Sony not shy

You could never accuse Sony of under-confidence when it comes to the PSP. In today's MCV trade magazine Sony's Phil Harrison described the competition from Nintendo as "irrelevant". He continued, "with the DS it's fair to say that Nintendo stepped out of the technical race and went for a feature differentiation with the touch screen". Phew. Of course this is all part of the pre-launch hype, but does Harrison have a point? Yes, there are games on the DS that, thanks to the touch screen, offer something unique. But on a graphical level the DS titles aren't in the same league as the PSP. When you throw in the obvious design disparities - hopefully whoever was responsible for the shocking look of the DS will be barred from Revolution duties - you can easily predict which of the handhelds is going to appeal more to the average person in the street. Having said all that, the success of Nintendogs in Japan shows that accessibility is just as important as technical prowess when it comes to handheld gaming. But with next Thursday's launch of the PSP heralding the start of the pre-Christmas handheld rush, (the Game Boy Micro enters the fray on the 4th November) consumers are going to be spoilt for choice. PSP, DS, Game Boy Micro, GBA SP, er, Gizmondo - the choice is yours.