Sony's Newest Portable Gamer

If you want to quickly understand Sony’s PSP Go ($250, coming Oct. 1), just think of the rule of two. Compared with the regular PSP, it is 50 percent smaller, but it costs costs twice as much as Nintendo’s DS, which is outselling it by 100 percent. The new form factor is twice as cool as the older, more clunky PSP 3000, meaning you’re also twice as likely to make room for one next to your phone.


At the center of Sony’s PSP thinking is Media Go, Sony’s iTunes-like content manager. Once it is installed on your Windows computer you can drag and drop your movies, songs and videos onto the Go’s 16 gigabytes of memory, while archiving big files, like movies or games, on your computer’s hard drive. Like an iPod or MP3 player, you’ll be able to sync the PSP Go using a optional cradle.

What about that UMD disk collection sitting on the shelf? According to Al de Leon, manager of public relations for Sony Computer Entertainment America, “Sony and our publishing partners are looking into the opportunity to offer downloadable versions of games previously released on UMD.” In addition, all UMD titles made starting Oct. 1 will have a download equivalent. Reading between the line, the UMD was a battery-burning dud that Sony had to dump.

Here are some more PSP Go notes. For other E3 news from Sony this year, read this article, or check out the discussion boards at Playstation.com.

Can Sony’s New Portable Gamer Go the Distance? - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com

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