The weather outside is awful (this slushy substance in between snow and rain is no fun, especially not for gadget
freaks who like to whip out their cellphones—or Nintendo DSs), but that didn't stop us, a few hundred Sony fanboys, and
lots of B-list celebs (who clearly needed to collect the appearance fee) from hitting Sony's official launch party for
the PlayStation Portable this evening.
It's a big event, so Engadget and Joystiq
have decided to join forces, with Ryan, Josh, and Peter throwing down for Engadget and Ben and Vlad representing Team
Joystiq. We'll have live updates throughout the evening (assuming the EV-DO holds up and enough interesting stuff
happens), so keep refreshing for the latest.
Apparently this is actually a “newsworthy” event. Or whatever.
There are already about fifteen beat up demo PSPs. Tsk-tsk, what a shame. Especially since they can’t even be
lifted.
The ginormous line.
Are these guys the PSP generation? With more spare time and spare cents than spare common sense, PSP fans Gus Dakis
(attorney) and Lou Gomez (TV producer) braved a 6:00 AM commute from New Jersey, freezing temperatures, 40-mile-an-hour
winds, sleet, freezing rain and hundreds of puzzled looks over the course of their 13-hour vigil outside the Sony Style
store at 55 Madison Avenue on the eve of the North American debut of Sony’s new handheld gaming unit.
Their arrival before 8:00 AM confounded Sony staff who hadn’t scheduled the line-up to begin until later this evening.
“We got here so early they didn’t know where to put us!” said the duo, clearly in good spirits even after their long
wait.
Not all of the fans lining up fared as well. “That dude over there—he’s in bad shape,” said Gus, pointing to a
motionless lump swaddled in Sony-supplied blankets and umbrellas. Chants of “P-S-P, P-S-P, P-S-P” were half-hearted and
died quickly.
It’s the Japanese PSP launch deux. Ah, PSP
models, concentrate!
Dude, we’re totally in!
C-Daly talking up SCEA prez Kaz Hirai about the PSP. Hirai’s money quote: “If someone told you that the PSP is a
portable gaming device, shoot these people. The PSP is not a portable gaming device, it is really a convergent
portable entertainment device.” You have your orders, people; shoot anyone on sight who calls the PSP a gaming
device.
They also debuted the new PSP commercial, which was (not) surprisingly rather good. Sony countered Apple’s use of The
Caesers by playing Franz Ferdinand in their commercial, who are now also officially over. And yes, Danger Mouse
is DJing this joint, and rather well, we might add.
Damon Dash helping his boy Carson give away some gift packs. They were drawing numbers at random and giving the
winners special PSP prize packages that included a PSP Value Pack, a “high-capacity” Memory Stick Duo, a game, and a
Sony digital camera. We didn’t win one.
There were loads of demo PSPs everywhere, and it didn’t take long to find a broken one. Looks like this one had been
dropped on the ground and the screen cracked.
About ten minutes before midnight they asked everyone to line up in a different section of the store according to the
color of their wristband.
Kaz Hirai, ringing up the very first PSP purchase himself. That’s Dash and Daly watching it on the big screen along
with the rest of us.
And that was that! We’ll see everyone at the PSP2 launch party in 2009.
