In an interview on Playstation.com, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Chris Deering had a lot to say and even managed to give away a few PSP secrets in order to celebrate his recent promotion.
Deering"s promotion suggests that Sony are giving their European status some serious thought and that may also be reflected in the way they plan to launch the upcoming handheld. According to the new Sony Europe President, the PSP may become the first Sony gaming product to see a global launch in November of 2004. Deering"s statement was very straight-forward, especially as to the certainty of a global launch, he said There"s no official date for its unveiling, but it has been announced that the target date for its global launch is November 2004... This puts a dent into PSP launch theories which had so far been suggesting a November 2002 launch in Japan, followed by an early 2005 release in the rest of the world.
Deering also said that the features of the PSP will not stop at gaming and mp3 and video playback and might well extend to even more features that involve GPRS modems, location-based (GPS type) software, messaging and other features...
Another new feature of the PSP, also used to promote the PSX, is the possibility of using the handheld"s memory stick as a means of connecting it to the PSX.
Interestingly Deering also promoted the PSX system, currently not available in Europe, claiming that it may be used for possibly downloading demos of games, or at least non-playable video of games.
These are exciting times for the entire gaming industry with the industry locked in a merciless battle over market dominance, all us gamers have to do is to sit back and enjoy the ride.