Portable PlayStation Coming Soon

Sony Corp. on Wednesday surprised analysts who were expecting a higher price by setting $168 as the cost of its much-awaited handheld video game player in Japan.

Prices for the PlayStation Portable's U.S. and European models, which will be released during next year's first quarter, haven't been set.

The device's debut will follow the November release of Nintendo's DS, a Game Boy Advance with two screens that will cost $150 in the United States and $140 in Japan.

The PlayStation Portable is billed as a game machine that also lets users watch movies and listen to music.

But such uses will have to wait.

The film standard is under discussion with movie studios and a movie lineup and download services won't be announced for several months, said Ken Kutaragi, the executive in charge of Sony's game business.

Sony doesn't expect the machines to be profitable until the fiscal year that starts April 1, 2005, he said.

Price and the movie and music choices will determine how well PlayStation Portable does against the long-established Game Boy handheld line, analysts said.

They had expected a $280 price for the PlayStation Portable because of its sophisticated functions.

"Sony put up a good fight by setting a price that's cheaper than expected," said Kazuya Yamamoto, analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Securities Co. in Tokyo.

By Yuri Kageyama