PSONE UNVEILED
June 8, 2000

At a press conference today in Japan, Sony announced its new hardware. Unfortunately, there wasn't a big surprise, though the hardware does allow Sony to get that last little bit out of its original system as the PS2 takes over.

Ken Kutaragi (SCE president) unveiled a smaller, more "portable" - though not in the same category as GameBoy - version of its PlayStation called PSone, which is approx. 1/3 the size of the original. It will be released in Japan on July 7 at a price of 15,000 yen ($135).

The system is expected to be released this fall in North America at a price of $99. (Note: there is no firm price, but otherwise, the company would not be able to move the system, considering it's just a scaled down PSX.) A European launch will follow shortly thereafter.

Evidentally, Sony wants something that's cheaper to produce so that they can eventually drop the price of the system even further than it currently is. How Nintendo will combat this strategy with an extra year in the life of its N64 remains to be seen.

The PSone will also have mobile connectivity, allowing for game downloads, and an LCD monitor will be available next spring. As time goes on, Sony eventually plans to stop selling the original PSX in favor of PSone.

Specs:

• 32 bit RISC (R3000 Custom)
• Clock speed: 33.8688 MHz
• Main Memory: 2MB
• Graphics: PlayStation GPU
• Graphics Memory: 8 Mbit
• Sound Channel: SPU 24 ch
• Sound Memory: 4 Mbit
• Disc Drive: CD-ROM 2x
• Dimensions: 193 mm (W) x 38 mm (H) x 144 mm (D)
• Weight: 550 g

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