Amazon has given up waiting for Sony to announce a date for its handheld console and gone ahead and set a launch date of its own.

The site has opted for the 18th March for the launch date and a price of £179.99 if you want to pre-order the unit.

The official line on the site is: “This item will be released on March 18, 2005. You may order it now and we will dispatch it to you when we receive it from our supplier. Please note that release dates are subject to change.” The internet shop goes on to say: “the release date and final UK launch details for the PSP console have not yet been confirmed. This information may therefore be subject to change.”

At the time of writing this story the PSP was already number 15 in Amazon's chart ranking.

The PSP can be found here

>> Amazon.co.uk - Official website of Amazon.co.uk