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Sony PSP Go is "a ripoff," says Pachter

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DVDBack23 @ Jun 11, 2009 17:16 | 47 comments

Last week during the E3 Expo, Sony officially launched the PSP Go handheld, which removes the UMD drive, adds a slider design and and is slimmer than previous models.

Today, expert gaming analyst Michael Pachter has called the system a "ripoff," claiming that Sony is severely overcharging for the handheld in North America. The console retails for $250 USD.

Pachter adds that the current "slim" PSP-3000 is more expensive to build but sells for significantly less.

"I'm sorry to say it, I don't want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys, but Sony is ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple of million," says Pachter.

"Disc assembly for UMD costs more than 16GB of Flash does," he notes. "So this new device doesn't cost them as much to make as the PSP-3000 and they've jacked the price up USD 80. And if consumers don't buy it then the price is going to come down. They're making a lot more money on the PSP Go than the PSP-3000."

Pachter also added that he expects digital delivery methods to become much more mainstream now that console makers are behind the move.

"PSP Go is a game changer for digital delivery and yet they're still going to support the PSP-3000, they've got to keep the retailers happy.

"This year's show is 'packaged goods are going away'. Half of all gaming purchases ten years from now are going to be digital. You can see it coming for the first time ever, the console manufacturers are behind it," he concluded.

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Comment by: Shinraboy (Jun 12, 2009 15:12)

In terms of the argument that you could aget a home system for a little bit more. That doesn't really apply to many people. I can most certainly afford a 360. But I just don't want one. Already have the Wii and PS3. But hey oh well.

Comment by: Gnawnivek (Jun 12, 2009 15:38)

I haven't post for a while... here goes...

It's pricey? Hell yes. Is it for everyone? Hell no.

Argument: No portable gaming device should cost more than home console.
My comment: Agree, but i can't bring the home console with me on the go. That goes saying, no laptops should cost more than desktops...

As for the odd looking nob position, it's actually not that bad. The PSP Go is much smaller and lighter, so i don't see a problem with my left thumb extending over the d-pad and nub the nob. Sexy!

Between now, there's a trade-in offer from Amazon, $75 for $75 worth of used games. That's $150 credit there, so you can pre-order one for $100. That's what i'll do :)

Comment by: Shinraboy (Jun 12, 2009 18:26)

Quote:
It's pricey? Hell yes. Is it for everyone? Hell no.

Here Here ^_^

Besides. I've always thought that the PSP was surprisingly cheap considering what it could do. Music. Videos. Pictures. Internet. Skype. My personal favorite being Remote Play. The fact that you can watch movies you have at home anywhere? That's really nifty.

That and all that will be added with firmware updates makes it gain value periodically. Sure. The games aren't all that but that's what home brew is for. I think the only things missing is youtube capability. That would be cool. Or even Hulu?

Comment by: DXR88 (Jun 12, 2009 19:11)

if the Digital Distribution is to take off, they need a solid line up of PSP titles which they have only a hand full. almost all game out this year and last year of been remakes of other games.

granted 10 year old johnny might not have played Star Ocean for S-Famicom.

but im tired of remakes ive played ToP 4 times once for the S-fami once for ps1 once For GBA and another for psp give me a break will ya. sure im the fool for playing it but it was one of my favorite games.

Comment by: canuckerz (Jun 12, 2009 20:20)

Quote:
Originally posted by canuckerz:
I can't say I'm really surprised. And beyond the features the damn thing looks like an ergonomic nightmare, and I thought the controls were bad before. Instead of fixing the controls they did the impossible and made them even worse.
That's your opinion.

My opinion? Sure. But you can't honestly look at the damn thing and tell me it wont be just as bad if not worse than the last one. Unless your hands went though a meat grinder and were surgically reconstructed to be comfortable while using the damn thing.

Comment by: Shinraboy (Jun 12, 2009 20:59)

Quote:
Unless your hands went though a meat grinder and were surgically reconstructed to be comfortable while using the damn thing.

lol but who knows

Comment by: spin54 (Jun 13, 2009 00:13)

Quote:
]My opinion? Sure. But you can't honestly look at the damn thing and tell me it wont be just as bad if not worse than the last one. Unless your hands went though a meat grinder and were surgically reconstructed to be comfortable while using the damn thing.

Yeah! You tell us about "the damn thing"!!!

