Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces New PSP™ (Playstation®Portable) Giga Pack Offering for $299

Preparing the market for the upcoming holiday selling season, industry leader Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced an exciting new purchase option for the PSP™ system, the PSP Giga Pack, for a suggested retail price of $299 U.S./$349 CND. Available for a limited time starting in November, the PSP Giga Pack includes an unprecedented added-value package of accessories, including the PSP System, a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, battery pack, AC adaptor, USB Cable, and an all- new PSP Stand. The company also announced that a PSP branded 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo will also be sold separately later this calendar year. In addition, the company confirmed the continuation of the current PSP Value Pack for $249 U.S/$299 CND.

  (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051020/SFTH029 )
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Further solidifying the company's role as an entertainment visionary, the new PSP Giga Pack will come pre-installed with the PSP Firmware 2.0, allowing users to take advantage of the unit's built-in Wi-Fi* capability to wirelessly search and download content from the Internet from Internet Access Points or "hot spots." The addition of the 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo further enables user to customize their entertainment experience by downloading large or small files of video, music or photos onto their memory sticks, for more entertainment options on-the-go.

"As we approach our first holiday season with PSP, offering consumers a new value option in the Giga Pack demonstrates our commitment to allowing consumers further control and customize their entertainment options," said Jack Tretton, executive vice president, sales and marketing, and co-COO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "It is natural for our company to use our resources and experience to pass along value to the consumers, and offer those great values with the most current technology. This new dual hardware structure will broaden the unprecedented portable entertainment already provided by PSP and drive a strong year for the category, particularly during the key selling season."

The PSP 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo will also be sold separately at retail for consumers who already have a PSP Value Pack. Consumers will immediately see the value of having one gigabyte of digital content available on their PSP, which is equivalent to more than 30 hours of music on ATRAC3 (66Kbps), four hours of MPEG4 (384Kbps) moving images and 360 images at five mega-pixel quality. These files can be downloaded from the Internet using the PSP system's Internet Browser or downloaded from a PC using the USB cable that is included in the PSP Giga Pack.

Following a record-setting launch in March 2005, PSP has quickly become a cultural icon and a market-altering force with more than 2.2 million units sold in North America. In addition to the revolutionary PSP hardware, there are currently more than 45 games available for PSP on the proprietary UMD™ (Universal Media Disc) and more than 200 feature films, TV programs and videos

from major studios combining with downloadable content from the Internet to create an unmatched library of entertainment content.

PSP features an unmatched 4.3-inch, 16:9 wide-screen TFT LCD that displays full color (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel high-resolution screen. PSP also comes complete with built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector and diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, enabling users to connect to the Internet and/or play online via a wireless network. In addition, wireless capabilities allow software and data to be downloaded directly to a PSP and saved onto a Memory Stick Duo.

About Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. continues to redefine the entertainment lifestyle with its PlayStation® and PS one™ game console, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and the PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system. The PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system is set to revolutionize the home entertainment market, offering the most compelling interactive content and the capability to be used as a network terminal in the coming broadband era. PSP is a new portable entertainment system that allows users to enjoy 3D games, with high-quality full-motion video, and high-fidelity stereo audio.

Recognized as the undisputed industry leader, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. markets the PlayStation family of products and develops, publishes, markets and distributes software for the PS one game console, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and the PSP system for the North American market. Based in Foster City, Calif., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Visit us on the Web at www.us.playstation.com.

NOTE: "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks and "PSP" and "UMD" are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

*Certain limitations apply to Wi-Fi connectivity. See manual for details. Player responsible for Wi-Fi fees.

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SOURCE: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

CONTACT: Patrick Seybold of Sony, +1-650-655-5904, or
patrick_seybold@playstation.sony.com; or Rick Heineman, +1-310-854-4812, or
rheineman@bncpr.com, for Sony

Web site: http://www.playstation.com/