Sony spotlights films for Europe PSP launch
Company also says that some 50 games titles will be for sale by Christmas, both from Sony and other publishers.
The company has already sold 100,000 prerecorded movies already sold around the world.
The European launch of Sony's hotly touted new gadget, which plays video games, movies and music, was initially scheduled for the spring, but was pushed back by six months because of supply shortages.
U.S. launch
The PSP, better known as a device for playing video games than movies, is already on sale in Japan and the United States.
"Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will have 10 films available from day one," said Patrick Vyncke, the PlayStation chief for the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). Twenty titles are scheduled to be on sale by mid-September.
The 100,000 movies Sony has sold on specially formatted discs do not include copies of "Spider-man 2," which were bundled with many of the PSPs.
Price details were not given, but films for the PSP cost between $19 and $29 in the United States. Titles are heavily geared toward young adults between 18 and 25 years old, the core target audience of the PSP.
Movies aimed at older, younger and female gamers, including cartoons, will be launched at later stages, Vyncke said.
Although the gadget was conceived mainly as a portable gaming device, addressing a slightly older age group than Nintendo did with its portable GameBoy Advance, the PSP is quickly becoming a new target player for music and film publishers.
"DVD sales are flattening. Consumers already have bought all the film titles they want for their DVD. The publishers are looking for new ways to sell discs," Sony's European president, Chris Deering, told Reuters at a conference.
The PSP plays optical discs of a new type, called UMD, that was developed by Sony.
Paramount, Buena Vista, Fox, Universal and Sony Pictures itself will publish titles for the PSP.
Sony also said that some 50 PSP games titles will be for sale by Christmas, both from Sony and other games publishers.
The company said it will have "enough" devices when it launches in Europe to satisfy retailers and consumers, but it did not want to give details for fear of upsetting retailers who may feel shortchanged. Shipments will be directed to regions and retailers with the best sales figures, Vyncke said. Parallel importers are bringing in PSPs from other markets to take advantage of pent-up demand in Europe. At least one importer was sued by Sony last week.
According to Vyncke, Sony does not want parallel imports because it cannot guarantee customer service, and consumers may be confused with a different setup; the X-button on the console in Japan is used for another purpose, for example.
Story Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.