Though Sony has so far kept a tight lid on some of the most important details regarding its PSP handheld, the company's European division has characteristically become the source of a few useful hints in advance of the device's proper debut in May. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe head Chris Deering, speaking to trade paper MCV, recently pegged the handheld's expected price closer to the low end of expectations.

Deering characterized the system's likely price as "closer to 200 pounds than 300 pounds." In American currency, that's towards the low end of a $300-450 range.

He also claimed that the PSP will not be sold at a loss, even in the earliest days of its release. "The feeling is that this product should generate profit on hardware alone," he said. "We want to make it affordable for publishers to produce a wide range of entertainment and so royalties will be lower down in the mix this time round." That goes against the traditional pricing strategy for console launches, where hardware manufacturers take a loss on the console and make that money back on royalties from software sales.

Addressing the issue of the system's multimedia and communications capabilities, meanwhile, Deering echoed Andrew House's recent comments at the Consumer Electronics Show, emphasizing that the PSP is a game player first and foremost. "It traverses games, music and movies," said Deering, "but it will be sold as a games machine that does other stuff - albeit some pretty and important other stuff."

The PSP hardware is still expected to make its official debut at E3 later this year, with the first PSP games to follow at the Tokyo Game Show this fall. It will then see a simultaneous worldwide retail release before the end of the year.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in 1UP.