GC: No PS2 price drop as Sony focuses on PSP

Sony has not delivered the expected price drop to the PlayStation 2 at its conference at Game Convention in Leipzig this afternoon, instead choosing to focus on the prospects for the upcoming launch of the PlayStation Portable.

The company confirmed that it will have ten first-party titles for the PSP at launch, as well as many third party game titles and as many as thirty UMD movies.

It believes that the potential market for the new handheld console in Germany alone could be 8.1 million consumers, based on 25 per cent penetration within a demographic spread of 15 to 45 year old customers.

However, the company did not give the one piece of news which was most heavily rumoured in Leipzig this week - namely a drop to the price of the PlayStation 2 hardware.

A price-cut is still widely anticipated before Christmas, but when that cut will be delivered is now up in the air. Sony may choose to avoid spoiling the launch period of the PSP with unwanted competition from its own products, which would put the PS2 cut as far back as October.