News
Sony Happy With Retailers' Response to PSPgo
Sure They Are...
With retailers in Australia and Europe refusing to carry the download-only handheld system, to American gamers complaining about the system’s exorbitant price and lack of a UMD trade-in program, there seems to be no shortage of people who are unhappy with the PSPgo. Sony, however, is actually quite happy with the response so far; it seems they expected even more of a shitstorm.
U.K. PSP product manager Claire Backhouse stated to GamesIndustry.biz, "We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got.” She added, "They were really quite fine with it. They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it's new interest, a new product. And they've had such strong sales as well of PSP 3000 almost off the back of it. If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP 3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us."
To be honest, this sounds more like spin than genuine confidence in the launch; you don’t launch a $250 system in hopes that it will help sales of your $160 system. Personally, I find $250 to be an insanely high price point for a system that has almost no new functionality, and can’t play the existing games I already own. I have a feeling that many, many gamers share this sentiment, and aren’t even considering a PSPgo purchase. We’ll find out soon enough whether the PSPgo turns out to be another Game Boy Color, which sold extraordinarily well, or another N-Gage, which…also existed.
Comments
Retailers have been positive. Consumers? Notsomuch.
Sony also LOVES living in denial.
Well......about PSP Go......um............I may have done something rather.......impulsive.....despite everyone on this forum advising me not to.....
....um....I'm sorry...... :(
heh, I've been to stores like HMV, Futureshop, EBGames around here yesterday (looking for a copy of Valhalla Knights on Wii, without luck) and you'd be hard pressed to believe it was getting released this week.
No fuss, no promoting, nothing. It's as if the thing didn't even exists.
(Heck, even managers at EB I personally know are telling me that they won't even be pushing the system, that in most cases they'll suggest the lower priced 3000)
I just sold one today. The mother didn't have a clue of what they were in store for with the only option to have games is to download them. I explained the details and that there is no disc drive for UMD's to be played on the system. The mother, then, tried using the old "Are you sure you want this?" question to her son. This was only answered with one word; "Yes"
I suggested a car charger and a DLC card for any of the game cards I have in the store. She didn't want them and I checked them out. I, then, pondered why parents listen to their kids when it comes to buying something expensive that the parent doesn't fully understand for about, well, ten seconds and went about my night.
Shortly before this I sold the last 80GB PS3 system that's the same price as the 120GB system because the kid liked the old casing more. I told both him and his mother about capacity and heat. The same process as I mentioned before happened with that instant, too. That's they only reason why I mentioned this.