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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

Sony PSP - Pricing Hints Emerge? 99

Posted by simoniker from the pavlov's-dog dept.
Thanks to MCV for their interview with Sony Europe boss Chris Deering, in which it's mentioned again that Sony's PSP handheld "will be launched across the world in the final quarter of 2004." But Deering also talks price, suggesting that the PSP would launch at "closer to 200UKP [369USD] than 300UKP [554USD]" in England. Meanwhile, a Gamesindustry.biz article takes note of "information from Japanese retail sources earlier this week, who told us that a price point around 50,000 Yen [448USD], was being bandied about in Tokyo." Recent exchange-rate changes complicate U.S. launch pricing estimates, though - the PSP will likely launch at less than those raw dollar conversion rates Stateside, but is not intended to be a hardware loss-leader for Sony, with Deering suggesting: "The feeling is that this product should generate profit on hardware alone. We want to make it affordable for publishers to produce a wide range of entertainment and so [Sony-payable] royalties [on software produced for the PSP] will be lower down in the mix this time round."
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Sony PSP - Pricing Hints Emerge? More

Sony PSP - Pricing Hints Emerge?

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  • damn (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 09, 2004 @08:00PM (#7934753)
    At those prices, it better have a special suction mode for when I am playing in privacy.

  • What exchange rates? (Score:4, Informative)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @08:01PM (#7934757) Homepage
    Recent exchange-rate changes complicate U.S. launch pricing estimates

    No, they make things simpler. As a rule of thumb, hardware that costs $100 in the U.S. costs 100 UKP in the U.K.

    • Re:What exchange rates? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by simoniker ( 40 ) *
      True - just trying to make the point that you shouldn't necessarily think the PSP is going to cost 560 bucks in the U.S. :)
      • But it looks like it's definately going to be over $300. The dollar isn't exactly strong right now, and Sony isn't a US based company. With the current lowest cost trends, I'd be deeply surprised if it wasn't in the $400 range.

        It's all but dead in the water at that pricepoint. I just don't see it happening.

  • Handheld Pricing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Friday January 09, 2004 @08:11PM (#7934802) Homepage
    So, what will I buy (price wise)? Let's take a look:

    • $0 to $50 - I'll grab it, what's to lose?
    • $50 to $100 - I'll look a little harder, but still great
    • $100 to $150 - OK, this will take some considering
    • $150 to $200 - It better be one hell of a product
    • $200 to $250 - And it should include 2 games
    • $250 to $350 - And a Gameboy
    • $350 to $500 - And a PS 1
    • $500 to... - And a girlfirend

    I trust Sony a LOT, and I do intend to buy a PSP when they come out, but it costs anything more than $200 they're idiots. You can get a brand new GBA for $60. One of the reasons that many people get GBAs for their kids is that they are $60. Who would buy their 10 year old a $300 portable game system? I wouldn't trust one with something that expensive. If they're smart it will price at about $150, $200 if it includes a good game or two. Anything more than $200 is shooting themselves in the foot.

    Of course this is all speculation. Currency conversion, taxes (like I assume VAT is included in the European prices?), and such all factor into the numbers posted in the article. p But in closing, it's one thing to pay $300 for a console, but something like a handheld that can get scratched/lost/soaked in a puddle/stolen/run over with a car/etc. the chances of getting people to pay $300 or more is PATHETIC.

    • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:3, Interesting)

      by sladelink ( 536962 )

      You can get a brand new GBA for $60. One of the reasons that many people get GBAs for their kids is that they are $60. Who would buy their 10 year old a $300 portable game system? I wouldn't trust one with something that expensive.

      Sony is betting on selling the PSP to the market of teens-early 30 somethings, not as a toy for adults to get for their kids. That's what they think GBAs are for.

      • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Friday January 09, 2004 @08:38PM (#7934932) Homepage
        I thought about that while writing my post, but I think that the vast majority of the sales of GBAs and GBA games go to kids, so by pricing the system out of the reach of kids you are killing off a large and important market. Just because it's not your target market doesn't mean that you have to bar them from buying your product (which is what a $200 price would do).

