PSP Go pricing revealed, just $50 cheaper than PS3

By David Swan
Saturday, 22 August 2009 15:27

Your IT - Entertainment

$450. That's 200 Mars Bars, 2 DS Lites, or 1 current PSP with $150 in change. Local pricing has just been announced for Sony's PSP Go, but the big question is, can anyone even afford it?

Poor Sony. Just when I thought they’d got their act together with the announcement of the PS3 Slim and the new PSP Go, they had to go and blow their chances, with a recent local price announcement leaving many mouths gaping and little room for excitement. In this Global Financial Crisis not too many people would have $450 to spend on a new PSP Go, especially when priced just $50 cheaper than the new PS3 Slim, and $250 more than a DS Lite, which is streaks ahead in terms of sales, and will now likely remain so.

The PSP Go now seems likely to continue the flat lining sales of the PSP (just 1.3 million worldwide in Q1 of 2009, compared to 5.97 million DS units), with a price point that will interest only the deepest of pockets.

Comparing its competition further, the new PSP Go, which has an official RRP of $449.95 in Australia and no firm release date, is $150 more expensive than Sony's previous model, the PSP-3000, which will remain at its current price point of $300 RRP.

The PSP Go differs from the older model in that it’s 50 percent smaller and removes the UMD slot, moving to a digital download model instead. The new PSP Go also has 16GB of internal flash memory and more RAM, but reportedly less battery life.

According to Sony, the new PSP will come with a download code for Gran Turismo PSP, but this will provide little solace to kids, teenagers and, in fact, anyone on a strict budget. At this stage, those first in line for the new PSP will almost exclusively be those in fresh business suits and money to burn.

Sony, you finally have a great chance to rival Nintendo in handheld sales. Don’t blow it.