Retailers be damned! If they're making a profit off the hardware only, it's still profit, right? Maybe I missed something. I can't imagine that the PSP go will completely and utterly destroy a retailers profit margin because of it's digital downloadable-goodness. If this thing does blow up like gangbusters and people are killing each other to get one, if I was a retailer, I would WANT people to know that they can get a Go at MY store. More sales for me. Then again, I know nothing about big business?

PSP slim and lite + 16gig Memory Card = PSPgo for cheaper but with a UMD drive for cheap, easily accessible games.

UMD Drive > Bluetooth.

"...everyone sells iPods and not the music for them; this position is just ridiculous," he declared.'

This is true.

I like to have my video game case and a pretty manual, you get more satisfaction for your money.

I, personally, don't see what the hell the big deal is. "Oh teh noes, we can't milk our customer's purchase of this digital-only title in the future!" Jesus. You're still getting a sale, and if you're a decently sized retailer, there's also the warranties and accessories that you could sell on top of that system purchase. If you're gonna get all uppity because, God fucking forbid, you can't get the customers to come back and buy extra games for this one single system, then screw off, you're a greedy bastard and you don't deserve your customers.

That, and, ya know, everything zombielifecoach just said.

The ironic thing is all this is gonna do is help the retailers who do sell and promote the go if it becomes popular, there just hurting themselves in the long run, and making their competition look better.

Is Sony cutting out the middle men so they can sell games cheaper? Probably not but if that were the case then more power to them.

I can kind of understand this. profit from hardware is minimal. when i was working at best buy, the only thing we didn't get a discount on was gaming systems because the profit margin is so low. most profit comes from game and accessory sales.

unfortunately, i'm sure the thing will be successful and is the wave of the future for portable gaming...i personally am not interested in paying $40 for something i download. little games for like $5 i don't mind so much.

So many people feel that the retailers should shut up about this but I don't think these folks are getting the prime thing about games. Systems don't make much money on sales, anyone that works in retail knows this, it's addons addons addons. A retailer sells a system under the assumption that they develop a relationship with the buyer so that they will come back for more games.

The way to fix this is sell cards that have a code for each game to retailers so that they can still sell the game essentially (including sales like holidays) but it is downloadable. This is better for the consumer as well.

I'd be interested to hear what retailers start to strum up the words "MONOPOLY". Bet you it comes up.

While its hard to judge Pachter's comment without context, it seems like an inappropriate comparison. The business of selling refridgerators is a very different than the business of video games. If a store sells something like a refridgerator, they're going to sell it at a price that nets a profit because they aren't expecting any subsequent sales. However, retailers have been selling game consoles at little-to-no profit because they expect future sales of software. This is doubly so for chains like Gamestop that make a huge amount of money off of used software.

I can definitely understand why these retailers are not happy about the PSPgo. Sony has not only declared war on them, but has handed them a gun and asked them to shoot themselves.

Black Nexus: I agree with this. The people who were going to buy the PSP GO in the first place will just shop somewhere else.

That's a horrible analogy at the end...we have OPTIONS if we want to buy food. And wtf is he talking about, you can too buy music for your iPod where iPods are sold, it comes on an innovative piece of technology called a compact disc. I hear that someday, they'll have cards you can buy that you can redeem for music, too.

Also, I think Sony needs to accept that digital distribution is NOT the way of the future. At least, I don't...think it will be...I hope it won't be.

Pachter's wrong. Retailers make plenty of money on iPod music sales. CD was and still is a viable format. Even then, a person with a music file or CD or record or whatever has a lot of options on where to shop. Amazon, Wal Mart, retail stores, record shops.

Loads of places to buy music.

By and large, the only place to buy games up until this recent generation has been in retail stores and specialty shops. Amazon is in this lot as well. Even Amazon's made a deal to keep their game going for digital distribution by providing an Xbox Live Marketplace store.

Sony really is doing something bold by going digital only with the PSPGo. Apple, Blackberry, and the like have a decent and sizeable market with digital downloaded applications and games, but I think Sony lacks the infrastructure that the competition created from the ground up to make this kind of thing happen. Not to mention that since the PSP has no native always-on online capability (wifi is your only option), it limits the ability of a consumer to go buy new applications on the go, which is mighty appealing when you're stuck in an airport on your iPhone.

