SCE CTO On the New PSP -- Page 2

GP: Regarding the UMD (Universal Media Disc), why did you need a new format?

MC: I think the shortest answer is, there is no appropriate media for this kind of device so we decided to make it on our own. Also, we found stronger copy protection was needed for the new media.

GP: Is there any region coding?

MC: Technically speaking, we did implement some region code mechanism but for games we will have none implemented.

GP: How about peripherals?

MC: We showed some prototypes at E3. A USB camera, GPS (global positioning system), a telephone adapter and a microphone headset. None of them are announced yet. Some are under development. We are planning to have a PSP version of an EyeToy-like application.

GP: What was your biggest headache in designing the PSP?

MC: I think the biggest problem was for the hardware engineers. Because the thickness of the drive and the thickness of the LCD with the backlight is the same as the PSP's (total) thickness so it's very difficult for other hardware to be implemented in this thin configuration. Also, it has a huge battery. There are a lot of limitations in implementing hardware design.

GP: Have you been using it much recently?

MC: Yeah, I play it a lot. All of the launch titles are very good even though the developers had only a few months of development time. We were not able to provide (hardware) tools until late summer. Prior to that they had to develop on an emulator so it's not a true performance situation.

GP: When did you first make the emulators available?

MC: Last winter, although its very limited capability and not the full features, for example there was no (H.264) AVC. It's very simple subset for the system and there was no UMD drive emulation at all. We delivered the hardware emulator in July.

GP: How satisfied have you been with the PSP during your play in the last few days?

MC: I think its more than we anticipated and expected. When we started this project about one and a half years ago the actual PSP is much more than we targeted.

GP: In what way?

MC: In overall quality, image quality, game quality, battery life and WiFi capability. We didn't anticipate this kind of thing would really happen.

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