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For quite some time now, the internet (and print magazines) have been buzzing with speculation and curiosity as to what Sony had up their sleeve for this whole ‘PSP (Playstation Portable) thing. Only small tidbits of information have slipped through the cracks of Sony’s tight lipped execs, that is, until now… Let the speculation come to a hault: The PSP has been unleashed!

During Sony’s pre-E3 press conference, Kaz Hirai, president and CEO of SCEA blew the lid wide open on all things PSP, from the look, to the features, the specs, and most importantly: the games. Let’s start at the beginning: what does it look like? How many buttons does it have? D-Pad or analog? How big is the screen? Here we go…

The PSP controls almost just like a PS2, since it mirrors the controller almost to the ‘T’ (square, triangle, X, circle, start and select, and 2 shoulder buttons), for the exception of the L2 and R2 buttons, which are not being included in the control scheme. Dimensionally, the PSP sits at a very comfortable 170mm x 74mm x 23mm and weighs in at 260 grams. Almost the entire face of the PSP is taken up with the huge LCD widescreen that works at a 16:9 display ratio.

The PSP includes ports for USB 2.0 and makes use of Wi-Fi wireless LAN connections to connect multiple PSP units to one another. The PSP will be able to be played online, much like the N-Gage currently does, allowing for players to compete head to head almost any place, any time. The PSP will make use of Sony’s Memory Stick Pro Duo, along with a new medium created exclusively for the purpose of PSP, UMD (Universal Media Disc). The UMD is a mini disc that allows up to 1.8 gigs of storage for not only games, but movies and music as well. Square-Enix has already announced that they will be releasing their upcoming CG epic Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on UMD disc for the PSP as well as on DVD. If movie publishers will begin to look at this new medium as a means to generate more profit is still a mystery at this point.

The graphical capability of the PSP (as showcased by a multitude of games) is nothing short of phenomenal for a portable system. One glance at Gran Turismo 4 or Metal Gear Solid Acid will be all it takes for you to put faith in the fact that Sony has finally found something capable of competing with Nintendo on the portable level. Every PSP game shown off at E3 was heaped full of lush, detailed environments, high polygon count characters, and gorgeous effects, all akin to the visual quality you find on PS2 these days, which is an amazing feat by any standard.

A lot of portables have come and gone at the hands of Nintendo, but it looks like Sony is up to the challenge. Sony hasn’t dropped a price for the system yet, and the battery life of the portable beast is still up in the air, but aside from that, we really have all the information we need to tide us over until the next barrage of information comes. What does this mean for Nintendo and their iron tight grip on the handheld market? Only time will tell.