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Sony's Yoshida On Pricing The NGP

If there's one question that's left echoing through the game-o-sphere following Sony's announcement of their ambitious new handheld, it's the obvious: How much is this thing going to cost? Sony definitely isn't ready to tell us the price yet, but they're willing to admit that it's been a concern from the start.

While speaking with Sony Computer Entertainment president of worldwide studios Shu Yoshida about the NGP, I asked if he was worried about the problem of pricing, given the powerful (and presumably expensive) technology that's built into the device. He responded by acknowledging that Sony is aware of price being an important issue:

"From the very beginning of the project -- since 2008 -- pricing was one of the considerations that we had. Hopefully when we announce the price, people will see the proper value."

I hope so too, but that's going to depend pretty heavily on what that price is, especially if we have to add in a payment plan for 3G coverage.

Yoshida did provide one further hint to go off of as we begin speculating about the price. When I brought up the initial shock at the PlayStation 3 launch price, he laughed and assured me, "It's not going to be $599." Well, that's a start.

Comments
  • It's nice that they can make a joke about the PlayStation 3 price. ^_^
    I, personally, don't think it'll going over $300 in the US because that would be more than the PlayStation 3 and that would be kind of insane. The 3G thing is going to be interesting, though; I think I'll be opting out of it and use Wi-Fi.
  • They said it won't be $599, but they didn't say it won't be $499.
  • its probably gonna end up being like $300. :/
  • Im not holding my breath when it comes to Sony's pricing.

  • it will be pretty lame if you have to pay for the 3g on top of the device itself thats probably going to be over $300

  • 598?
  • Sony really needs to hire someone new to design their operating systems' interface. In that picture, the functionality doesn't look much different than the iPhone, but dang - it just looks lame (at least in that picture.)
  • if the 3ds is going to be around 250 i think thats what the playstation ngp should be around or a 10 to 15 dollar more. It should really go after nintendo and i believe this device will have a chance.
  • Will probably cost same as PS3 or maybe just a little less since they seem to consider it on par with the console.

  • To be honest, I think it would be somewhere around $280-$320. People will think it's expensive because of the design, but the technology isn't all that crazy. It just has really good graphics and motion gaming, but it's supported by Sony. It just plays games, it's not a phone or anything like that but it has it's features. Games can be brought online or on flash memory...So I know they'll have two versions, one with lots of memory and one with not so much. I'll just get the one with not so much memory...

  • I still think I'll be picking one of these up. The potential for this is pretty astounding.

  • Mod

    I have heard the 250 number thrown around quite a bit.  I would love to believe that, but I think they are going to ask 300.

    Maybe they will go on the low end and charge 50 bucks for games.

  • All I have to say is that I'll be getting one of these for sure I don't think that it is going to be that expensive they have to price it to sell we have a ton of gadgets coming out tablets etc so they will be pricing it according to the group they want to reach

  • I have to imagine it won't be much more than the 3DS.

  • I hope it's not over $300.

  • If they are smart they will try and get it to 250. Anything over and i think they will be losing out to the 3DS

  • I'm geussing around 300.  But that means it will probably lose to the Nintendo...again.

  • I love how everyone is complaining about paying a possible $300 on top of the 3G costs...has anybody heard of the iPhone from the little company called Apple?
  • Hah, only $499.99...

  • yeah because it could be 699!

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