It's that time of year again when we, the gamers, bring down servers all over scavenging for video clips and information on all of the latest and greatest at the Electronics Entertainment Expo. The Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3 as everyone calls it, is the current big party for gaming companies to show off their wares.

This year's E3 had a lot of interesting things going on. First of all, we are in the twilight of the current generation of gaming consoles for the most part. Sony's sales of the PS2 are slowing down which means the PS3 will be looming in the near future. Microsoft has already been teasing about their next console and Nintendo has made some characteristically vague comments about their future moves, although we can be sure they aren't planning on bailing out of the hardware race anytime soon.

In May of 2004, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, war has been officially declared. Say what you will about competing in different market spaces and demographics, Sony has entered into the portable gaming arms race, a place where Nintendo has miraculously ruled since 1989.

Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)
The Sony PSP, is, simply put, a monster. The alleged graphical output is supposed to be just under the PS2, with some new tricks up it's sleeve for kicks. The screen is probably going to be the best thing we'll see on a portable console for a long while. It promises to do just about everything under the sun... but will it deliver?

First, the good. It's Sony. They kind of have the market lead in gaming mind share right now. Sony's Playstation brand IS video gaming to the masses and that isn't going to go away overnight. Sony is still a very strong and viable company, with a lot riding on their dominance of the gaming arena. Sony has plenty of money and marketing muscle to support a new system.

Second: It is just a beast in terms of power. Think of what developers could do with that? Since it is supposedly very easy to port code from the PS2 to the PSP, developers should already be very familiar with how to get things done, and that is a very good thing.

Third: Let's face it, it's a very sleek looking chunk of electronics. Like the iPod, Wega televisions, etc, people are attracted to sleek electronics. Sony knows style, and they employed it very well. It's easily recognizable in the Playstation brand while looking fresh and new... with a giant screen.

Fourth: It does it all. Movies, music and games. Sony wants the PSP to revolutionize entertainment on the go much like it did with the Walkman. Hey, most kids take it for granted, but the Walkman was a pretty big deal not too many years ago. Movies are going to look incredible on that screen and you won't need a full laptop to lug around to enjoy a flick on a plane trip.

Even though there is a lot to be excited about with the PSP, there are some big questions out there right now. The lowly Gameboy hardware with it's pea soup blurry dot matrix screen took on a lot of competition and won every battle with relative ease, and Sony's new entry has a lot in competition with the fallen.

My main concern is going to be battery life. It's probably been a major benefit for Nintendo's Gameboy line since it's inception. There have been great portables in the past such as the Game Gear, Atari Lynx and Turbo Express that all had better graphics and hardware than the Gameboy who took them all on without even having a color screen, but they paid the price for that power. I love my Sega Nomad but it's not even realistic to run it on 6 AA's for less than two hours of gaming. Moore's Law hasn't applied to batteries unfortunately. Sony is claiming some numbers that are all over the place for the PSP from two hours of straight movie watching to around 8-10 hours of alleged game time. Two hours for movie playback makes sense. I'm assuming the drive sucks up a lot of juice... but a jump to 8-10 for gaming? I'd assume that gaming would use up a good bit of processor juice, even though the drive wouldn't be spinning constantly. I'm curious to see how this will end up in real world usage.

My second major worry is the multi faceted nature of the device. Do people really want this? The masses spoke with the PS2 that they wanted DVD playback in their console, but are they going to want to buy separate movies that can only be played on a portable? How is the music playback going to work? Sony has quietly entered the online music distribution game a few weeks back and is pushing their proprietary format for their own devices. Will it be able to play standard mp3s saved on Memory Sticks or is it purchased ATRAKs and nothing else? Do people really even care about these features? I have an iPod. It's not going to beat my iPod for playing music. I'll maybe have one or two movies tops for the novelty of it. I want games.

Next is the price. The PSP is going to do a lot and it's going to do it in style. Sony has said it's going to eat some of the cost initially and that it projects the PSP to have a long life cycle. Over time, that's a good thing, however if it's released at over $200, how long will it take to get to a price point where the masses will have to have one?

Developer support is a tricky issue. With so much power under the hood, it will take larger teams for game development than ever for a portable. How many developers can really handle it? It's no surprise that EA will have a full lineup for the unit, they have the resources. What about everyone else? A portable game budget has usually been drastically different from a console game, but those days are pretty much gone with the PSP. Are developers willing to take that financial risk?

The other end of the developer support issue is content. The E3 showcase didn't show too much in the area of originality. EA's lineup mirrored it's PS2 lineup. Versions of Wipeout and hints of Gran Turismo 4 delighted the crowds, but the only game that really excited me was a lowly puzzle-type game with awesome effects called 'Mercury' which seemed like a throwback to Marble Madness. It's early yet, so there will be plenty to see in the future, but I'm curious if I'm going to feel the need to own the system at launch.

Sony PSP | Nintendo DS