Thursday, October 05, 2006

PSP: La la la la, can't hear you

Ignoring the obituaries written on the PSP, Sony says it won't lower the price in '06, so umm stop asking. And oh... all those whiners complaining about available games, there's 110 more on the way and due by the end of the year.

This is a smart move. A price cut signals weakness, like a goalie turned away with one eye closed. No, this move is a sign of confidence (stub...) and with confidence (born), you stick with your price and deliver more games (final burst from pipeline).

Ok, fine, I may be slightly unfair. I actually think this is a necessary move to keep the PSP viable. A drop in price will keep publishers and customers away from the device. Can they sell more units with a price drop? Sure. But this industry has a definitive product cycle and you ignore the downward curve as much as possible and you definitely don't drop prices until it hurts (and with Sony, it takes a while to hurt).

via Washington Post

3 comments:

Karl Castaneda said...

Sony had better step up their game in the States - that's basically the only region that gives a crap about the PSP in comparison to the DS. Europe and Japan is Nintendo Country as far as handhelds go, but in America it's only leading the market by a tad (a million or so units).

Should they lower the price? Yes. Remember how GameCube production was actually HALTED in 2003 because sales were so dismal? They cut the price to $99 (with a packed in Zelda Collector's Disk, which was awesome, by the way), and sales shot up so dramatically that units had to be allocated from other regions to meet demand. Of course, Nintendo screwed up their momentum by not capitalizing on this fast enough, but the point stands: a price drop can do wonders.

Would I buy it? Probably not - my DS gives me everything I want and more - I know quite a few people who'd jump on a $149 PSP, though.

Anonymous said...

Ken! (Toggle), where have you been? I know buzy, but we never see you anymore!

Anyway, wow, that is a lot of games being released...110. I know at least 1 of them is Acclaim's. ;)

You might notice something with my name comming up on the BOTS fourms...but you will have to stay tuned there to figure it out, I can't leak any information. :D

Either reply here, email me at shadow559er@yahoo.com, or message me on MSN Messenger at shadow559er@yahoo.com. Hope to hear from you soon! It's been a long time.

Anonymous said...

the selection available for psp games are ridiculous, there are hardly any. Also yes a price cut does signal weakness but can also work out for the best. Everyone knows handhelds only sell so much and when they are priced that high they will barely sell at all. Add that with the lack of games, they have trouble. They also need more manuals for the psp. It is very hard to find out how to do certain things like getting on the internet for example.