Comment by: gmontalc (Jun 13, 2009 07:33)

Sony PSP Go is "a ripoff," says Patcher
Agree totally, what a RipOFff.....

Comment by: Oner (Jun 13, 2009 13:10)

Quote:
“Pachter also supplied us with this exclusive apology:

As long as you're giving me a forum, may I please beg your indulgence for a statement? I sincerely regret the choice of words in my response to Geoff Keighley’s question in last week’s Bonus Round, where I said that Sony is ‘ripping off’ the consumer by pricing the PSP Go at $249.99. I made a poor choice of words, and I do NOT think that Sony is doing anything nefarious in choosing their pricing strategy. The company has the right to price its products at a point that they think is competitive, and has no obligation to sell products at lower than a competitive price."

Source

Search > http://forums.afterdawn.com/search
Rules > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487
Important Rule > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/380660

Comment by: DXR88 (Jun 13, 2009 18:21)

Quote:
Quote:
“Pachter also supplied us with this exclusive apology:

As long as you're giving me a forum, may I please beg your indulgence for a statement? I sincerely regret the choice of words in my response to Geoff Keighley’s question in last week’s Bonus Round, where I said that Sony is ‘ripping off’ the consumer by pricing the PSP Go at $249.99. I made a poor choice of words, and I do NOT think that Sony is doing anything nefarious in choosing their pricing strategy. The company has the right to price its products at a point that they think is competitive, and has no obligation to sell products at lower than a competitive price."
Source

Pussy, cant even back your own words, i think it is to costly. a mean blue tooth honestly only a hand full of uses for this. no UMD and the specs are the same as the PSP thousand variants besides the added Flash RAM. what changed is they found yet another way to screw the already PSP established fan base.

Comment by: Oner (Jun 13, 2009 23:12)

I agree and disagree to a small extent DXR88. I am with you about the price being a bit much, but on the flip side it is "newer" technology (within it...supposedly) that we have yet to see/know to properly get an idea if it really is more costly for manufacturing etc.

If Sony had said they would launch the PSP Go! at even just $225 I could see the price increase being borderline justifiable, but $250 is pushing it and I don't see it selling very well at launch and expect a pretty quick price drop.

Search > http://forums.afterdawn.com/search
Rules > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487
Important Rule > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/380660

Comment by: shaffaaf (Jun 14, 2009 04:38)

for the USA its all good.

try £250 in the UK, and the PS3 is £280.00

Comment by: DXR88 (Jun 14, 2009 06:19)

Originally posted by shaffaaf:
for the USA its all good.

try £250 in the UK, and the PS3 is £280.00

I beg to differ even at $200 its pricey America is hurting at the top and were feeling at the bottom. we just lost Chrysler to the frenchy's
and GM got rid of the Dinosaur and replaced it with a monolithic moron.

What more proof do we need.

Comment by: Serialluv (Jun 14, 2009 22:46)

Quote:
Originally posted by shaffaaf:
for the USA its all good.

try £250 in the UK, and the PS3 is £280.00
I beg to differ even at $200 its pricey America is hurting at the top and were feeling at the bottom. we just lost Chrysler to the frenchy's
and GM got rid of the Dinosaur and replaced it with a monolithic moron.

What more proof do we need.

We will get charged more in the UK £250 is about right what's that about $450USD? ridiculous. I like the design concept but think if they were going to do the slider they should have made the screen bigger simple as. And as for bluetooth it's something that should have been in place on the PSP1000. I'm a great fan of my PSP2000 but only with my M33 firmware (although I do keep buying UMD videos - one of a few people only I know)

Comment by: Morreale (Jun 24, 2009 05:06)

Originally posted by waqyum:
I am happy with my DS Lite.I will consider buying PSP when it will include touchscreen and Voice recognition like DS.

So you'll buy a PSP when it becomes a DS?

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Jun 24, 2009 05:09)

Quote:
Originally posted by waqyum:
I am happy with my DS Lite.I will consider buying PSP when it will include touchscreen and Voice recognition like DS.
So you'll buy a PSP when it becomes a DS?

Or Itouch :P

Comment by: laf0106 (Jun 24, 2009 05:21)

well i think that psp go will be a hit because of the downloadable games thats the thing now look at the itouch n iphone

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Jun 24, 2009 05:33)

Originally posted by laf0106:
well i think that psp go will be a hit because of the downloadable games thats the thing now look at the itouch n iphone

Meh it will sale on brand power alone.

Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".

Comment by: NXTwiz (Jun 24, 2009 10:06)

hello??? dont u realize what sony is doing??

say goodbye to gamestop, used, cheap and RETURNABLE games,

and hello to sony's high priced, single buy games.

thats y im sticking to my 2k. cause gamestop RULEZ!

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Jun 24, 2009 17:36)

Originally posted by NXTwiz:
hello??? dont u realize what sony is doing??

say goodbye to gamestop, used, cheap and RETURNABLE games,

and hello to sony's high priced, single buy games.

thats y im sticking to my 2k. cause gamestop RULEZ!

Not really games will be 5-20$ cheaper at release, prices will level off to 5-10$ over time. They will stay higher longer tho.

Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".

Comment by: DXR88 (Jun 25, 2009 07:11)

Quote:
Originally posted by NXTwiz:
hello??? dont u realize what sony is doing??

say goodbye to gamestop, used, cheap and RETURNABLE games,

and hello to sony's high priced, single buy games.

thats y im sticking to my 2k. cause gamestop RULEZ!
Not really games will be 5-20$ cheaper at release, prices will level off to 5-10$ over time. They will stay higher longer tho.

Zippy this is Sony Where talking about, the no price drop for 20 years kings.

download able contents is a big issue,

i can see the spear head headline now "download able content reduces landfills."

using a proven system to translate the above head line into something more realistic like "Media company's now control What games, music and movies you have access to."

or " Media mafia says' bend over Jimmy, This ain't going ta feel good"

but the fools far out weigh those that can see it for what it is

first they take away your right to bare arms(that way when the shit hits the fan the only people that are armed is the Govt.)

then they proceed with more privacy invasive matters like Bio Submission, chipping your Newborn.

then they attempt control. what you wear, what you can and cannot buy.(just like Russia,yay!)

its a chain of events set since the 60's,

there destroying the second amendment one piece at a time.

there getting Bio and Chip happy with felons(peoples that have broken the law and not gotten away with it, could be a kid for all they care)

Now there regulating using digital distribution as an excuse.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Jun 25, 2009 11:06)

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by NXTwiz:
hello??? dont u realize what sony is doing??

say goodbye to gamestop, used, cheap and RETURNABLE games,

and hello to sony's high priced, single buy games.

thats y im sticking to my 2k. cause gamestop RULEZ!
Not really games will be 5-20$ cheaper at release, prices will level off to 5-10$ over time. They will stay higher longer tho.
Zippy this is Sony Where talking about, the no price drop for 20 years kings.

download able contents is a big issue,

i can see the spear head headline now "download able content reduces landfills."

using a proven system to translate the above head line into something more realistic like "Media company's now control What games, music and movies you have access to."

or " Media mafia says' bend over Jimmy, This ain't going ta feel good"

but the fools far out weigh those that can see it for what it is

first they take away your right to bare arms(that way when the shit hits the fan the only people that are armed is the Govt.)

then they proceed with more privacy invasive matters like Bio Submission, chipping your Newborn.

then they attempt control. what you wear, what you can and cannot buy.(just like Russia,yay!)

its a chain of events set since the 60's,

there destroying the second amendment one piece at a time.

there getting Bio and Chip happy with felons(peoples that have broken the law and not gotten away with it, could be a kid for all they care)

Now there regulating using digital distribution as an excuse.

Over state much?

Meh steam and D2D have an almost standardized price lowering setup, EA is being sued for the 20-30$ hike in madden titles since 2K could no longer make NFL games.

That and digi distro makes it easier to run copies on a system so if they want to play the price gouging game not many people will be buying thier stuff, plus they have competition in the DS another reason they can't really raise and keep prices high, what they can do is launch a game for 10-20 less than normal price and after a year or 2 stick it down to 9.99.

All in all sony is trying to take a chunk out of the production cost for portable games by testing to see if people will buy the digi copy over the boxed version, its going to take another 5 to 10 years to see it industry wide and in that time frame the digi distro industry will have refined and polished its practices more.

As long as the MP3/Data/Thought police are not in full swing the world wont end.

