Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that sales of the PSP in the region rose 300 per cent in the three days following the launch of the PSPgo.
Several retailers have dropped the price of the PSPgo to under £200 after just one weekend on sale.
Amazon.co.uk, Play and GAME and HMV now ask £199.99 for the smaller and lighter handheld which previously commanded £224.99.
Argos still asks for £219.99, however, and ShopTo charges full price, £224.99.
Sony announced a PSP sales increase of 120 per cent following the launch of the PSPgo, although the new model only matched the existing PSP-3000 in terms of units shifted over the weekend.
The PSPgo is for new users interested in more robust games than iPod in a similar form factor. It has expandable 16gb built in...a PSP3000 with 16GB would cost about the same as a go...you'd get a umd drive but lose portability/bluetooth. 16GB Touch doesn't exist but an 8gb is 199 and a 32 is 299 both are non expandable. Seen from this point of view it can be justified.
Personally I'm disapointed too...I have a PSP with a broken UMD and was hoping for an upgrade path that would allow me to move my umd collection to digital.
There are so many things wrong with PSP Go : 1 no UMD game conversion (I am not asking for free conversion, but paying $5 / game should be tolerable / reasonable, to reward their paying customer) 2 Europeretailer refusing to carry PSP Go because of their DD only content 3 to big difference in price.
Predicting NPD future for PSP will be very interesting.
@afsplat,Sony truly doesn't seem to think things through AT ALL. It is like they are still working with 150 different departments all pulling in different directions. Would be nice if they could get their act together sometime this generation.
Licencing deals seem to be beyond their ability...look at SingStar in the US market...RB/GH/Lips even all get North American CURRENT talent...when Singstar fans BEG SONY for some new stuff all they hear is 'Licencing is hard'.
Sony director of hardware marketing John Koller mentioned shortly after the E3 "reveal" of the PSP Go that the company was considering a "good will program," which would allow UMD owners to trade in their physical games for digital versions. However, yesterday at the Tokyo Game Show, an SCEA spokesperson told Kotaku, "We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time."
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