PSPgo price cut "too meagre, too late"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 26 October, 2010

Analysts want "more aggressive price cuts".

Sony will slash the price of the disc-less PSPgo on 1st November by £65, but analysts are doubtful the move will reverse the embattled console's fortunes.

The PSPgo currently has an RRP of £225 in the UK. From 1st November it'll go for £159.99. The download-only handheld has also seen a price cut in Japan (now ¥16,800) and in the US (now $199).

"Sony's fifty US dollar price cut on the PSPgo is too meagre and too late," M2 Research's Billy Pidgeon told Eurogamer.

"The UK price reduction is more dramatic, but had to be considering the recent MSRP which was too high in my opinion. Now that 'sources' have revealed more details regarding PSP2, including a proposed fall 2011 date, it is very unlikely that these prices will clear shelves. PSP will see sharp declines this holiday into Q1 2011 without more aggressive price cuts."

The PSPgo launched in the west last October and has been a commercial flop for Sony, although some suggest it was an experiment ahead of the much-rumoured PSP2.

"I think that the sales levels speak for themselves," Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter offered.

"The PSPGo just hasn't gained any traction with consumers, and in fairness, it's due to the high price point. Until it's priced competitively with the PSP-3000, I don't expect to see a huge lift in sales."

The PSP-3000 currently enjoys a RRP of £139.99 - £20 cheaper than the new PSPgo price.

"I think the PSPgo has likely suffered under the weight of a declining market for handheld game devices as well as the rise of Smartphones as compelling platforms," Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian said.

"I imagine that PSPgo is searching for a sweet-spot in terms of pricing, and certainly under $200 there should be a bigger market. However, I think it's too early to say whether this will be the right price point or whether this is now the right platform for core gamers."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Ignatius_Cheese #1 2 years ago

    You are quite correct, Mr Pidgeon.

    Coo!

  • dsmx #2 2 years ago

    Wow an analyst says something correct, true he says it after the entire gaming community said it before launch of the PSPgo but still better late than never.

  • raloB #3 2 years ago

    Stick it on the front of OPM as a free gift and flog two dead horses for the price of one. Sony can't compete with Apple or Nintendo in this space. So my advice is give it up as a bad job you're not going to dominate the digital gaming world. At the moment they barely complement it.

    For me, they should focus on decorating TV stands where they belong.
    Edited by raloB at 26/10/10 @ 10:28

  • hoster #4 2 years ago

    If the price dropped into impulse buy territory, say £70, I'd buy one.

  • OrcaSplash #5 2 years ago

    Not just the cost of the hardware but you have to factor in the fact that UMD copies of the games can be had for a fraction of the price of the PSN download equivilant. Tis a double whammy that makes the purchase of a GO an act of madness for the consumer.

  • Toothball #6 2 years ago

    I don't really think much could turn the tides for the Go. Perhaps a few others will pick it up at the new price and see that it's not all bad news, leaving them more amenable to a potentially disc-less PSP in future.

    A massive turnaround in Sony's PSN strategies to make digital games a more enticing prospect would probably help that too. Seems pretty unlikely though.

  • des #7 2 years ago

    Wouldn't touch even if it was £1.

  • toy_brain #8 2 years ago

    The real kick in the teeth that the PSPGo delivers, is that its doing so badly it feels like its dragging the regular PSP 3000 down with it.
    Maybe not in Japan, but certainly in the west.

  • RobertFoster #9 2 years ago

    Billy Pidgeon is a great name.

  • MadDave123 #10 2 years ago

    Even though I'd like one, as it's a nice bit of kit, I'd only buy one as a replacement for my PSP Slim. But that won't happen since the games I play most often are old and haven't been released in a digital format. In short, no backwards compatability is still the killer for me. Since that won't be changing, I know I'll never be buying.

  • slippysloppy #11 2 years ago

    It would need to be half the new price to see any significant improvement in sales. No one who knows what they're doing will pay that much for a PSP GO when there's cheaper PSP 3000s to be had and the PSP2 just round the corner.

