Sony announces PSP pricing and launch date in Japan.

The Sony PSP (PSP-1000) starts selling in Japan on December 12th for 19,800 yen excluding tax (20,790 incl. tax). That is about $195. This is a very low price compared to the Nintendo DS price of $149.99. Clearly Sony has chosen an aggressive pricing strategy to make sure not to loose customers to Nintendo. Hope this pricing holds true for the US launch next year as well.

Interesting features from the Sony Press-Release:

Equipped with a wireless LAN feature (IEEE802.11b), PSP enables users to connect to the Internet through access points, making it possible for users to download game characters and content and also to play games on-line with families, friends and on-line community members. For a more intimate gaming experience, a maximum of 16 PSP systems can be connected wirelessly through the ad-hoc mode allowing family and friends to create an instant yet powerful local on-line entertainment community.
PSP features an integrated high output lithium-ion battery that provides play time of between 4 and 6 hours for game titles and continuous 4 to 5 hours for video viewing.

21 game titles from SCE and third party software developers and publishers will be released by the end of this year. Over 100 new titles are currently in development.

Game Store Lik-Sang should soon update its Sony PSP pre-order page. They ship international!

The PSP-1000 is available for $219.90 at Play-Asia.


Sony was nice enough to publish a english language press-release (pdf).