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This feature is brought to you courtesy of our good friends persistence and luck. Getting our mucky mitts on the enigmatic PSP has been a fraught process from day one; encased behind Perspex at E3 (and evidently linked to a bigger machine behind the scenes), and unavailable for a hands-on until we physically went and bought a vastly overpriced Japanese import yesterday, it's been hard work trying to tell the world what a PlayStation Portable is like to touch and feel. If you were into conspiracy theories, it wouldn't take a great deal of imagination to convince yourself that Sony didn't actually want anyone outside of Japan to be talking about its first step in the choppy waters of handheld gaming.

Paramount Pictures has acquired the film rights to the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series from Ubisoft, according to film magazine Variety.

NVIDIA's graphics processing unit (GPU) for PlayStation 3 will be completed by the end of 2005, according to US Internet reports citing comments made by chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang to investment firm Morgan Stanley this week.

Valve has released a playable demo of Half-Life 2 weighing in at around 700MB, giving those unconvinced by the critical reaction a chance to see what all the fuss is about.

Electronic Arts has changed one of the conditions of its bid for Swedish games developer Digital Illusions CE and extended the acceptance period until January 20th 2005 in a move that demonstrates the publisher's determination to acquire the firm.

Electronic Arts is to buy 20 percent of French publisher Ubisoft, the Wall Street Journal has confirmed this morning, at a reported cost of between $85 million and $100 million.

Electronic Arts' ambitious FIFA Interactive World Cup, based on the Xbox version of FIFA Football 2005, concluded at FIFA House in Zurich yesterday as eight of the world's top players went head-to-head.

Juice Games' arcade racing title Juiced will finally see the light of day in May 2005, new publisher THQ has revealed, and will be significantly enhanced compared to the version that previous publisher Acclaim had been distributing to reviewers before its implosion at the start of September.

Publisher Midway has announced that it is making a new American Football title which will be based on the ESPN's Playmakers TV show, rather than on the now-exclusive official NFL license.

Martin Edmondson, founder of UK development studio Reflections and creator of the Driver series, has announced his departure from the Atari-owned studio, where he was managing and creative director.

"This is the Walkman of the 21st Century," said Ken Kutaragi, as journalists amassed at Sony's pre-E3 conference stood there gazing, dumbfounded at the wily SCE chief. PlayStation Portable, or PSP, due out in Q4 2004, finally signals Sony's large-scale entry into the handheld gaming market. And we have a hunch they'll give Nintendo a run for their money where the likes of SNK have failed in the past.

Following the announcement of two new additions to the PlayStation family in the form of PSP and PSX, gi.biz takes a close look at Sony's place in the games industry as its strategy to conquer the living room continues to take shape.

Newly promoted Sony Europe boss Chris Deering has revealed that the company is planning to roll out the PlayStation Portable worldwide by the end of the year, with a global launch aimed at November 2004.

Several of Japan's biggest software companies are committed to supporting Sony's PlayStation Portable at or near its launch, according to an article in Famitsu - which also casts doubt on the planned November global launch.

New comments made by recently promoted Sony Europe president Chris Deering regarding the PlayStation Portable have hinted at a price point in the £250 range, while Japanese retail sources quote figures in a similar range.

Rumours circulating in the game development community suggest that Sony is set to upgrade the specification for the PlayStation portable to feature 32Mb of RAM - bringing the system closer in line with the PS2.

The US and European release date of Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) has been pushed back until the early months of 2005, the company confirmed yesterday.

Publisher Take-Two Interactive has revealed that it is planning to support Sony's PlayStation Portable with multiple software titles either at or shortly after the launch of the system.

UK developer Kuju Entertainment has commenced work on Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable platform, with a team at the company currently creating technology and tools for the handheld system.

The latest financial report from Sony has revealed shipment projections for the PlayStation Portable launch period, with the company planning to have three million consoles on the market by March 2005.

Sony has taken the wraps off the latest addition to the PlayStation family at its pre-E3 press conference in Los Angeles, with the diminutive PSP revealed to be remarkably similar to previously released concept designs.

Software support for the PlayStation Portable is set to get off to a flying start, with almost 100 developers and publishers having already committed to making games for the Sony machine.

Gamers will be able to get their hands on Sony's PlayStation Portable device for the first time at the Tokyo Games Show, it has been confirmed - with the first playable software set to be demoed at the Japanese consumer event this autumn.

Atari chairman and CEO Bruno Bonnell has launched an attack on Sony over what he categorises as a failure by the Japanese company to provide important detail about the PSP - and predicted that the handheld console will launch at $500.

Criterion has reportedly confirmed that Burnout is in development for the PlayStation Portable. In a report on US website GameSpot, a senior design is quoted saying "Yes, we are going to do it," although the UK-based developer has so far made no follow-up comment.

A number of new details about Sony's PlayStation Portable have been revealed, including the ability for up to 16 players to participate in wireless multiplayer games, and software called "Talkman" which translates between spoken languages.

SCEA has issued a statement reaffirming that the company is on track to launch the PSP on schedule, responding to comments from analyst P.J. McNealy who argued that technical and business problems could cause the launch of the device to slip.

A vast list of rumoured and largely unknown PlayStation Portable titles is the latest scrap of tantalising information to find its way out of Sony's Japanese PlayStation Meeting 2004 this week, following revelations about PSP multiplayer and PS3 on Monday and Tuesday.

Film director Robert Rodriguez (and, in fact, editor, musician, etc, since he does pretty much everything) is reportedly interested in developing Johnny Depp's character from Once Upon A Time In Mexico into a multimedia property - with a PlayStation Portable game amongst his aspirations.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has told investors that he doesn't believe that the PSP will launch in North America until Q2 2005, prompting fresh fears that the arrival of Sony's forthcoming handheld console will slip once again.