One of the few genuine news stories to emerge from E3 was the announcement that Sony would finally be entering the handheld market with the Sony PSP; surprisingly the machine won’t be ready until Q4 2004 at the earliest, with only the vaguest of details available at present.

Undeterred we decided to try and get the lowdown on why Nintendo shouldn’t rest easy on their dominance in the market. The PSP is fundamentally based around the foundation of a new medium entitled Universal Media Disc, which comprises of a 60mm optical disc capable of storing an impressive 1.8GB of data in a cartridge akin to the Mini-Disc – in comparison the 16MB cartridge limit of the GBA looks painfully weak.

Naturally the new medium will offer a range of advantages to both developers and publishers such as shorter manufacturing times, larger data capacity and reduced media costs; it’s no surprise that the industry is beginning to get very excited about this new format.

The PSP will come equipped with a backlit widescreen format TFT LCD monitor, capable of displaying resolutions up to 480x272 pixels. The PSP heavily supports the use of NURBS for 3D modelling along with conventional polygons; specifics have yet to be announced, however the PSP is expected to offer power in advance of the PSOne but not up to PS2 standards.

The PSP supports the latest in MPEG4 compression and so we’re expecting the format to support media comparable to DVD quality, presumably opening the ‘Holy Grail’ for Sony and becoming the all-in-one media format. We’ve also heard that the format will heavily support connectivity to the Internet and be able to play on-demand music and videos.

Elsewhere connectivity has been at the forefront of design with the PSP supporting USB 2.0 for further expandability and connectivity to the PS2 and presumably PS3, scheduled for release the year after the PSP launches. The PSP will also feature a Memory Stick slot and the ability to transport data in a wireless environment.

PC based development tools will ship to interested developers in the Autumn of this year, suffice to say developers have shown a very keen interest to move on to the new platform.

“Just as PlayStation and PlayStation 2 revolutionized in-home computer entertainment, we aim to become a new driving force in the portable entertainment platform arena,” said Ken Kutaragi, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “The world of PlayStation encompasses hundreds of millions of users worldwide, most of whom view computer entertainment as part of their everyday lives. We look forward to extending the experience through a portable entertainment platform, and are excited about the possibilities and impact ‘PSP’ will have on the market. Along with game applications, ‘PSP’ will have a huge potential for delivering other forms of entertainment as well as live entertainment through the network, anywhere, anytime. This is the ‘Walkman’ of the 21st century.”

Nintendo remained adamant about the competition citing the length of time that Sony would take to enter the market and pointing to the strong sales of the GBA; however if anyone can rival Nintendo in this market then it’s Sony and with the Playstation brand awareness we certainly wouldn’t expect Nintendo staff to be sleeping peacefully at the moment. That said it will certainly be a risky time for Sony as they gear up to releasing two machines in a relatively small time-frame; arguably the only way for Sony to screw up is by slipping up themselves, Sony will need to ensure the marketing wheels are well into motion for the release of the PSP and PS3 and it certainly won’t be easy.

We’ll be talking to developers and interested parties about the PSP soon, make sure to check back for more information on this little hottie.