeal as a second Walkman, which was the first of a kind, whereas this time Sony is following a trail blazed by Nintendo.
"I don't think Sony has hard data to back up their sales target of 3 million units," said Takashi Oka, game industry analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Securities.
"There are many portable games available, but Nintendo has stably dominated the market. It would be very difficult to take away a large share in the market," Oka said.
"And there is no guarantee that Sony will really deliver the new product on time" for the year-end holiday shopping season, he added.
Mitsuhiro Osawa, electronics analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities, said it was difficult to imagine the PSP alone would significantly boost Sony's earnings.
"The game industry is very mature. I don't think that one single product will significantly lift Sony's corporate strength and revenue," he added.
But retailers said the product would be a welcome addition to the popular PlayStation family which enabled Sony to take the home-use console market by storm as a new entrant with the launch of the first version in 1994.
A combined 170 million units of all PlayStation versions have been sold worldwide so far, according to Sony.
"The PlayStation series has always sold well. I think the new portable console will also be a hit," said the sales manager at TomoTech electronics store in Akihabara, who identified himself only as Higuchi.
"Generally speaking, new portable products always appeal to consumers wanting to show off new gadgets to friends. I think the PlayStation Portable will give game players another opportunity to do that," he said.
But until the price is announced, software makers cannot decide what resources to commit to the PSP business, said analyst Oka. "Only then we can forecast whether the PSP will have a good range of game titles."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS