Chris-Faylortoday revealed their awards for the past E3, with the Sony PSP receiving the coveted Best of Show award, as well as Best Peripheral/Hardware.
"There are, to be fair, unanswered questions about the PSP — not the least of which is how much it will cost. Still, the PSP won our hearts and votes thanks to a sleek jet-black form factor and a spectacularly large and bright screen — which is nearly as large as both Nintendo DS screens put together," commented Geoff Keighley, Co-Chairman of the Game Critics Awards and Contributing Writer for Business 2.0. "But more than anything else, our confidence in PSP is rooted in Sony’s demonstration of games that will make the system appeal to players over 18. Walking away from E3, we are hard-pressed to imagine a post-pubescent gamer who won’t aspire to own the device when it arrives in the US by the end of March 2005. The PSP captured our imagination at E3 and, in turn, wins the Best of Show award. The dawn of a new age for portable gaming will soon begin."
"From its sleek, black ergonomic design to the large 4.3-inch 16:9 widescreen screen, PSP emits coolness. Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld market has the potential to become the iPod of the entertainment world by fusing videogames, movies and music into one compact travel accessory," stated John Gaudiosi of the Hollywood Reporter. "With graphical power on par with PS2 games and visuals that border on HDTV clarity, no portable gaming system has ever packed this kind of power. Of course, a game system is only as good as the software, and Sony has aligned 100 third part publishers to help the system get started on the right foot. A bevy of wireless connectivity opens up new gameplay options as players can interact with other PSPs, PCs, and PS2s. While Sony’s PSP will stand on its own as a game machine, its Universal Media Discs will introduce a new format to view movies and music videos on the go. In a crowded field, Sony has produced the best portable entertainment device yet."
Sony’s much-hyped PSP is due to be released in North America next spring, with a Japanese launch scheduled for this fall.