EA calls for cheaper PSP

By Games Industry.biz Published 1 December, 2006

New version likely, says Probst.

Electronic Arts boss Larry Probst has said that Sony should consider slashing the price of PSP and introducing a new, smaller model in order to boost sales.

Speaking in an interview with Newsweek, Probst said, "I think what moves the needle is a new form factor that's smaller than the existing unit, at a lower price, and hopefully that price is US$ 100 or lower.

"I think the price point needs to be lower, and I think you're going to see that next year, along with a different form factor," he added.

Whilst Probst was careful to identify his comments as "pure speculation", he said it "would not be hugely surprising" if Sony was to cut the price of the PSP to US$ 149, offering "a more fully-featured upscale unit that retails at US$ 249 or US$ 299".

Probst dismissed suggestions that EA is focused on producing new IP for the PSP, stating, "It's more likely that we would target platforms like the PS3, Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii if we had an original in mind. Our strategy on PSP has typically been to take the franchises that we build on other platforms and exploit them on the PSP."

However, he went on to concede that consumers won't necessarily want to buy PSP versions of a franchise title if they already own console versions of the same game. "If someone owns Madden on multiple systems already, they're less likely to buy it on PSP. It's true. If you've got Madden on PS2 and Xbox 360, how likely are you to buy it on PSP?"

According to Probst, EA is "interested in interoperability between PSP and Sony's other platforms, and if we can do something along those lines, that would be helpful".

Earlier this week, SCEA declared that sales of the PSP in North America were up by 280 per cent over the Thanksgiving period, with software sales also on the rise.

But Nintendo's rival handheld continues to perform well around the globe, with the company claiming that the DS is outselling PSP by a rate of more than 2.5 to 1 in the UK.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tonka #1 5 years ago

    Crybabies. Get a job

  • MisterFalseName #2 5 years ago

    "Our strategy on PSP has typically been to take the franchises that we build on other platforms and exploit them on the PSP."

    Exploit? o_O

  • jiveguy #3 5 years ago

    Yes, as in take advantage of the poorly educated...er, I mean PSP owners.

  • MisterFalseName #4 5 years ago

    I was just surprised at how open they're being about their lack of originality in the handheld market. It's like they're not trying to bullshit anymore...

  • Rambaldi #5 5 years ago

    So by their logic: if you want to beat the competition, graphic fidelity is not so much an issue as price is?

    For the sake of PS3, let's hope they're wrong, eh?

  • Steroyd #6 5 years ago

    Wow i'm amazed at how open this guy is.

    But how are they expecting to shift software sales on the PSP even though they know they won't be shifting software sales by porting their titles to the PSP.

    /scratches head

  • rudedudejude #7 5 years ago

    My PSP is used far more effectivly as an mp3 player than a gaming device.

    Plus, EA Suck! http://www. gamespot.com/news/6162530.html

  • Tomo #8 5 years ago

    That immediately jumped out at me too False! Jeez... EA, EA, EA...

  • crazyhorse174 #9 5 years ago

    EA IN CANDID TRUTH SHOCKER!!!

    Hmm...could this be reverse pyschology? Maybe by admitting that they have no imagination when it comes to games, they're hoping that no-one will be as bothered when they continue releasing FIFA, NHL, Madden and their ilk for another 50 years...

    Either that or he's trying to get sacked!

  • MisterFalseName #10 5 years ago

    I just wonder if they've sacked their PR department...

  • Kay #11 5 years ago

    PSP for under $100? Is he mad?

    K

  • playgen #12 5 years ago

    $100 is like £50 - thats never going to happen, well not for the forseeable future anyway

  • Steroyd #13 5 years ago

    Lol that's funny.

    EA always strives to drive innovation and quality into its titles. EA continues to invest in next-generation development and technology which will translate into high quality gaming throughout the next console cycle."

    I think Probst didn't go to PR school that's how it's done. ^_^

    Although i'm surprised at his attitude towards the PSP how does it make business sense to know that you're not going to sell that many titles by porting the console renditions onto the little handheld.

    Maybe that attitude is why we aren't seeing much original IP's for the unit. :(
    Or at least a compotent port by name (i.e Killzone liberation, GTA Liberty City Stories etc).

  • lambtron #14 5 years ago

    Probst is a money man - he doesn't have a problem saying things like this because at the end of the day EA are still raking it in ;).

  • MadMirko #15 5 years ago

    Yes new PSP thank you very much.

    New better thumbstick.

    I sometimes long for the NGPC's thumbstick. It was digital with micro switches and the most badass thumbstick ever.

    Analog stick on PSP FTL.
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/06 @ 14:47

  • jmctavish #16 5 years ago

    They should strip out all the media stuff and make it purely a gaming device.

    Give it a £100 pricetag and I'll be tempted.

