The lights are on
Jon Burton, director at Traveler’s Tales, believes that Sony either needs to reduce the price of downloadable games or their new digital-only handheld will perish. He also thinks the company won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on price reductions for digital games versus physical UMDs.“I’m betting on Sony making PSPgo games much cheaper than the UMD versions or the PSPgo will die,” Burton told Develop-Online in a recent roundtable discussion.“I own a PSPgo, but don’t want to buy LittleBigPlanet, for instance, as I can get it 20 percent cheaper on UMD from Amazon and could resell it once I’m finished with it. But if I download it, I get no discount, and no chance to resell – how annoying is that?”Burton thinks that physical media will eventually be usurped by digital, but believes strongly that consumers need more incentive to pass up owning the disc. He also touches on the relationship between retail stores and platform holders.“At the moment the [UMD and PSPgo] prices are kept at parity as the platform holders need physical stores to sell their consoles and PCs, so don’t want to undercut them,” Burton continues."At the moment it’s kind of a stalemate as both sides think they need each other and no one wants to blink – I’m betting on Sony making the first move by making PSPgo games much cheaper than the UMD versions or the PSPgo will die."
Email the author Tim Turi, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
PSPgo is gonna die anyway if they keep trying to sell the thing at that ridiculous $250 price point.
Consumers do not want to be ripped off. Sales (or lack thereof) will send the message to Sony.
@Adam, definitely agreed. The price overall is too high. The PSP 3000 is much more accessible for the user, and even though the PSP Go is smaller, PSPs are being bought by bigger fans of Sony, and not the everyday consumer. This is a step in the right direction for Sony, but not the final answer.
i know. we pay $40 for a game that includes the UMD, game case, and booklet. why in god's name would they charge the same price as if they are buying the physical product. the $40 price tag is for all the contents. we are ONLY paying for the download it should be at least $10-15 less, imo
I had this thought to myself just the other day! How can they sell them for just as much as retail when they have cut out the box, cut out the disc, retail costs, shipping costs, and all the rest of the in between costs. I dont own a Go but have thought about downloading a few games from the store, until i look at the price. Those prices do need to drop.
it will die,painfully.
there is no way the psp go is go9ingt o aurvive much longer anyway if its cheaper to buy umds and its also cheaper to buy the 3000 model then they just got killed in the price already.
hi i hates psp gos to they must dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Nothing will ever make me abandon my PSP-1000. That thing is amazing.
One thing to add, how small do they keep making portable game systems and even cell phones smaller. My thunmbs aren't even that big and it's hard to press one button without touching the other's. Not saying they need to make it humongous, but the first PSP was a great size.
thats the reason i dont have one its expensive and i have a ipod touch which is way...way..way better than any handheld.
i think that they are trying to cut out the stores that sell games so they get all there money and not hafto go threw stores to collect. this way there not losing NO MONEY so if a game doesnt do good big deal to them cuase they didnt hafto make umds or covers ect. ect. no big loss only loss they have was time making the game and putting up for downloads they aren't looking out for us with there psp go saying you wouldn't hafto carry no games cuase they are all on the psp go they are saying hahaha u cant buy a game cheaper cuase we run the prices and you cant resell what we sell you muhahaha
pspgo cost to much to begin with who going to buy it just to download games win you could get the cheaper psp3000 and get games on the umd as they like to call it.
If you have a PSP and can download games to it there is no point to get a PSP GO since you can't get some games on the GO just on UMD that makes me mad plus I wouldn't get one cause what of the money and games I invested into it. Sony is giving Europe 3 free downloads why not us, I think they are screwing us over plus can't use a memory stick duo. I'll stick to the old psp but I would like to see the digital games cheaper is I'm goona buy it ill but the UMD and resell later
Personally I LOVE THE PSPGO!
Now for the truth. Sony has b****-slapped their fans and retailers saying they should get ALL of the money from an established system of sales. But before I go into a rant let me express the following point.
I work in Network Marketing: This means that we get our products from the makers directly and all the money in between gets given to the distributors like myself. All the money spent in advertising, warehouse costs, retail stores, etc.
What Sony has done is similar (not identical) in that they took off several things from the middle and are saving that money. Instead of passing the savings to their following and consumers they make a statement saying "we feel comfortable with the prices been the same as umds in stores".
Sony: wtf?
I pray they fix this so their system worth about $180 stays in the market and lives long and prosper like the fabled Ds systems.
Much love
I agree! When I saw the psp shown at the E3 press conference, I thought, awesome, I thought about all the awesome games I was going to get, all the stuff I was going to download, Metal Gear Solid... and then they show the $250 price point. And of course, I groaned again.
There's a lot more hurting the PSP outside of game prices. At some point I'll write a song about it.
sorry
No surprise here for me. PSPgo was a bad idea from the start. Cost to much, everything about it is to expensive.
I completely agree with this. This is the issue with a digital marketplace that's run by the manufacturer. It creates inflated prices due to a monopoly.