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Issues of the Ariadne Capital Journal - Through the Maze

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The console video game market is very competitive with all three current players (Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft) looking to get ahead with their next-generation platforms. However, the handheld market has always been Nintendo's domain ever since its launch of the original Game Boy with its green monochromatic screen. Nintendo continued to capitalise on this with the launch of the Game Boy Advance SP and more recently the Nintendo DS, which has added an extra dimension to game play with dual screen functionality.

So it wasn't long before Sony decided to charge into Nintendo's domain with the 'PlayStation Portable', which has conveniently become known as the PSP. As a portable game machine, the PSP is extremely powerful and in a totally different league than any other current handheld device. Game developers have already said that, in some ways, the PSP has more power than the Sony PlayStation 2 because it offers more effects that can be done in hardware rather than software. This gives the PSP a considerable advantage over other hand held consoles.

There is a substantial amount of technology packed into this thing. Not all of it, however, is meant for gaming, many of the attractive features are borrowed from Sony's other consumer devices. The ability to watch full-length movies and videos comes from Sony's portable DVD players. Playing music encoded in ATRAC3 and MP3 is straight from Sony's Network Walkmans. And the ability to display photos has been borrowed from the digital camera division.

Sony definitely had more than just games in mind when designing the PSP.

The fascia of the PSP is dominated by the 4.3in TFT screen with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, making it ideal for watching movies as well as playing games, with a resolution of 480 x 272 and a full 24-bit colour depth. The screen also incorporates Sony's X-Black coating, so the image is amazingly bright and vivid. The PSP fits in your hand very comfortably, and both the controllers and the buttons fall under your thumbs easily. It's surprisingly light and finding the perfect viewing angle is simple, even with strong ambient light sources.

Sony has equipped the PSP with 802.11b wireless networking. There are two main reasons for the inclusion of Wi-Fi. First and foremost is the ability for multiple PSP users to link up and play games together - wireless networking is a far more elegant solution than having loads of players huddled round in a circle connected by trailing wires. The other reason is to allow the PSP to connect to the Internet via a wireless access point and download firmware upgrades.

A number of games are already available with a good number of upcoming games on the horizon. Sony have learnt their lessons and have released the PSP with a good range of games covering a wide variety of genres.

The PSP first launched in Japan on December 12, 2004 and hit the American shores on March 24 2005, it will be available in Europe from 1st September 2005. It will retail for around £179.00 (249 euros) in the UK.