E3: "PSPgo" priced and dated

Sony has officially announced the PSP Go - or "PSPgo" according to subsequent press material - during its E3 conference and said it will cost EUR 249 / USD 249 when it comes out in Europe and North America on 1st October.

It will then follow in Japan on 1st November for 26,800 yen.

"We actually have a couple of names for this beautiful little device. First we call it The Worst-Kept Secret of E3. And we call it the PSPgo," said Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai, before going on to confirm the details leaked this weekend.

It's a slidey-screen affair, 50 per cent smaller than the original PSP, and has 16GB of internal flash memory, Bluetooth support and a Memory Stick micro media (M2) port for future expansion. Otherwise it uses the same operating system and Wi-Fi features you're used to from the PSP-3000.

Hirai went on to add that all PSP titles from now on would be distributed digitally as well as on UMD, reiterating that the PSP-3000 would not be abandoned when the new handheld - which looked very small and portable in his hand - launches in a few months' time.

He also announced that Media Go (or probably Mediago at this rate) would replace the Media Manager PC software soon, allowing you to manage content across PC and PSP more easily, while something called Sense Me (out this autumn) will create music playlists based on mood and occasion from your existing digital music collection.

Finally, the video store announced for PS3 last year is also joining the PSP feature-set, and there are new deals there for Showtime, G4, E, HD Nett, Magnoila films, Manga and more - although presumably this is US-only for now.

Oh, and if you've forgotten what the PSPgo looks like, check out our high-resolution PSPgo photo gallery from the weekend. SCEA boss Jack Tretton had joked that Sony sees itself as a market leader, and wasn't about to be outdone by E3 leaks. Respect.

Update: Thanks to post-conference press releases, we now also know that PSPgo will be available in Piano Black and Pearl White, and that Media Go will be bundled with PSPgo. Oh, and it is "Media Go" rather than "Mediago", but it's also "SensMe", with mood categories such as "Relax", "Dance" and "Typo". Video output cables and battery cradles will be sold separately. Furthermore, as Tretton's demo illustrated, it can display a clock or calendar when the lid's closed.

Oh, and here's a horribly formatted specification list from Sony's press site:

• PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) go (PSP-N1000)
• Product Name
• PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) go
• External dimensions
• Approx. 128 x 16.5 x 69 mm (width x height x depth) (excludes largest projection)
• Weight
• Approx. 158g / 5.6 oz (including internal battery)
• CPU
• PSP® CPU(System clock frequency 1-333 MHz, Main memory 64MB)
• Display
• 3.8 inches (16:9) full-transparent type, TFT drive,
• 480 x 272 pixel, Approx. 16,770,000 colors displayed
• Sound
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Built-in microphone
• Main input/output
• Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b) (Wi-Fi)
• Bluetooth®2.0 (EDR)
• High Speed USB (USB2.0)
• Memory Stick Micro™(M2™)
• Analog Video Out
• Microphone
• Main connectors
• Multi use connector
• (DC IN / OUT, USB, Video Output / Input, Sound Input / Output)
• Headset / Microphone connector
• Memory Stick Micro™(M2™) slot
• Key / Switches
• Directional buttons (up/down/right/left), analog stick,
• Action buttons (triangle, circle, cross, square), L/R buttons
• START button, SELECT button, PS button
• POWER/HOLD switch, WLAN switch
• display button, sound button, volume (+/-) buttons
• Power sources
• Lithium-Ion rechargeable internal battery pack
• AC adaptor
• USB power supply
• Internal memory
• 16GB (Flash Memory)
• Supported profile
• PSP® Game
• Access Control
• Region code, parental control
• Wireless communications
• Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b) (Wi-Fi)
• (Infrastructure mode / Ad hoc mode (connect up to 16 consoles))
• Bluetooth®2.0 (EDR)
• Supplied accessories
• AC adaptor
• USB cable
• CD-ROM(Media Go)
• *Design and specifications are subejt to change without notice.
• 5-5-5-5 PSP® go, PSP® (PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE) EVOLVES TO MATCH THE DIGITAL LIFESTYLE
• Supported coded (in Memory Srick Micro (M2™) / Internal memory)
• Video
• l Memory Stick Video Format
• à MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC)
• à H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile (AAC)
• l MPEG-4
• à MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC)
• à H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile (CABAC) (AAC)
• Baseline Profile (AAC)
• l AVI
• à Motion JPEG (Linear PCM)
• à Motion JPEG (µ-Law)
• Music
• l Memory Stick Audio Format
• à ATRAC3™*8
• à ATRAC3plus™*8
• à MP3
• l MP3 (MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer3)
• l MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC)
• l WAVE (Linear PCM)
• l WMA (Windows Media® Audio 9 Standard only)*9
• Photo
• l JPEG (DCF2.0/Exif2.21 compliant)
• l TIFF
• l BMP
• l GIF
• l PNG
• *8 Content protected by Open MG can be played back only when it is stored in M2.
• *9 WMA Playback feature needs to be enabled.