PSP was released as a standalone unit for around $180 I believe, $220 for the bundle, and is being released for $250 in North America in a bundle form. Before you sharpen the spears, consider this:
Bundle includes:
1 Unit
1 Rechargable Battery
1 Unit Case (little soft case to put it in)
1 32 MB Memory Stick Duo (Current PS2 memory cards hold 8MB)
1 Pair of headphones with remote
1 UMD of Spider-Man 2 (Something'everyone has probally seen, but still nice I think)
1 Demo Disc (But then again, you're going to buy a game with it)
Probally some other minor things I forgot, but other than that, I'd plop down $250 for it.
As for Square and FF being Sony-only oriented, you have to take in account:
Dawn of Souls (FFI+FFII updated with extra battles and what not) for the GBA
FF:CC for the Gamecube
FFIII for the DS
FF:CC for the DS (some sequel I guess)
But at the same time, these arnt really their most anticipated games, just the little scraps off the plate after the main course. But lets face it, the Gamecube never was known for its spectacular sales next to Microsoft and Sony, so why invest your next big entry of your most popular franchise into a machine that had begun to die right out of the gate? Look at Capcom, there's a reason why Resident Evil 4 isnt a Gamecube exclusive anymore...
Square has also discussed interest in developing for Microsoft on two instances; One during an interview about future Final Fantasies, and on the future of FFXI ("The gamers of FFXI will need some place to go once the PS2's life cycle runs out," or something along those lines were said).
And as for the porting to the PSP...very unlikely.
Just like the PS2, Sony will probally have a very strong resistance to 2D games on the debut of their system (Or anytime at all really). Why do you think there are rarely any new 2D games on the PS2?
