Sony Says All Systems Go for PSP Launch
231553
Handheld gaming device debuts in Japan this weekend, but won't be available in U.S. until next year.
123094
A POCKET version of Sony&#39;s hugely successful PlayStation games console is tipped to be the hottest gadget of 2005. The PlayStation Portable, or PSP for short, will be a market
748963
Sony has once again reiterated its plan to ship PlayStation Portable (PSP) in Japan by the end of the year and in Europe and the US during Q1 2005.
543549
(InfoWorld) - Sony is confident it will hit shipment targets for its recently launched PlayStation 3 game console, its president said Thursday. Prior to theÂ launch of the PS3 in November, Sony said it would ship 2 million consoles this year in Japan and the U.S. and 6 million by the end of its financial year in March 2007. Those targets remain achievable and won't be changed, said Ryoji Chubachi, Sony president and chief executive officer of the electronics business, in a briefing with reporters at its Tokyo headquarters. "With the PS3 the bottleneck has been availability of blue lasers but now production of those has been launched in volume," he said. "We did take time preparing ourselves but as of today we have reached our target production rate. Based on projections for this year we will reach [the PS3 shipment targets]." The PlayStation 3 was launched in Japan on Nov. 11 and in North America, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Nov. 17. Around 81,639 PlayStation 3 consoles were sold over the launch weekend in Japan, according to market data from Media Create. Demand for the console vastly outstripped supply but sales have dropped each week since the launch due to scarcity, according to the figures. Media Create estimates 42,099 units were sold in the first full week of sales and then 32,622 units in the week from Nov. 20 to Nov. 27. For the following week, the latest for which data is available, sales were lower still at 31,436 units, the company estimated. The PlayStation 3 had been due to launch in Europe in November but the laser shortage meant Sony postponed the European launch until March 2007. That date remains unchanged, said Chubachi. The executive also said that Sony will keep looking at ways of reducing the manufacturing cost of the console so that it can turn a profit on the PS3 as quickly as possible. Traditionally, game console makers have sold their machines at cost or a loss and then relied on game software sales to make a profit. In the case of the PS3, production costs are high and losses run at between $240 and $305 per console sold, according to a parts breakdown by iSuppli Corp. One of the reasons the PS3 is relatively expensive is the Cell processor that sits at its heart.Â Developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, the chip is one of the most powerful yet developed and last year Sony created a team to look at how to use the chip in applications other than gaming. Chubachi said the team remains focused on this task but he declined to detail when the Cell might find its way into a television or other consumer electronics product.
664766
Sony Corp. (6758.T) will launch its  PlayStation 3 with an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive on June  16 in South Korea for 518,000 won ($556), offering the upgraded  version of its latest game console for the first time ever, the  Japanese electronics conglomerate said.
144428
Sony Computer Entertainment, the game unit of Sony, will roll out worldwide a new, smaller version of the PlayStation 2 game console from the start of November, company President Ken Kutaragi said.
300947
Sony Corp. said on Wednesday it would  offer 27 playable games for its PlayStation 3 at the Tokyo Game  Show next month, a sign of progress in critical software  development ahead of the November launch of the latest version  of its blockbuster game console.
480399
PlayStation Portable's long-awaited peripherals will ship in December in Japan.
745834
TOKYO - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will roll out in Japan a handheld video game system on Dec. 12 called PlayStation Portable (PSP), priced at Â¥19,800, or about $185.
298928
Sony Corp. said on Friday it would launch the latest version of its blockbuster racing game software &quot;Gran Turismo&quot; in December in a potentially strong boost for holiday sales of its PlayStation 2 console.
433228
Sony will come out with a new PSP in a couple of months -- one that is slimmer and lighter. Sound familiar?
451204
Japan's Sony Corp. said on Tuesday it would launch a new version of its popular PlayStation 2 game console in the United States and Europe on Nov. 1 at a price of &#36;149 and 149 euros (&#36;181) respectively.
255930
CULVER CITY, California  - Sony Corp  will  launch a lighter, slimmer model of its PlayStation Portable  handheld video game console in September for about $170, the  company said on Wednesday.
277709
SONY, the electronics and gaming giant, said its long-awaited PlayStation Portable (PSP), which can play movies, music and games, had virtually sold out on its home debut today.
756550
In an interview published over the weekend, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai said he expects global PS3 sales to top 11 million by the end of March.
281045
Handheld gaming device debuts in Japan this weekend, but won&#39;t be available in US until next year. Sony Computer Entertainment is ready for the long-awaited launch of its PSP (PlayStation Portable) device
566713
Having done all it can with the PS2, Sony has today launched the PSP to a waiting Japanese market. Roughly 1,300 impatient people waited their turn at an outlet of Yodobashi in Shinjuku district while the