  • vizzini #12 2 years ago

    I think the analysts(or Eurogamer) should have waited till late January before making these comments, as I think Christmas will be kind to the PSP Go, as more people hear positive word of mouth and try them.

    It would also be interesting to know if the analysts who commented have tried one with the 10 free games and compared to 3000, maybe even sent out an uninformed work colleague to buy one and try it for a weekend. I suspect they are working just with the statistics.

    I completely understand, that if I had UMDs from a previous PSP then I'd be angry in two ways: 1) not all of existing games are on PSN to buy(PES is the big absentee). 2) I'd be angry that I had to sell and re-buy at a higher price, or keep the old 3000 for certain games/films.

    But for customers moving to this as a new handheld platform, or regularly write off gadget costs as part of a hobby(for an old UMD PSP), this is a great device that they will prefer.

    Very few people will dislike it on technical grounds, form factor or features, especially once they've tried it.

    And the value proposition of something is only really relevant if you are considering buying one. Based on the complaints in these stories I suspect more people really want a PSP Go than analysts think. They are just waiting for Sony to move the mountain closer to them.

  • youhavenomail #13 2 years ago

    Pachter deserves all the recognition he gets. Not just any common or garden expert can come up with the cutting edge analysis he does. When the price cut was announced yeterday everyone else was, like, 'yeah, this price cut is a game changer and has come at the perfect time, PSPgo is gonna fly now'. But not Pachter, he's sticking his neck on the line and telling it like it is. Where would we be without him? Now where's the Wii HD he promised me?

  • slippysloppy #14 2 years ago

    Patcher is an idiot. He rarely gets it right and once, when he did get it right he withdrew his comments after pressure from Sony. The man's a fool.

  • mkreku #15 2 years ago

    I've tried the PSPGo in a store and it really feels like a lovely bit of hardware, but yeah, it was the price stopping me from buying one.

  • RobTheBuilder #16 2 years ago

    PSPGo was a clear fail from the start:

    - More expensive than PSP
    - Can't use dirt cheap UMD's
    - Games more expensive on store than on UMD
    - No games sales meant limited retail support

  • Whizzo #17 2 years ago

    Christmas for the PSP Go will be just as bad as it's ever been, it's a device that's going nowhere other than into the same dustbin of history as the Virtualboy.

  • SYS64738 #18 2 years ago

    I bought the Go at launch, and while I enjoyed it hugely since then I couldn't recommend it to anyone new to the platform - says it all really.

    Both the grim outlook in terms of future releases for the platform in general and continued lack of support from Sony (PSN pricing/offerings) for the Go in particular are the kiss of death to the system. A pity as it could've been doing so well if a key number of mistakes on Sony's behalf wouldn't have been made from the ... err.. Go.

    And yeah the Go has Virtual Boy/Sega Mega CD written all over it.

  • Arwin #19 2 years ago

    The Go has some advantages too:

    - can use a dualshock and bluetooth headset
    - better screen
    - more portable
    - 16GB built-in memory
    - ability to create a save-state of any game at any time

    At a small money difference, the Go is definitely a valuable replacement for me. The PSN store has enough good games that I'm interested in, and since I have two PSPs I prefer to buy stuff from there now already because I can typically install them on both at the same time.

    The thing that has been stopping me is the cables - I hate that it has its own, different cables more than anything else - I want to be able to use the old recharging cables or the usual mini-USB. The smaller screen also isn't a big plus for me - I like the PSP size much better than the iPhone/iPod size screen and still prefer my 2004 PSP over my iPod and iPhone for watching video.

    So yeah, I'll likely wait and see what the PSP2 brings to the table. The old PSP wasn't perfect, but it was very, very good and we've used it almost daily from 2004 to today, even if most of the use these days is for watching video (most of which these days by my 2yo son :D).

  • systems #20 2 years ago

    On top of the listed problems, it's too small and uncomfortable for adult hands. I had one for a month but it's too painful to hold for extended sessions which is why I guess they allowed you to use a Dualshock with it. Monster Hunter was agony with it.