        And even with the 30 something market, the price still worries me for the drop it/lose it/scratch it/etc reasons I gave in my post. One of the great things about the GBA (in my opinion) is that you don't have to treat it like a Fabrige (sp?) egg or diamond ring. While it's not cheap, it's not hard to replace. Most 30 something would be able to drop $60 for a new GBA if they needed, but how many have $250 or $300 to spend at the drop of a hat if something happens to their PSP?

        • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Kyouryuu ( 685884 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @09:25PM (#7935163) Homepage
          $250-$300 is definitely quite expensive for a handheld console. Nokia found that out the hard way by offering a sub-par handheld at an unusually high price. Sony is the one entering a market literally dominated by Nintendo. As the newcomer, it would be arrogant to somehow "expect" that people will flock to it no matter what the price.

          And kids are an important factor, no matter what the market strategists say. I can correlate taht - I've seen far more pre-teens and younger playing with Game Boy Advances than people my age and I have a feeling that parents would not be keen on handing a $300 device over to a little kid. Though I might be closed-minded in saying so, it also seems like aiming for the "young adult" crowd is asking for trouble. I have a hard time grasping the notion that the stereotypical games such player enjoy - like survival horror or bloody FPS combat - would translate to a tiny screen very well.

          And like you said, longevity is another questionable factor. I've had to replace my GBA once due to a non-functioning shoulder button and while I cringed at paying Nintendo $100 for a glitch in the design (thus rewarding them), it didn't kill me. But a lost $300 PSP?

          All I can say is that I hope, at that price, the PSP doesn't take off and usher in a new era of really expensive portables. The leading home consoles can be had for half that price, and I suspect that the next generation of consoles will probably have $300 as a starting point. That said, with its then-ancient PS2 technology, Sony is being quite ambitious and greedy.

          Much like Nintendo's arrogant reluctance to accept that Sony is a legitimate threat to the console market, so too is Sony's arrogance that it will single-handedly conquer the market without trouble. Playstation or not behind them, history has shown that Nintendo is a very difficult opponent in the portable market - moreso than in the home console market - and it would be a mistake for Sony to underestimate that.

          • "That said, with its then-ancient PS2 technology, Sony is being quite ambitious and greedy."

            I thought this too until I thought about the GBA SP and Gamecube - here in Canada, they both cost $139. Why? The Gamecube is more powerful, comes with a controller... but the GBA SP comes with an LCD screen and a LI-ION battery. That and miniturisation jacks up the cost. For a tiny PS2 with a LCD screen, maybe it would cost them $200 or so to market it, eh?

          • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Rallion ( 711805 )
            I'm not sure anybody's connecting the flaws in this PSP plan. Nobody's grasping the grand connectedness of all the problems.

            They're entering a market that's been dominated by Nintendo since the release of Game Boy in 1989. Really, what was the biggest competitor for the Game Boy since it came into existence? Game Gear? Maybe WonderSwan in Japan? Pffft. Game Boy sales are tens of times higher than those two combined.

            And they're making it so that it's really only accessible to people in late teens or ol
            • What the PSP has going for it, aside from its name, is ushering in a new era of portable gaming involving optical discs. This in and of itself is not a bad idea, although suddenly it involves moving parts (the GBA, by comparison, has no moving parts). The discs will obviously be able to contain an absurd amount of information, allowing the designer to do PS2-level graphics.

              The big question would be what are people willing to pay to do this? The GBA is not without some 3D titles of its own, like Driver

          • Sony is making the assumtion that the games industry has really changed, more money and wider audience. Both of these are pretty much true but the older segment doesn't buy gameboys. I've got an advance but I think only 2 of my friends do and one never plays it. But almost all of my friends have a ps2 or an xbox. Sony's thinking that the reason why no-one in the 18-34 range has a gameboy is because none of the games interest them or the gameboy/nintendo is too kiddy for them.

            But what if there was a little
          • Replace? You probably could have sent it in for repair and paid $30 or so. Even out-of-warranty repairs are reasonable from Nintendo.

        • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Babbster ( 107076 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (bbabnoraa)> on Friday January 09, 2004 @09:28PM (#7935181) Homepage
          I think you're wrong. If the PSP has a good portion of the capability hyped, and obviously if there are good games with the promise of more, there is a large segment of the gaming population who WILL buy it. The idea that people won't spend $200, $300 or more on a portable device has been disproven by the success of the iPod. Further, unless one is afflicted with a serious hand tremor (i.e., Parkinson's and the like), the risk of dropping it with serious damage is minimal unless it's really badly designed.

          For me, if the device has good games (new games at PS1-minimum technical quality) and the battery life is decent (8 hours minimum, preferably 10), I'd go for $300-350. The combination of Memory Stick compatibility and MP3 playback will be a nice bonus for those of us who haven't yet taken the portable digital music plunge.

          • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:2, Insightful)

            by MMaestro ( 585010 )
            I don't think the PSP has any sturdy foundation of first-gen games. Simply reread the Slashdot report.

            '... but [it, being the PSP,] is not intended to be a hardware loss-leader for Sony, with Deering suggesting: "The feeling is that this product should generate profit on hardware alone."'

            They want to generate profit off of the hardware? I'm sorry, but wtf are they smoking? Do they -really- think that the name brand alone will sell the PSP? Pretty much every video game system, console or handheld, has remain

            • Re:Handheld Pricing (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Babbster ( 107076 )
              What you're describing is conventional wisdom as opposed to the truth. The truth is that Nintendo has claimed that they always profit on their hardware, Sony has said that at worst they have broken even on hardware, and even Sega has only tried to dump hardware when they've been in trouble (see Saturn, see Dreamcast). Only Microsoft with the Xbox has used the true "razor blade" model, and even then they weren't planning on a profit in the current generation.

              As far as your comments about the PS1 and PS2,

          • "The idea that people won't spend $200, $300 or more on a portable device has been disproven by the success of the iPod."

            But the iPod more or less had its killer app even before the folks at Apple thought of the idea. Hardware capabilities alone will make some money in the Japanese market, but at that price it better have some damned good games if they intend to sell it to us gaijins. And they had best be launch games, seeing as how it's not backwards compatable with the older library (probably a big fa
            • "...but at that price it better have some damned good games if they intend to sell it to us gaijins."

              Someone needs to brush up on their japanese skills. Calling a foreigner a gaijin is the rough equivilent of calling an italian-american a wop, or a black person a nigger. A foreigner is acctually gaigokujin.

        • Actually, I've seen the opposite. Or a parallel Gameboy purchasing evolution.

          I've seen quite a few of the penetration testers and other folks I work with whom have to travel picking up a GBA SP for themselves - especially when they see the strategy games they can play. Advance Wars 1 and 2 have sold quite a few games all on their own from what I've seen.

          So I agree with you - a lot of them go to kids, but don't be too surprised at the "older crowd" picking up what they might see as an "adult system".

          I'v
      • Sony is betting on selling the PSP to the market of teens-early 30 somethings, not as a toy for adults to get for their kids. That's what they think GBAs are for.
        Because, of course, Nokia have shown this to be such a profitable, receptive demographic for portable gaming.
        • The problem wasn't that the market isn't there - the problem was in execution. Let's think about it - you're seeing a shift in the average age of a gamer [average age currently is 29], so obviously you've got people of a higher age who enjoy playing video games. The fact of the matter is that if there's a group of people that are older who enjoy playing video games from their couches, these people would probably enjoy playing when they've got a few minutes on the toilet.

          Do you actually believe that Nokia's

  • Sheesh, get a Pocket PC (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Dude, for those prices I'd rather have a Pocket PC and pay for some slick games [rudescotsman.com].
    • "Dude, for those prices I'd rather have a Pocket PC and pay for some slick games. "

      I wouldn't. The PocketPC is a terrible gaming platform. If I'm willing to spend that much for a gaming machine, it sure as hell isn't going to be on a PocketPC.