  • rhinoxious #17 5 years ago

    had my Neo-Geo pocket color out yesterday, it got unearthed when i moved.

    However that clicky joystick would drive people mad on the commute I imagine!

  • jack_klugman #18 5 years ago

    jack_klugman calls for cheaper PSP.

  • Muddtallica #19 5 years ago

    Geeze, is this Probst guy angling ofr a job at Sony or what? Because he seems to be talking more about what Sony should do these days than what EA do.

    Still, he is highlighting a problem with the PSP concept that I've always worried about; from a development point of view, what exactly is your incentive to create a PSP game? The DS came up with an original, unique hook in the form of the dual screens and the touch screen. As we've seen (somewhat surprisingly, maybe), developers do find this to be a concept that they want to explore, and the DS is the only one that offers it. The PSP's original, unique hook is that it offers PS2 quality gaming on the go, but the problem is that it's a hook that's only of significance to the consumer; from the point of view of a developer, creating a game for the PSP offers nothing that isn't possible on the PS2 (except perhaps wireless multiplayer), and is in fact slightly more difficult given the slightly inferior hardware and control options.

    Why, then, if you want to make a PS2-type game, would you choose to make it on the PSP and not the PS2? See, if the PSP had been a roaring success like I thought it would be, the answer would have been "money", so we would have seen a wealth of original PS2 quality projects on the system. That hasn't been the case though, which has led to a large percentage of the PSP library being made up of games designed for other systems, then ported as an afterthought to PSP, with varying levels of success...

    I'm not sure exactly what the answer to this problem is, and it's something Sony will have to think about. I do know that Probst's idea of making a stripped down version of the system sure as heck isn't the answer, though. I really don't like this new "multiple models" system that the 360 introduced, I feel it just confuses and divides the userbase...

  • Steroyd #20 5 years ago

    They should strip out all the media stuff and make it purely a gaming device.

    Give it a £100 pricetag and I'll be tempted.

    Are you crazy?

    I'll say iit right now the PSP as a pure gaming machine with the type of Dev support they have now would get crushed by the Nintendo DS.

  • rhinoxious #21 5 years ago

    "Plus, EA Suck! <a href="http://www. gamespot.com/news/6162530.html"
    ">http://www. gamespot.com/news/6162530.html"
    </a>

    That article is such a load of horseshit, basically some guy has spotted that EA's gameranking scores have dipped a little.

    Not surprsing really, as average scores are bound to dip for established franchises towards the end of the console's lifespan, in this case the PS2, the hardware has little left to offer and the reviewers are jaded.

    EA would be stupid to put as much money as say MS into 360 titles, the installed userbase is still very small, comparably, and so profits are limited. Whilst MS have a second agenda to boost the profile of the platform. So EA games do badly there as well.

    Wait a year or so for the next-gen to become mainstream, the you'll see EA making the effort to put out proper versions of their games rather than lazy ports.

    I don't like EA, but it's not too hard to see that hardware transitions are going to hit them worse than 'hardcore-appealing' developers like Capcom.
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/06 @ 14:44

  • Steroyd #22 5 years ago

    Muddtallica i'm not sure the DS's touchscreen is as big as people make it out to be.

    there are a few titles that use it perfectly like Nintendogs, or Brain Training but then you've got lots of New Super Mario Brothers, Super Princess Peach, Animal Crossing, Yoshi's Island 2 (come back to me on that one), Mario and Luigi Partners in time. ¬_¬ That don't have the touchscreen as an integral part of the game and you have the option to use the D-pad, and given that Nintendo owns these titles they'd most probably translate well to the PSP with minimum effort.

    The problem is the processing power of the PSP it's too easy to make a 3D game that looks similar to it's PS2 counterpart and not enough of 2D games in a 3D environment (given how much New Super Mario Brothers Sold). ¬_¬

    Which is why it isn't shocking that LocoRoco is a very fun and addictive title that i can't get enough of, and i recently downloaded an Exit demo and i'm hooked on that as well.

    The big difference between the PSP and the DS is 2D games, Sony needs to go down to SCEA and kick whoevers in charge up the balls to get the message that 2D games are fun and they do sell, if Sony's studio's can get that message across by making some Fooking 2D addictive fun titles themselves, and then 3rd party devs start seeing the results of 2D games, then maybe everyone will stop bitching about the PSP not having any good godamn games goddamn it.

    /takes deep breath.

  • MadMirko #23 5 years ago

    I'll say iit right now the PSP as a pure gaming machine with the type of Dev support they have now would get crushed by the Nintendo DS.

    Yes, but what if the PSP had been a pure gaming device from the start?

    All of the gripes would either be lessened or non-existant: It wouldn't have UMD, that would make it smaller and cheaper and save a lot of battery power. It would be lighter, could be more attractive.