    Went back to the PSP Slim and my hands are happy again. I wasn't too fussed about the price as I got it for £150 new any way and sold it for the same.

  • Collymilad #21 2 years ago

    It failed because of the high price and the fact that sane people see the massive problem with DD (i.e. a few people controlling the prices of the games you buy, or 1 in this case)

  • FladgeMangle #22 2 years ago

    A half-arsed price drop for a half-baked idea. Maybe if they'd launched it at this price originally it would have been more of a success.

    As it stands, they're just continuing to take the piss and I should know, I have one.

    I haven't bought any full price games off the store for ages, simply because £31.99 is a obscene price. Ace Combat Joint Assault is something I'd quite like to play but I don't want my balls wrenched off in order to do so. Listen Sony, it's £17.99 off Amazon. Stop being exploitative greedy bastards.

    Also, we finally get Ridge Racer and then they priced it at... £15.99? ...SIXTEEN POUNDS? You've got to be joking right?

    So I paid top whack for your PSPgo and now I'm your BITCH? Go fuck yourselves.

    (takes a moment to calm down)

    (nope, still angry)


  • JamesBrophy #23 2 years ago

    Why do you give us the sterling and Yen Prices but not the EURO ONES, EUROGAMER?

  • drxym #24 2 years ago

    PSPGo was doomed when it launched with no upgrade path, for existing owners, was tied to expensive PSN online titles and a high RRP. People are not stupid.

    The sad part is if Sony had sold a UMD external drive so owners could periodically sync and play their existing collection, and if the PSPGo sold at or below the cost of a regular PSP (which it should have considering it contained less components) the thing would have flown off the shelves.
    Edited by drxym at 26/10/10 @ 14:19

  • darc #25 2 years ago

    At this point they have to slash right down to a bargain-bin price. They can't expect to sell PSPGo's out one side of their mouths while the other side is already started to market PSP2's (and their competition is readying 3DS's).

  • FladgeMangle #26 2 years ago

    @darc

    Nobody should buy a PSPgo, no matter what they cost, until Sony overhaul the pricing policy on PSN. I don't care if they start giving them away with cornflakes, you'll still end up being ripped off.

    Hmmm. This bee just wont leave my bonnet. For what it's worth BZZZ the PSPgo BZZZ is a really nice piece of BZZZ gaming hardware BZZZ. It's just those damn bees...

  • Vin #27 2 years ago

    How much is the average PSP game nowadays?

  • Huxamalay #28 2 years ago

    Didnt do well because YOU FAILED TO IMPLIMENT A UMD CONVERSION TOOL

    FFS

  • jumpdeveraux #29 2 years ago

    Given the PSP struggled as a platform the whole PSPGo with premium price hardware, limited and overpriced software and no upgrade path just feels like a corporate experiment to see how far Joe Consumer will go in parting with money from their wallet before the good ship PSP sinks beneath the waves and the PSP2 hoves into view.

  • zedzee #30 2 years ago

    My concern is turning to the PSP2 - now that we know the PSPgo was merely an experiment - will Sony learn its lesson and price it reasonably, as well as having some (nothing short of) stunning) launch titles for it?

    I fear if these two points are not met to the consumer's satisfaction, then Sony might as well throw in the towel right now.

    It's very true that the portable gaming platform concept has shifted dramatically, over the past 18 months or so, to mobile phones, with even Nintendo admitting that its biggest rival is not Microsoft or Sony, but Apple. And it's only a matter of time when Google throws its hat into the mobile gaming ring, and promote Android SDKs for those who want to write and publish games for it - unless it has already and I'm not aware of it.

    Nintendo sees Apple as a threat: [link url=http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101026/nintendo-more-scared-of-apple-than-microsoft/
    ]http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101...[/link]
    Android catching up with Apple: [link url=http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101025/android-market-clears-100000-apps/
    ]http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20101...[/link]