    • I completely agree... for me, the major factor in deciding whether or not I'm going to get a gaming system is the fun of playing the games. There are a lot of great games out there for the GBA, and if I ever get bored with the new ones, I've got a lot of old GB games hanging around that I can pop in. And what with a couplemp3 player add ons and a video player on the way, the system is plenty customizeable (not to mention the number of people who develop homebrew games, and the wide availability of emulato

  • Easy Decision (Score:2, Insightful)

    by heinousjay ( 683506 )
    I'll decide for this one like I decide for every other console. If it looks like there will good games available, then it's mine. I may not get anywhere near launch, though. These things always come down in price, and that will be a factor.

    Considering the competition, I would bet this thing will drop precipitously, because the GBA SP will probably be 75 or less when this comes out.

    Any word on what will be available? I haven't followed too closely.
  • Ill take a next-gen 40 GB video iPod, thank you!

  • Way too much money (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Friday January 09, 2004 @09:47PM (#7935277)
    This is just plain too expensive. Fancy graphics aside, who wants to pay $200+USD for a portable console? The GBA is a great platform because it's cheap, backwards compatible, has decent graphics and a TON of great games, also at reasonable prices. I have a feeling that terrific anti-aliased graphics and complex 3D renderings would be lost on a tiny screen, whereas the GBA's cartoon style is perfect for the screen size.
    • Who wants to pay $200+ for a portable console? Hard to say but that's because I don't employ a worldwide marketing division who are paid to survey consumers and find out exactly where certain price points are. Call me crazy but I think I trust Sony's ability to define a market for a portable better than some guy on Slashdot.

      Furthermore, when the iPod was announced, did you make a similar prediction? I mean, who wants to pay $400+ for a portable music player when you can get a discman for less than $100? Sur

      • Your iPod comparison doesn't do justice to the situation. You forget - the GBA is the market leader and it's incredibly cheap. Imagine the iPod selling for $70 USD, and then a HP or Dell Mp3 player debuting at $200 a year or two later. Not to mention that the GBA has fifteen years of backwards compatibility, whereas the PSP is brand new.

        As for predictions: I *did* predict that the n-gage would flop precisely because it was too ambitious and too expensive before it came on the market. I'll say it here

    • "This is just plain too expensive. Fancy graphics aside, who wants to pay $200+USD for a portable console?"

      Don't forget that the price will go down.

      • Re:Way too much money (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kris_J ( 10111 ) *
        Don't forget that the price will go down.
        Don't forget that the first week or two of sales will shape the bandwagon that is popular opinion.
      • Agreed; the dropping price point of a Gamecube has convinced me to buy one, where I wouldn't have bought one for twice the price two years ago. But I'm sure that Nintendo will bring GBA SP's successor by late 2005 (at the latest), and since the PSP is supposed to be released in Q4 2004 (optimistic), Nintendo has all the time in the world to react to the PSP.
  • ...what will the games cost?

    Anything more than 30 and Sony is shooting themself in the foot...
  • Well it's got neat specs, but it's very pricey. What games are being made for it?

    Even if this was a Nintendo product, I doubt I'd be an early adopter for it. And I'm one hell of a Nintendo zealot.
    • Details are a little hard to come by regarding games BUT this site [pspinsider.com] might be a good place to keep in mind for the future. Some possible games that I've seen mentioned there include Wipeout, a Dynasty Warriors game, a game called Joe from Humansoft, Xyanide [shooter] and PSP Racing [name subject to change I bet!] from Playlogic. That's all I've been able to gleam.

      I'd guess that just as many old SNES games filled the market for GBA, old PS1 games are going to fill the market for PSP.

      • Re:Um okay (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ziggles ( 246540 )
        The only thing that worries me more than the price of the PSP is the idea that it will just get a bunch of PS1 ports or PS1 style games. I can't think of a single good PS1 game that I think would work well in a portable/handheld environment. It'd be one thing to have 3d games like Mario 64, where everything is brightly colored and fairly obvious.. but most of the good PS1 games are dark and somewhat confusing to navigate on a regular TV, I can't imagine playing on a 3 inch screen. Handheld gaming is the
        • Yeah, I have to agree about PS1 games on a portable being too ambitious. As a matter of fact, Nintendo's next gen portable system might be equally too ambitious.