    Don't know, but together with the good vibe Sony had with the PS2 this might have been the DS killer, and not vice versa.

  • MadMirko #24 5 years ago

    i'm not sure the DS's touchscreen is as big as people make it out to be.

    Well, the systems best selling titles wouldn't have been possible without it, how can it not be a big thing?

    With the dual screen / touch sceen thing Nintendo made sure there are games that are not possible on any other platform. That's exclusives for free.

    It's also been a huge draw for non-kids, as touching is a very direct and straightforward control method (it's also damn accurate, see MPH f.ex.), that's easy to pick up even if your last videogame was in your childhood.
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/06 @ 15:02

  • El_MUERkO #25 5 years ago

    i'd like a slot loading psp with 8 gigs of onboard storage, phone, camera, gps, skype, wireless n, 720p screen, hookers and a block of cheese ...

    and a repositioned, bigger, better thumstick

  • playgen #26 5 years ago

    Very little of the DS software would be "impossible" on other formats, just not as nice to control without touch screen.
    The fact is the PSP is too powerful, Nintendo have purposly restricted the power of its handhelds from the very beginning - so they would be cheaper, have better battery time, and developers couldnt just port current (at the time) console games to them

  • Steroyd #27 5 years ago

    Well, the systems best selling titles wouldn't have been possible without it, how can it not be a big thing?

    I said not as big, all the top sellers are made from Nintendo and a good number of them don't use the Touschscreen enough to warrant it not possible on the PSP and the one of the only very good title outside of the Nintendo circle that uses the touchscreen good is Sonic... erm...Rush?
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/06 @ 15:17

  • haowan #28 5 years ago

    Screen that looks good from normal game angles so I don't have to hold the thing like a cripple when I play it. Yeah, that'd rock.

  • MadMirko #29 5 years ago

    Very little of the DS software would be "impossible" on other formats, just not as nice to control without touch screen.

    There are titles that fit that, yes. There are others that would be so crippled that they wouldn't be fun (think Meteos), which is near enough "impossible". A Trauma Center with a dpad or analog stick? I'd find that quite "impossible". Petting the Nintendog by mashing the a-button? Possible, but it would defeat the purpose.

    Then there is the second screen. Could you do a Mario Kart without the overhead view to track extras and positions of the competition? You could, but it would take away a lot of the skill and strategy that make the game fun and interesting to play.

    With "impossible" I didn't mean to say there were no possible workarounds, just none that would result in good, system selling games.

  • YourMessageHere #30 5 years ago

    I'd rather have cheaper games than cheaper PSPs, thanks, mister EA drone. The PSP is quite a powerful bit of kit, and has lots of potential flexibility - it's a gaming device AND a media player, after all. Perhaps it's a bit pricey but not as much as people make out. I for one feel a bit aggrieved that PSP games go for the same approximate price as PS2 games when they're so much more limited. Besides the nature of handheld gaming is casual and people are much less likely to pick up PSP games on impulse if they're

    It's always been beyond me why the PSP only has the one stick and two triggers. If they had given it exactly the same controls as a PS2, they'd have the option of simply making ports of everything, rather than choosing to either make exclusives for questionable returns or break things by adapting them for controls with 1 fewer sticks and 2 fewer buttons.

    Yes, you can whinge about ports but for me, the prospect of having a PS2 on the train was why I bought my PSP. I expected cheap PS1 and PS2 classics rereleased for PSP. Perhaps if they had some kind of discount scheme whereby buying the PS2 version gave you a discount on a game's PSP counterpart (or even vice versa), surely that would be a good thing?

    Edit: I just realised that this sort of looks like I'm saying UMD video is a good idea. That's not right.
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/06 @ 15:47

  • ronuds #31 5 years ago

    EA has been trying to bully Sony a lot lately. I hope Sony tells them to take their crappy games and shove it.

  • lambtron #32 5 years ago

    That's up to developers (same with any loading times).

    You could make any system in the world have shite loading times if you try hard enough.

  • chupachups #33 5 years ago

    Is this EA trying to punish Sony even more for the disappointing PS3 launch allocations? I can't see how EA benefits from what they've admitted, but it certainly harms Sony.

  • HermitArcader #34 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Bluetooth #35 5 years ago

    Probst is such a shit stirrer

    He'll be casually implying next in an interview with TIME magazine that Sony need some sort of influential spokesperson, akin to Reggie, J Allard - or me (speaking from his point of view). and that PS3 failure rates are higher than the competitions, and that Blu Ray isnt looking too good.

