Sony’s PSP Go strategy – Stud or Dud?
With the major release of the PSP Go last week, the public took to the release as well as a cake in a swimming pool. Needless to say the majority were not happy.
“It’s the same as a regular PSP, why should I blow $250 on it!?”
Now, I was compelled to buy one on release date, question is why? If you still ask me now I have absolutely no idea, but something tells me that this little machine has a rather interesting future ahead of it. The hardware is pretty much exactly the same as the PSP-3000 with the exception of Bluetooth tethering of headsets/PS3 controllers and a slightly faster (but USB-only ) CPU. Does it really deserve your money?
The bad rep it is currently getting from the media and the public are from two major factors, price and the inability to play physical media. Even before the Go’s release, Sony tried countering this criticism by promising 16,000 pieces of DLC on the American PSN store at day one. This could possibly be deemed as a special strategy by Sony as if to say “There is more coming, here is just a little taster”
In just the first week however, speculation has grown because with the new firmware update, you now have the ability to arrange your XMB (Cross-Media Bar) icons by expiry date. Now why would you do this unless you were planning a game rental service perhaps? Maybe even Film or TV show rentals? You have to bear in mind that it all depends on the laws in your particular country. For example, the UK only has the hugely popular BBC iPlayer built into the latest PS3 firmware, whereas American units have TV/Film on demand through the store. Should Sony choose to implement this, would it be a Go exclusive? After all, downloading multiple full-size video onto your Memory Stick Duo™ might be a little fiddly, however utilising the 16GB internal flash memory could really boost sales of the Go.
Facts aside, this really isn’t stopping officials from putting in their two cents. Don McCabe, the managing director of one of the leading video game retailers in the UK, Chips told GamesIndustry.biz that he expects the PSP to fall flat on its face.
McCabe really isn’t the only person to think this either, although the sales have done exactly what Sony had hoped. SCEA communications director Patrick Seybold told Gamasutra that in the first three days of the Go’s launch, PSP sales have boosted 300 percent. This has certainly seemed to have released some life back into the older units, and made people blow the dust off their old PSP-1000’s. Question is will this trend last, or will it die down in a month or two? With upcoming (Both digital and UMD) releases like LittleBigPlanet, Assassins Creed: Bloodlines, and fifty PSP minis by the end of the year, Christmas could very well be a Sony Crimbo this year. Or at least in the UK anyway.
If you’re a retailer though, you wouldn’t really be inclined to stock the Go, after all, you’re not getting much revenue off the unit and you don’t have any games for it you can sell. Well Sony has announced that they will be selling download codes in outlets in America, to keep retailers happy. More to the point, shelf space is saved allowing them to try the strategy of the ‘impulse-buy at the checkout’ method, which Lord only knows, I’m such a sucker for if the price is right.
In closing, only Sony knows what their strategy is for the little sliding machine, and time will definitely be a huge factor in this. They’re off to a decent enough start, trouble is will they sink or will they swim? They need to really catch up if they have any chance of breaking into the digital download scene, it is already gargantuan as it is.
Hmm, I’d really like to see PSP GO, but not grow enough for them to release PSP GO N-2000 early.
But yeah 16k Update was awesome, but the week after (this week) was super disappointing.
Only NBA on PSP? No thanks.
Come on Sony~
But if this Rental thing is true, looks like we’re gonna have to say Bye to Blockbuster..
Because it looks like this will also apply to console games sooner or later..
Sean you say: “It’s the same as a regular PSP, why should I blow $250 on it!?”
It’s not like the regular PSP at all, the regular PSP makes sense.
Seriously though, look at prices on EU PSP downloadable games, then compare them to the UMD’s from Play.com. In most cases they are either the same price or the UMD’s are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. Until this is corrected the attraction of buying digital is quite lukewarm.
The Mini’s are a good idea but $10 for Tetris? Really? Most of the current Mini’s are on the iPhone for a fraction of the price. During some of the recently sale periods Tetris Mini has become more expensive than some on-sale PSP games and some NEW RELEASE PS3 digital games.
It’s obvious that no-one is communicating inside Sony on these issues. Price confusion, STILL a fragmented release schedule on the games (Asia, EU and US got different games on their respective stores, no excuse for this).
Sony do have some time to get things right but how long will ultimately be decided by us, the consumers.
> a slightly faster (but USB-only ) CPU
A USB-only CPU? What’s that supposed to mean?
@Gareth – Yeah there is a link, there is a slightly faster CPU in the GO but according to Sony (read the link) it is only for transfer purposes, from Media GO to the PSP itself…. The public were hoping for a faster CPU to make some framerate-problematic games run faster, but apparently it won’t make any difference..
@ Adam – In terms of hardware, they are very similar to the PSP-3000, when I say hardware I mean technical specification. Obviously the hardware has a different look/feel to it, but it is mostly cosmetic..
As for the UMD-store price comparison, I was curious about what shops had different prices. Gamestation were selling God of War for £12.99 whereas on the store it is £14.99, that is a price hike of only £2 but you could argue that the £2 is for making things easier for you because you dont have to carry UMD’s around (bit of a stretch I know, but Sony would probably argue that)
Yeah, on release, Tetris was $9.99 on the minis, Sony fluctuate between brilliance and then downright stupidity with some of the things they do. I definitely agree that things on the iphone are cheaper, which is the subject of the next article I am currently working on, so stay tuned. It will be a comparison iphone/psp minis of which tetris is one in question!
Do you really think that Sony have time to get things right? Bearing in mind how huge the digital distribution market is right now, if they don’t speed up then there is a serious chance they could be left dead in the water with this. They have promised us 50 minis by year out, will it be enough? That is the question.. I agree that we decide the fate of a console through sales, but Sony themselves have the power to make us decide that fate, if that makes sense..
Here’s what I don’t understand about the resistance to digital content. Who here believes that Sony is going to release a PSP2 that plays all of your old UMDs? Hello, anyone?
They’re not going to do this as they have proved in the past, cough*PS3*cough, that backwards compatibilty is not their chief concern. However, what they have show with the PSOne downloadable games is the are commited to providing access to their back catalogue through digital downloads.
So, follow me here, when Sony announces the PSP2 (that will either have some new form of physical media (maybe mini-bluray) or will be downloadable only) will be backwards compatible with all of the old UMD titles that have been uploaded to the PSN. So everyone who has been hoarding UMDs will not be able to play them on their new device, yet all of those who have bought loads of digital content will be good-to-go. Digital content provides the ultimate incentive to backwards compatibiltiy as it doesn’t require hardware makers to stick to any one form of physical media.
Hey Sean, thanks for the clarification.