PSP Pricing, Competitiveness Analyzed

Posted by simoniker on Thursday June 12, 2003 @06:31PM from the priced-out-of-the-market? dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Yahoo/Reuters Japan report discussing the upcoming conflict between Nintendo's GameBoy Advance and Sony's PSP handheld consoles. Some of the most interesting speculation comes on pricing, where the article says: "Sony has not set a price for the PSP, a multi-media unit that also plays movies and music, but analysts expect it to sell for 19,000-30,000 yen ($161-$255), well above the 12,500 yen price tag for GameBoy Advance SP." Overall, the piece portrays Nintendo as "no pushover" when it comes to ceding GBA dominance, suggesting the PSP is not a direct competitor, and moreover, that Japanese analysts "..argue that Sony's incentive to go after market share is not as high this time because mobile games provide smaller margins, and less profit, than console games."

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Price has to come down by AvantLegion · 2003-06-12 20:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sony will find that too few people are willing to spend that kind of money for a portable system.
I've whipped out $99 for my Game Boy Advance SP, yes. But that's about as high as I'll go for something that I only really play when I'm in line at the post office, or stuck on campus between classes, etc.
When I'm at home, I'm playing a regular console on my TV with my surround sound system. I won't sit and play a portable system.
Sony has been riding high from the PSX and PS2, but this is the point where it SEEMS like they can do no wrong, and badly overestimate what's coming. At that price point, the PSP will badly undersell. Hopefully, Sony will adjust on the fly. They'll still do a hell of a lot better than that N-Gage nonsense.