Comment by: iLuvGirlz (Aug 04, 2009 04:03)

Well BlueTooth is going to bring faster multiplayer than wifi.[Bluetooth is faster,when it comes to local wifi/not your internet] It will let you share songs,photos and games, by file transfer thats the power of bluetooth(its like Sony wants to make a psp community). You can also use wireless* headphones.[No wires]Or use it to connect to your bluetooth phone[Use the psp as your phone when your playing games etc so you do not have to pick up 2 devices. Or stream files off your bluetooth computer with no wires.

The flash memeory will make the XMB/Loading times MUCH more faster. So think about the game loading times/ Flash Memory vs The Sony memory stick in speed the flash wins unless you get sony's new M2 memeory for it.[But the flash is already included]

So you get 199$ Sony PSP without UMD drive with a 16GB FLASH* memory built it.[Not normal memory] So the 50$ for the 16GB sounds reasonable w/ bluetooth. And dont forget the microphone! And If you talk about the great psp bundles that save you more $ we got a deal!

Plus it Sony is like giving hackers more time to break this thing. SO Games are free[IF you own them, you can download them]....{so i think the PSP Go is great if Dark Alex or who ever can hack it. And the price is reasonable not over the top.

So in conclusion if everyone for example in your school/workplace has a psp go. You guys can voice chat with each other at lunch etc in different places. Share files for projects and upload them on the computer with bluetooth/wires. Or even share songs or photos/videos you took with your psp camera.[Google it]. Save your videos/games with the 16Gb built in memory not including the memory stick that you can buy! 16+32=48GB. Or if you are in the bus playing a game to school and your parents call your bluetooth will pick it up and warn you so you can speak with the mic instead of taking your cell phone out.

There are just lots of things this thing can do that the psp 3000 can't with the given Bluetooth/memory. The slim design and all these features completely outdate the Nintendo dsi by far.

But you got ONE Con less battery life. Thats all I have to say.

Comment by: ZippyDSM (Aug 04, 2009 04:43)

Originally posted by iLuvGirlz:
Well BlueTooth is going to bring faster multiplayer than wifi.[Bluetooth is faster,when it comes to local wifi/not your internet] It will let you share songs,photos and games, by file transfer thats the power of bluetooth(its like Sony wants to make a psp community). You can also use wireless* headphones.[No wires]Or use it to connect to your bluetooth phone[Use the psp as your phone when your playing games etc so you do not have to pick up 2 devices. Or stream files off your bluetooth computer with no wires.

The flash memeory will make the XMB/Loading times MUCH more faster. So think about the game loading times/ Flash Memory vs The Sony memory stick in speed the flash wins unless you get sony's new M2 memeory for it.[But the flash is already included]

So you get 199$ Sony PSP without UMD drive with a 16GB FLASH* memory built it.[Not normal memory] So the 50$ for the 16GB sounds reasonable w/ bluetooth. And dont forget the microphone! And If you talk about the great psp bundles that save you more $ we got a deal!

Plus it Sony is like giving hackers more time to break this thing. SO Games are free[IF you own them, you can download them]....{so i think the PSP Go is great if Dark Alex or who ever can hack it. And the price is reasonable not over the top.

So in conclusion if everyone for example in your school/workplace has a psp go. You guys can voice chat with each other at lunch etc in different places. Share files for projects and upload them on the computer with bluetooth/wires. Or even share songs or photos/videos you took with your psp camera.[Google it]. Save your videos/games with the 16Gb built in memory not including the memory stick that you can buy! 16+32=48GB. Or if you are in the bus playing a game to school and your parents call your bluetooth will pick it up and warn you so you can speak with the mic instead of taking your cell phone out.

There are just lots of things this thing can do that the psp 3000 can't with the given Bluetooth/memory. The slim design and all these features completely outdate the Nintendo dsi by far.

But you got ONE Con less battery life. Thats all I have to say.

You do realize you'll have to shell out 200$ or more to get all your games back so you can put the "less battery time" comment to use?

Its only good for people who do not have any PSP games or a PSP anyway.

Comment by: Gnawnivek (Aug 04, 2009 13:04)

Quote:
You do realize you'll have to shell out 200$ or more to get all your games back so you can put the "less battery time" comment to use?

Its only good for people who do not have any PSP games or a PSP anyway.

That's the whole point of the PSP Go... It's mainly targeted at the gamers don't have a PSP, don't have any UMDs ir perhaps sick of UMDs (less portability).

For the billionth time, if you're happy with the PSP 1000-3000, there's no need to get a PSP Go.