Sony slashing PSP Go to $200 after failure to rival iPod?
updated 09:35 am EDT, Wed October 13, 2010
Sony may drop PSP Go price on October 15
A freshly discovered memo late this past evening has hinted that Sony may institute a steep price cut on the PSP Go. The store notice has the gaming handheld falling from its original $250 to $200 on Friday, October 15. Joystiq's retail insider also notes that the profit margin is going down, as it would carry just a $20 price above wholesale where the old price netted $25.
Sony unusually hasn't responded to requests for comment so far.
The drop would be the first for the PSP Go and a possible admission of problems with its sales. Executives have been quick to cast it as a risky experiment but haven't gone so far as to institute price cuts or cast it as a failure. Even early into its history, the Go had very low sales compared not only to the Nintendo DS line but to the regular PSP it potentially would have replaced.
The Go was widely known to be a direct reaction to the success of the iPod touch as a gaming platform as it was designed to focus on Internet downloads over the PSP's aging UMD discs. It shipped with 16GB of built-in flash and in a slider design that kept its profile much smaller than the original. Pricing above that of the iPod touch hurt its chances, but Sony's legacy dependence on physical game stores has become a liability. Some retailers have refused to stock the PSP Go as it would cost them game sales, and many downloadable titles often cost three to four times more than those on Apple's App Store.
Most of Sony's hopes for Internet-based gaming are now expected to reside in an upcoming PlayStation phone that would get titles from Android Market rather than the PlayStation Store.
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MacNN/Electronista fails to cite any article stating the price drop has anything to do with the iPod Touch. Purely speculation. The most logical reason is that the Go's initial price received poor reception because many people thought it was too expensive to begin with.