    Then he'll announce that the EA PS3 portfolio would be limited due to rising costs or whatever. Finally, Probst will call Ken gay, and announce that he wanked over a picture of Peter Moore and had a gangbang with his wife.
    Edited by 3 at 01/12/06 @ 19:10

  • chupachups #36 5 years ago

    "Perhaps if they had some kind of discount scheme whereby buying the PS2 version gave you a discount on a game's PSP counterpart (or even vice versa), surely that would be a good thing? "

    I think you're on to something there... Maybe if you buy both at once you get the PSP version for a tenner or something? It would certainly help shift games, although I don't know if it would be quite the profit margin they were expecting.

  • Helios #37 5 years ago

    Hmm.

    PS1
    PS One
    PS2
    PS Two
    PSP
    Wii

    PSPee?

  • Shadar #38 5 years ago

    I suppose this is kick in the balls number from EA to try to punish Sony for screwing up the PSP, which EA has invested fairly much development in, and for their failing to bring enough PS3s to the market to make EA's launch window titles profitable.

    Interesting. If EA is losing confidence in Sony, the games industry is in for a very interesting ride for the next few years.

  • dsmx #39 5 years ago

    The psp doesn't need to be redesigned it just needs developers like EA to stop shovelling crap onto the psp such as crappy ports and actually make decent games for it that are orgional and not the same regurgatated crap the psp gets every time.

  • bloodflowers #40 5 years ago

    Fuck off EA, I'm not buying your games on any system anymore.

    They're not wrong though, it needs a redesign, the controls are utter garbage on the PSP.

  • Sl1pstream #41 5 years ago

    Objection!

  • Steroyd #42 5 years ago

    dsmx what's perplexing is that EA knows people aren't going to re-buy say Madden for the PSP if they've already got it for the PS2, yet they ship Madden PSP anyway in the knowledge that it's going to sell like crap because millions have already bought PS2 version. o_O

    This thought process coupled with SCEA's stupid no 2D policy no wonder software sales for the PSP is poor.

    Also with the likes of Polyphony and David Gaffe sidelining their PSP projects it's not doing Sony any favours for PSP.

  • Mordum #43 5 years ago

    ok, I'll admit that I have'nt read the whole thread (so don't shoot me if I'm just repeating).
    The PSP is a temptation. Although, I'm more tempted to get a DS first. But, even with that I'm waitiing for a further reduction... I cpould easily afford to pick one up, it's just I believe in value for money (so won't pay over £75). so, you can see how far off I am from 'actually' pickingup a PSP.

  • floppylobster #44 5 years ago

    "if we had an original in mind"

    That's a fucking big 'if' EA. If you ever had an original idea in mind I'm yet to see. Just change the company moniker to EZ to reflect the risk factor your willing to take when making your ground-breaking original sequels.

  • projectmayhem #45 5 years ago

    why the fuck couldn't he just tell sony this instead of making me read his waffle... again?

    "omg psp is teh suk" says EA muppet.

    3 months later Killzone and VCS arrive, two of the best games i've played this year generally.

    it's not the PSP that sucks, it provides the power and tools developers have been yearning from a handheld for years, but they're just not using it at all. killzone is basically an in-house job so it was always going to be well done, VCS is a 2nd version try at the format. EA has put out muck on the thing thus far, and that wont change.

    sorry for the rant, i'm just not overly pleased with EA lately :)

  • Redeye #46 5 years ago

    I might be going against the grain here, but I actually *like* the PSP. Sure, it's a little unwieldy, and yeah, the thumbstick can be totally craptacular at times (and no, I'm not going into the whole UMD/battery schtick), but it's a bloody nice system with some decent hardware and an excellent display. The real problem with it, as has already been mentioned, is the sheer amount of shiteware that gets shovelled on to it by companies like (ta-daaa) EA.

    So, Mr. Probst, I suggest you actually release some product that has some thought put into its design and development before you spout half-a-ton of spurious rubbish - much like your employers. Use your crappy properties, but in a way that works with the platform, not just shoe-horned in to turn a buck.

    *realises who he's actually talking to, saves his breath, goes back to playing Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins*

  • matrim83 #47 5 years ago

    If the price comes to 150 $ I'll buy one just for Snes, Nes etc emus.

  • Dizzy #48 5 years ago

    Just let it die gracefully... why teh slow death?

  • Hughes. #49 5 years ago

    Let's hope Sony agree with what EA wants, what we need is a cheapening of the brand so EA can ram even more shovelware onto shop shelves!

    PSP is really starting to shine and show what the power can do now, at the same time as EA have released a PSP version of NFS Carbon that has no visible improvement over the stripped-out turd that was PSP NFS Most Wanted (a launch game if I'm not mistaken). EA is a byword for lowest common denominator mediocrity and the day they successfully dictate hardware policy to manufacturers will be the sorriest day gaming saw since E.T launched on the Atari VCS.

  • urban #50 5 years ago

    why dont they bloody do it themselves the cheap cunts.

  • Roddy100 #51 5 years ago

    I'm with you Redeye. Well said.