          Although I can't exactly say at what point this will occur, I do believe that there is certain level of detail and or complexity that past which it will make absolutely no sense for it to be a portable game.

          And I don't know if anyone feels the same as I do but while I love the games that the GBA has, I hate portable gaming. What?? As soon as t

        • I might pay $400 just for a portable Symphony of the Night experience, especially considering all the half-assed sequels on GBA...
        • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Dark, yes, but one of the games I would NOT mind re-purchasing to have in portable form.

          Maybe a port of Phantasy Star Online with Wifi LAN play? That'd be pretty cool.

          Depending on the screen, Metal Gear may be possible-- the GBC demonstrated without a doubt that you need a screen capable of doing the radar without making you blind.

          Of course, a disc with a Ridge Racer compilation would be kinda cool, too.. maybe a Hyper SF2 port since it has enough buttons.

          I can think

    • Re:Um okay (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Rallion ( 711805 )
      This is just my thinking. Not 'real information.'

      Sony is the company that makes consoles with more games than would fit inside the moons of Mars. Games have never been a problem for them, they're the clear winner in quantity, to such a huge margin that it doesn't even matter that (IMO) Nintendo always comes out on top in quality.

      But now they suddenly need to keep royalties low? So low that they need to make a profit off the system itself? This implies one of two things, I think:

      It's possible that they wa
  • I can see why people would go for multiple consoles in-the-home. You've got plenty of space there. I don't think many people would be willing to own two (or more) handheld consoles. If I can only carry one or want to carry only one, then I would probably go for the one with the biggest library. Also, the casual gamers buy a handheld to occupy time, not to play specific games. One is enough, and it need not be the best one.

    That's just me though. I wonder if Sony is betting on the folks that haven't bought a
    • Actually I think the market for sony is precisely those who dont own a GBA lets face it, a lot of people consider the GBA as a toy, nintendo marketting campaigns (starring mario,pokemon and a kid playing in church) and the fact that most of its library is rated "E" doesnt help. The psp wont only feature T and M rated games like Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Silent Hill and GTA it will also feature a minidvd and mp3 player (among other things) and it will be marketted as an electronic gadget of sorts. Eve

  • What the online article doesn't say... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 10, 2004 @02:09AM (#7936305)
    I am a subscriber to the full print version of MCV. The online article is a somewhat condensed version of the interview (print is 2xA3 - 3 = bigger or smaller? I get confused). Gonna copy from the article now:

    "We want to make it affordable for publishers to make a very wide range of entertainment and so maybe the royalties will be somewhere lower down in the mix - and we've got to make money somewhere, so the plan is for the PSP hardware to have its own profit stream. I think it will be pitched as a great games machine that does other stuff, but that will be pretty important and impressive other stuff. I don't believe it's a direct competitor to GBA. First of all, it's more like TV picture quality and it's not a direct price point comparison.

    There's room for both to be successful and our objective isn't to have any direct affect on GBA or anything else that comes along from them. We want to create a new market with a higher level of resolution and gameplay features that doesn't compete with handhelds or cell phones as previously defined."

    And remember, people said Sony wouldn't have a chance against the likes of Nintendo before the Playstation 1 was released...
    • The only reason Sony had a chance is because Nintendo shafted them bigtime. The original PSX is just a reworking of the design they and Nintendo put together for the SNES CD-- Nintendo shot themselves in the foot here, because their shafting of Sony and Phillips just ended up costing them access to good sound chips (Sony produced the SNES sound chip) and optical drives.

      This karmic retribution has hurt Nintendo for over ten years now..
  • The reason why you get the gba sp at $100 is because you are getting a portable SNES, the N-Gage (besides a Joke) is a portable PS1, the PSP is a portable PS2 all the games you can play at a PS2 will be possible in the PSP. Think about it for a while (drool as needed) then comprhend the fact the PSP is a portable PS2 Now, pop quiz: what is more expensive a desktop or a laptop? (with the same components) that's right! a laptop! the PSP is going to be more expensive (or as expensive) as a PS2. Just like a po

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