Frank-ProvoLooks like we've been hoodwinked. We reported a couple days ago that Sony planned to hold an intitation-only conference today in Las Vegas to discuss the PSP. That event went off as planned, but a launch date and pricing information for the system's North American release was not discussed (as we originally reported would be).
The focus of the conference, as it turns out, was simply to give American media hands-on time with the upcoming handheld, and to let them sample upcoming games.
Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Kaz Hirai did confirm that the Sony PSP handheld would ship to North America sometime in March 2005, but did not give a solid date or price information. He also mentioned that the company has already shipped 510,000 PSP hardware units in Japan, and is on pace to reach 2 million in that country alone by the time the system ships in North America and Europe. Sony hopes to ship a grand total of 3 million PSP hardware units worldwide by March 31.
At the end of the conference, the media in attendence were allowed to sample some of the launch titles that will be available when the system ships.
Playable from Sony were Ape Escape , ATV Off-Road Fury, Hot Shots Golf , NBA 2005, Twisted Metal: Head On, and WipeOut Pure . Electronic Arts was also mentioned during the presentation as an important player in the system's launch, and five of that company's forthcoming PSP titles were playable as well–including Tiger Woods PGA, Need for Speed Underground: Rivals , MVP Baseball, NBA Street: Showdown, NFL Street 2, and FIFA Soccer.
Check out our previews and screenshots sections for information on some of these games.