Fils-Aime questions PSPgo "benefit"

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has questioned what "benefit" the PSPgo offers consumers.

The new Sony handheld, which launched worldwide on 1st October, may have a "fundamental concept problem in terms of 'Who's it for?' and 'What's the benefit?'"

"I have the utmost respect for all our competitors," Fils-Aime told the Washington Post (thanks Joystiq), "but it's interesting to try and answer the consumer question of 'What's in it for me?' in that product."

The poor old PSPgo has taken a bit of a kicking for many reasons - its smaller screen, use of a new style of Memory Stick, incompatibility with old PSP peripherals and lack of a UMD-to-digital upgrade route for existing handheld gamers all counting against the unit, which boldly ditches physical media.

The WaPo piece posits, however, that Nintendo may be facing its own difficulties, as Apple's iTunes App Store presents iPhone and iPod Touch owners with a vast number of downloadable games at significantly lower prices than those associated with Nintendo's own DS.

Fils-Aime denied feeling the heat, arguing that games like Scribblenauts, Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs are "unique" and cannot be found on "their App Store". He also said that Nintendo has no desire to "get into the phone space" when asked about the future of the DS.

"We think the game business is competitive enough," he said. So, expect a Nintendophone at the next E3 then.