PlayStation Store gearing up for PSP Go release next week |
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| BY Jamie Feltham Sep. 27th, 2009 | More on: |
Next Thursday is October 1st. Do you know what that means? It means that Sony’s PSP Go finally hits stores with a sliding screen, no UMD drive, and a questionable price. With the fully digital platform unleashed, consumers will likely be rushing to the PlayStation Store to fill up their 16GB of memory with games, videos and themes.
Fortunately, the PS Store update on the very same day will be there to make sure people have plenty to do with their new piece of kit. SCEE’s PS Store team member, Mike Kebby says, “Next week sees a LOT of PSP content coming to the store. I’m probably going to be quite sparse with comments this week because I have so much planning to do for next week…but I hope next week you’ll all agree it’s worth it.” So be sure to hop onto the store next week where you should see a whole host of new PSP games, including the launch of the recently announced PSP minis that will satisfy your snack sized gaming fixes.
Its not just about the PSP of course, as Kebby went on to mention that more dynamic themes will be hitting the PS3, and Turtles in Time will finally see the light of day on the EU Store.
September 27th, 2009
at 5:54 pm
” . . . but I hope next week you’ll all agree it’s worth it.”
Is it? I’m really not so sure. While this is certainly a subjective judgment for individual consumers to make, in the aggregate, I don’t think the market will welcome it with strong sales.
What are the pros and cons of the Go vis-a-vis the UMD unit.
Pros
-More portable
-No need for burdensome UMDs that take up space, noisy to load, and require maintenance.
-PSP Minis are exclusive to the Go
-Bluetooth
Cons
-$80 more than the standard PSP, lower if a memory card is purchased for the original unit.
-Larger (though this could be a pro for some)
-The price point for games is full retail–and they require storage space which will have a cost to it after the first 16 gigs of memory are used
-PSP accessories cannot be used with it unless a bulky adaptor is purchased separately
-Cannot transfer UMD library to Go in NA
While I can certainly see quite a few who do not currently own a psp and a library of umds, as well as many who are wealthy, buy a Go, I’m not sure it will be as successful as Sony hopes. Furthermore, I’m a bit flabbergasted as to Sony’s decision to limit Minis to the Go. Indie developers need a large volume of sales to generate substantial income. The iPhone obviously provides this platform. Why limit Minis to the Go? Why not traditional PSPs? Will developers actually, you know, develop for the Go if it does not have substantial market generation? If so, doesn’t this doom Sony’s gambit to compete with the iPhone?