Just when we thought the NGP news machine was winding down for the day, Sony’s head honchos took to the floor in Tokyo to fill in the gaps and clarify some of the details of their launch presentation.
Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony America, spoke at length to Engadget and one of the interesting things he had to say was related to the launch period of Sony’s new hand-held. The presentation alluded to the fact that the NGP would be in stores in time for Christmas, as a release window of ‘Holidays 2011’ was mentioned.
However, the devil is in the detail as Tretton said “I think our goal is, we would get at least one territory out by the end of holiday 2011.”
He added that they were keeping this deliberately vague because they want to make sure they wouldn’t run into production problems in a similar way to the parts shortages that dogged production of the PS3. Whilst this may be good news for buyer’s wallets, it could of course mean bad news for gamers hoping to find the device in their Christmas stocking.
Lets hope the regional delays aren’t as lengthy as the original PSP which was launched in Japan in December 2004, March 2005 in the US, but not until September 2005 throughout PAL territories. Sony went on to say “We probably won’t have a clearer image until fall rolls around, sometime after E3”.
Paranoimia
Unsurprising. As soon as I heard ‘end of 2011’ I assumed that would be for Japan only, as that’s nearly always the case.
I’d be surprised if we saw it before March 2012. Perhaps even as late as September 2012.
If past Sony releases are anything to go by, Japan will get it first – probably November/December this year. Then probably the US in March/April, then the EU some months after that.
TSBonyman
I suppose there’s still licencing issues to sort and finding a contractor to build the device who isn’t already flat-out building PS3/360/Wii etc.
I expect Japan to launch first but maybe they will launch in US. I don’t mind a few month wait but hopefully it’ll be no longer than that.
kivi95
nooo i want it for christmas :(
tonycawley
Wow, you get expensive Christmas presents!
masoke
I expected a wait, maybe until March or something, but the world is a different place now, and I can’t imagine we’d see PSP length wait times of up to a year. It was four or five months for PS3, less for the new models of the PS3 and the PSP Go.
cam the man
I thought that because it’s Sony you can just about guarantee there will be a delay, but I didn’t expect to hear about it for a few months.
solidsteven
Am i the only one is that is glad that it might not come this year? As that is outside of my games budget and there is no way i can get a few PS3 games and a console as well.:(
Foxhound_Solid
I WANT, I WANT, I WANT
jayjay119
‘Lets hope the regional delays aren’t as lengthy as the original PSP which was launched in Japan in December 2004, March 2005 in the US, but not until September 2005 throughout PAL territories.’
This is just a staple of Sony products that I think the world has come to accept I think. It happened with the PS2 and PS3 as well as the PSP so I think it’s safe to say the NGP will follow suit. Personally I don’t mind getting it last, it gives Sony time to work out all the kinks Japan and the US get lumbered with sometimes.
ARUMIR Sympozium
I want it in 2011…. theres still hope
cc_star
The PS3 was hit by shortages of Blu-ray parts, gawd knows why the PSP was so long, after all companies like Apple sell many, many, many times more products than this will sell and they manage a simultaneous launch. Lets hope its just a warning from Sony in case they get a manufacturing bottleneck, and they can manufacture on the scale of Apple’s, Kinect’s & many other manufacturing partners
mrfodder
We can pretty much read that as Europe has no chance of seeing the NGP this year. Sounds like he hopes to get it out in US but is uncertain.