In the coming days Sony will release yet another iteration of its Playstation Portable hand held console the "PSP Go."
The smaller (50% smaller in fact) and lighter (40% lighter) hand held console is attempting to capture the portable appeal of the Apple iPhone and the digital connectivity of the Nintendo DSi. However, at a $250 price tag Sony may be asking for too much.
For those of you who are new to the PSP Go here is an update on its features:
- 50% smaller and 40% lighter than PSP-3000
- 16 GB Storage
- M2 Memory Stick Slot
- Wireless and Bluetooth connection capibilities
- No UMD drive
That last bullet point is ironically the PSP Go's most unique quality and hardest selling point.
The PSP Go will only play digitally downloaded data for all its media content such as music, pictures, videos, and yes, games.
Without a Universal Media Disc (UMD) drive, the PSP Go will be unable to play any physically exisiting PSP games in UMD form. Meaning that current PSP owners will have to either repurchase games through the Playstation Network on the PSP Go/PS3 or through their Windows based PC using Sony's "Media Go" service.Sony has announced that PSP game publishers will still release games on UMD, so there is little risk for current PSP owners who want to stand by their apparently "immobile" PSP.
At a retail price of $250 that may be a tough pill to swallow for PSP owners and non-PSP owners alike.
You could buy a Nintendo Wii and still save $50 thanks to Nintendo's recent price cut or you could purchase a Xbox 360 Pro for the same amount. Yeck, throw in $50 and you have a new Playstation 3.
The huge price tag for the PSP Go's slick functionality will at best attract tech savvy consumers who do not already own a PSP.
Henceforth, since the PSP Go delivers no graphical improvements, only slightly faster load times, games that only exist in a quasi-imaginary "digital" format, and cost $250, I don't foresee the PSP Go flying off the shelves and I cannot recommend it to anyone.
6 comments:
Wrong, it may not fly off the shelves, but it is intended for all of the people who never liked the UMD format. There have been tons of stories on the UMD being such a horrible format. What would a PSP 3000 and a 16 gb Sony memory stick cost you. Why are there no journalists that can make this connection to the big price tag. Compare this to the consoles? You better include the price of your tv with sound, because you'll need that to play a console. Lazy journalism.
With Amazon pricing a 16 GB memory stick PRO Duo upwards to about $70 the PSP 3000 would still come in cheaper than the PSP Go. Additionally, the PSP Go's 16 GB of space is registered in the system's internal memory. That means that if the system fails, you are liable to lose all of your data (ie. games) if it is not backed up.
As for the UMD format, regardless if anyone has an issue with it, it still remains a tangible medium meaning you have a physical copy of the game. Unless Sony offers a retrieval system of game purchases, you may lose $40 games because of data failure.
Factoring a TV into a price comparison is absurd. You are working under the assumption that PSP Go owners do not own a television. Under that logic one would have to assume a PSP Go owner has access to wireless internet in order to even purchase a game which is much more unlikely.
Finally, this was an opinion piece not a news story so there is no expectation of hard news journalism. In addition, there are no factual errors so you have no grounds to consider it "lazy journalism." However, thank you very much for your comment.
The price difference is $10.01 cheaper going with your Amazon comparison which is best case, My best difference came to $12.71, but we'll go with yours. That's great, but if you're shopping at retail like many people do, than it may cost more the other way. I believe that for the extra $10.01 you're including a smaller more portable design, and built-in Blue-tooth. Also, I have had UMDs break and there is no back up for that, not to mention any memory format can go south. The PSP Go can be expanded with extra memory, plus Blue-tooth devices. The point was a portable system without the UMDs. Probably more like an Ipod touch or Iphone like you said in your opinion piece. And if you compare prices in that camp, PSP Go is right in range with Apple. Did you get your TV for free, or do you play your console some other way ? Mine was $800.00, and they go up quite a bit from there,This is not absurd to bring up, I'm not assuming PSP Go owners don't have a TV, I'm assuming their TV cost them something at some point. If you're comparing portables to consoles, then the real FACT is that most of us paid for our TVs, so your price comparison is false, as well as your opinion of what I meant. You are only quoting hardware prices, not the prices of equipment you'd need to run that hardware, and Im not talking about power and such, just basics. You don't mention that you'll need a memory stick to save games or buy games on the 3000. There are factual errors when you consider what information was left out. I agree with you that this may only attract a small amount of consumers, but I think Sony may know that, and that's why they still sell the 3000. This is lazy when you don't include all of the facts. Can you please mark your opinion pieces as such, so we know when you are being a journalist, or not? That way we don't have to worry about factual information, and we can read it as just fluff.
You seem to be picking at straws.
Neglecting to mention that you would need to purchase a memory stick to save games on the PSP is implied as is the fact the many home consumers own a TV. Televisions are often used for purposes other than playing video games. What you are suggesting is similar to tacking on the price of an oven when comparing the cost of two competing cookie doughs.
The fact remains that a hand held console should never, NEVER exceed the price of a current generation home console.
One thing that I did fail to mention is that digitally downloaded games can be played on all versions of the PSP meaning from this point forward, ALL PSP units can function digitally, without UMD games. Thus making the PSP Go unnecessary. What would you need Bluetooth for on a hand held console anyway? (Don't forget the cost of a Bluetooth enabled device).
Finally, this is a blog. The essence of a blog suggests a hybrid between traditional journalism and opinion. I will not mark posts as "journalism" and "opinion" since there is no need to do so. If this was not a blog, I would not be responding to your comments. The beauty of a blog is that it is a venue for conversational speech. However, I would appreciate any other feedback you can provide.
Where was it implied that you would need a memory stick for the PSP 3000. Your photos have a PSP 3000 marked at $170 VS PSP Go at $250. The 3000's price does not include any memory, the Go does. If your two competing cookie doughs had a difference between them such as one brand including a cookie sheet made for those cookies and the other one without, I'd mention that.
You said a hand held console should never cost more than a home console, but I bet you have an iphone, or and ipod touch, the PSP Go offers the same kind of portable media. Not just gaming. Besides, what if it offers more than the cheaper home console. Your Bluetooth question was desperate, so I'll pretend you have a point, yes you're right, why would anyone want Bluetooth in their multimedia devices?
Look, my main gripe is that the price difference is not so black and white, for a comparable 3000 with a 16 gb card, the price is very close, but I know most people would get something smaller, so there are more economic choices with the 3000, we don't have to buy a 16 gb memory stick.
It's a little blurry to read stories written by journalists that don't intend their stories to be considered journalism. I have an honest question. If this was a story intended as hard news journalism, what would have been different in the story ?
If this was a hard news story, it would report solely the facts. Meaning it would outline the specifications of the PSP Go and possibly official statements from Sony representatives. In an attempt to balance that story, a journalist would also gather quotes from other sources. Those quotes could include opinion, but they would reflect the opinion of the source and not the reporter.
What I have done is closer to an industry analysis. You will not find a blog that is written as hard news and in fact even "USA Today" doesn't seem to have a "hard news" story about the PSP Go. Instead they have a review which mimics a few of the points I made in my post:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/10/review-psp-go-a-sleek-but-overpriced-handheld/1
When a reporter injects his or her personal opinion, it seizes to become news.
I do not own an iPhone nor an iPod Touch.
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