Gear Live From The Sony Style PSP Launch Party

Weather-wise, it was a horrible day in NYC. But that couldn’t stop 500 soon-to-be PSP owners to come out and stand in line for hours at the SONY Style store in Manhattan.  Yours truly stood in line with the crowd and got hailed on for hours just to get the opportunity to be part of entertainment history. 

Although Sony knew that its fans were loyal they couldn’t help but appreciate what they were doing in the horrible weather.  Two particular fans, Nicholas Valentin and Radames Reyes, appreciated the hot cocoa that was served to freezing fans as they waited.  Nick and Radames were so excited about this launch that we decided to tag along to see what their opinions and experience would be like.

Carson Daly emceed the night away, while DJ Dangermouse kept the house bumpin’ and even self promoting hip hop mogul, Damon Dash, helped give away 6 free PSPs prize packs. There were plenty of people ready to answer questions about the system (usually attached to them).

President (Kazuo Hirai) and VP (Andrew House) of Sony Computer Entertainment were there to talk about the features of the PSP.  The main focal point in their statements was to their gratitude to the fans.  They also mentioned that this is not a gaming system and people need to be ready to purchase an entertainment unit. 
On the playing floor, however, we found many varied opinions.  When asked about 3-5 hour battery life most said that they would only play during their lunch hour at work or not planning to play for extended periods of time.  But the biggest complaint about the PSP was easily the loading time.  All the games showcased that night were subject to approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute of loading time from bootup to gameplay. At one point I was watching someone play Untold Legends, a game in which the loading screen bar filled twice.

There was a countdown to the first PSP sale, which was done by the Sony President himself.  After that, the night dwindled, with many fans happy to leave with one of the first 500 PSPs sold here in America.

Click here to see the full photo album courtesy of Box.net. Also, Carson Daly had this to say:

Hey Carson - no one can read what that says.