ShopTo: PSP Go Is D.O.A.
- Scribbled on September 17th, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Industry News, Sony PSP, WTF
As if Sony isn’t having to deal with bad PlayStation 3 publicity just before the holiday shopping season, things from the handheld front have gotten worse. Dutch retailer Nedgame had joined a boycott of retailers who refused to sell the PSP Go because of 1. the $250 price, and 2. the lack of a UMD drive. Now, ShopTo is declaring the PSP Go is D.O.A.
The ball began rolling when Dutch outlet Nedgame publicly opposed the PSPgo for being too expensive and for not featuring a UMD drive, thus providing no opportunity to sell games. And controlling all sales via PSN gives Sony a “monopoly” on software sales, argued the shop.
Media Markt, a German retail chain that spans Europe, took up a similar position, with Spanish and Italian (and no doubt other regions) outlets prohibited from selling the device.
Wedbush-Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has poo-poo’ed the boycott, unwilling to believe anyone would boycott a “big ticket item” like the PSP Go, even though he himself declared the PSP Go was a ripoff, before hastily backpedalling from his statement.
Even as early as E3 ‘09, various gaming sites were saying “No!” to the new handheld, even for just pure aesthetic reasons. It was already a bad sign when Sony brushed off the $250 as an “early adopter” tax – not smart when you’re basically telling people you’ll drop the price sometime down the road before the item is released; you’re telling people not to buy it at launch.
Could Sony have screwed this up any worse?
September 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I’d comment but you covered it all Jonah, I wonder when we’ll be hearing from Gamestop and other US retailers about their plan with the PSP Go, I can’t imagine it being positive.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The relationship between publisher and retailer is complex. I do suspect that Sony will announce the PSP Go will be available “exclusively” from Sony themselves.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
and when they do they’ll have basically thrown in the towel
September 17th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
[...] PSPgo “Almost Dead” on Arrival [Eurogamer via Game Stooge] [...]
September 18th, 2009 at 12:37 am
As with most of Sony’s problems the answer is so simple they’ll never see it.
Sell pre-paid PSN game cards in retailers. $20 lets the user download a PSP game of their choice.
Or they can go the route of Patapon 2 (hey, whatever happened to that anyway?) Retail gets a packaged box and manual with a download code, no disc.
September 18th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Just a commercial break: read Jonathon’s review of Patapon:
http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/03/13/review-patapon-psp/
OK, break over. :p
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 am
[...] (before hastily retracting those statements), then a few relatively minor European retailers announced that they would not carry the [...]