This article is more than 1 year old

Sony PSP UK release slips to August?

Dixons thinks so

Amazon.co.uk still lists the UK debut of the Sony PlayStation as 24 June 2005, but that date was called into question today. If High Street retailer Dixons' PSP pre-order service is anything to go by, the eagerly anticipated handheld console will not appear here until August.

The Dixons service, launched today, is offering up to two PSPs per person for £179 a pop. The pre-order page on the company's web site lists 1 August 2005 as the "estimated" release date.

The PSP was originally to have made its European debut in March, though the release was put back to allow Sony to increase the number of consoles it had allocated to the US launch, which took place on 24 March.

By then, Sony had already admitted that the European release date had slipped, though at the time, it said the delay was more a matter of "a few months rather than a few weeks". The day before, Amazon.co.uk had update its PSP ETA to June, having already moved it from March to April.

Dixons' date suggests the wait will be even longer, right out into Q3. High Street games retailer GAME recently said in its latest financial outlook that it expects the PSP to appear in the second half of the year.

And "publishing sources" cited by GamesIndustry.biz have also claimed Sony is pondering an August release.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was unavailable for comment. ®

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