Aaron ThomasThe Saga of the PSP continues as Nikkei Electronics Asia has given some more insight into Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) plans for the PSP.
During a Tokyo-based conference called “PlayStation Meeting 2004,” president Fumiya Takeno stated that the manufacturing costs for the PSP’s proprietary media format, the Universal Media Disc (UMD), are currently at 250 yen (approximately $2.30 U.S.) per disc, a cost that the company expects to lower as it goes along.
SCE CEO Ken Kutaragi added that final development of the PSP’s microcontroller would be completed “before long,” and also said that PSP development kits would be provided to developers “within” Sony’s current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2005.
How the development kits are going to ship around the same time the system launches is anyone's guess. It looks like things aren't going as smoothly as Sony has led people to believe, as numerous developers are very unhappy at the current delay in getting equipment and specs.