Ever hear of the story about the boy who cried wolf? In case you missed that one, allow me to spoil the ending for you: He got eaten. With that being said, Sony decided to round up celebrities as well as the entire (and when I say entire I mean ENTIRE) videogame press and hold an E3 style press conference for its upcoming PSP hand held. Unfortunately, the slick set design and the special effects nonsense wasn't enough to hide the fact that the company had nothing to say.

The press conference was held on January 5 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Taking a page from their E3 book, Sony transformed a drab room into a spectacular PlayStation nerve center, complete with a stage that was flanked by two enormous screens. The buzz amongst the crowd was super electric and for good reason. There was an enormous amount of anticipation, because since this was technically the PSP's debut in North America (E3 2004 apparently never happened), the press (myself included) assumed that we'd learn when the system will launch in the U.S. as well as for how much, and maybe if we're good, find out what the launch titles will be.

The press con's guest speaker was Kaz Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. His speech was actually pretty good because he came off as a lot looser than he was at E3. There were many jokes, but he definitely stayed on track and gushed over the system. Mr. Hirai also mentioned how Sony intends to ship three million units at the end of the fiscal year, took a serious pot shot at Nintendo when he told us that the PSP would bring us out of the "hand held gaming ghetto", and touted all of the system's nifty features, even going so far as to bring hip hop artist Xzibit on stage (Russell Simmons was also in attendance) to demonstrate the PSP's MP3 capabilities (in playing one of his songs, of course). Then there was the usual montage of video game clips and that was it. He said nothing about the U.S. launch other than it will probably be sometime in March (which we already figured). No price. No launch games.

During his speech I was seriously wondering where the PSPs were in the room, and Sony answered my question when, as soon as Mr. Harai finished, hidden drawers popped out from the white seats we were all sitting on. What was inside? A PSP attached to a heavy piece of metal that was tethered to the seat. Behind me were more PSPs, some hanging from sturdy plastic strings and others arranged in a circle atop lounge furniture. Play time had begun!

There were numerous games on the show floor, and while many of them were far from complete (one rep told me his company scrambled to get code for the event), what was there showed promise. ATV Offroad Fury, Twisted Metal: Head-On, and Wipeout Pure were pretty polished and played well, while 989's NBA 2005, although rough around the edges, was an excellent graphical showpiece for the hardware. Other games, such as Ape Escape, EA's Need for Speed Underground and NFL Street 2, and Konami's slick-looking first person shooter Coded Arms were also some of the show's best games. However, the real stars of the show were some of the Japanese launch titles such as Ridge Racers and Hot Shots Golf. People couldn't get enough of Namco's slick racing title, and some needed the PSP pried from their hands at the show's conclusion.

In all, while I wasn't necessarily wowed by the games (again, because many of them were far too early to form a solid opinion on), I think what was there looked good. Unfortunately that's all I had a chance to play. Sony also had Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Dynasty Warriors (import), Metal Gear Acid (import) and Archer Maclean's Mercury, but for some reason the event ended at least 35 minutes early and I was kicked out!

If anything, the press con was rather strange. Sony got on top of the highest mountain, called everyone over and then revealed that it had very little to say, though I think its displayed software, while not jaw dropping yet, did most of the talking and will be a hit because most of the games are based on series we're comfortable with. Now if the company can just get us the launch date and an MSRP, we'll be set.