CES: Sony disappoints with content-free PSP debut

The PlayStation Portable took a bow at Sony's pre-CES press event in Las Vegas yesterday, but the audience left disappointed as SCEA boss Kaz Hirai failed to reveal any new information about release dates or pricing.

The presentation of the PlayStation Portable to the US media saw Hirai spewing soundbites about the new console - telling the assembled press that "PSP will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto, and Sony is the only company that can do it."

However, the details of the system's launch remain uncertain, with Hirai simply echoing comments from Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ken Kutaragi earlier in the day and saying that the firm expected to ship the device by "late March".

Hirai was referring explicitly to the North American market, but Kutaragi also extended his comments to Europe, where the firm remains hopeful of a launch in the first quarter of this year.

PlayStation Portable was presented as a true multimedia device at the event, with Hirai going into depth about the music and movies functionality of the system, which accepts both Memory Stick flash cards and the new UMD disc format.

"This is the first product to really deliver on the convergence mantra," he told the press - a tacit admission that Sony's previous foray into the field with the PSX hasn't exactly been a stellar success.

Sony also yesterday confirmed that it shipped 510,000 units of the PSP in Japan by the end of the year, a fraction ahead of its original target, and revealed a new title for the platform - Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade - which is in development at Sony Online Entertainment and will launch alongside the PSP in North America.