Sony's going to test the waters with this platform and I tip my hat to them. I hope they don't succeed, not for an appeal to retailers and specialty shops, but for the fact that I like to own physical copies of my games.

Being able to sell download vouchers would probably appease retailers. Already there are some games that are just cases + codes (Patapon 2 comes to mind) and retailers can still make money on that, right?

But for fun, I'll say this: What's the problem? I thought retailers were used to people buying PSPs and no games for it. :|

That header image makes me hungry for Froot Loops, aka a bowl of diabetes. I can't quite grasp why though...something subliminal perhaps?


Also, live the dream!

You know, it really really really has to be said.

The ONLY time anyone was positive about PSP was when it launched. Since then it's been four and a half years of how the system is gonna fail. 4 1/2 years and 50+ million consoles later, I'm still not seeing the fail.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm blind... but let's look at this and how Sony has been fucking over their digital distro to accomidate retailers. Same price as the UMD = people will still go to the stores to buy the UMDs these stores haven't stocked for 2+ years while bitching how their PSP sections are doing poorly when it's stocked primarily with copies of Anaconda and Daddy dare Care. Fuck you, retailers. This is something for YOU, not us.

PSP Go is $249.99 with a cost of $214 (when I checked a couple months ago). This is MUCH higher than the $6 profit margin on most consoles. Once again, this is for YOU, the retailer... not the consumer. Profit margins on accessories has also been dramatically increased for PSP Go official accessories, giving you a margin of over 50%. Once again, for retailers, not consumers.

You pay $17 for the $20 PSN card, $3 profit. Higher than most gift card margins including iTunes. Retailers, not consumers.

Basically PSP Go is set up so that those of us who LIKE PSP and like the good games don't have to hunt around town for the one store who stocks it only to give up and buy it off Amazon anyway. Retail support for PSP has been on a steady decline and so these steps mentioned above, the ones that DO fuck over consumers, is made for you guys. You know what? If your PSP case didn't have one row of games (GH from two years ago) and the rest being movies, I could see the complaint. Now? Well hell, just be glad you're getting a cut of a pie you fucked over years ago.

The problem with Pratcher's analogy is that you can still buy a CD in the store and rip it to your ipod. You can't rip your UMDs to your PSPgo. Unlike others, I don't have a problem with download games still selling for the same price, my problem is that the price will never drop no matter how old the game may be. The "Greatest Hits" model goes out the window as well I imagine.

"everyone sells iPods and not the music for them"

Wrong?

Kalakaua: No thats exactly why they did it. A few years ago retailers make a big fuss when Sony sold WarHawk cheaper over PSN. Eventually Sony kind of caved in by throwing a mic in with thew retail version of the game. I can't imagine what Sony would have to do to appease retailers if they did it with every game...

The consumer should be able to decide whether they want to purchase on item on disc or via a download-system. Preferably, we would have the option of purchasing both for the price of one (I know this'll never happen).

Case in point, Microsoft comes out with way overpriced Games on Demand downloads, but the consumer still has the choice to pay for the regular disc version at far less cost.

I don't good will necessarily come from Sony monopolizing the cost of games on the PSP through their download service. This gives us less options when purchasing a game and takes competition out of the market. Therefore, there is less pressure to bring the cost of games down over time than in the competitive retail marketplace.

On the other hand, there will never be a scarcity in rarely bought games. This will work out well for people like me who enjoy non-mainstream RPGs that aren't always in stock.

Nevertheless, I think it's a bad move overall to go from a format with more competition to one with less. Then again, it's a good move as far as corporate profit and greed are concerned...

Maybe this will put a damper on the download only future that so many have talked about, even if it's just a short delay. Not even out yet and the Go is already in trouble. How long before other major retailers like Wal-Mart decide to follow suit? However, the people looking to own a PSP Go won't be stopped from getting it just because it won't be easy to find in stores.

@RBinator -

Ideally, the download-only future will be made a myth. Personally, I think the PSP Go will simply flop hard, with or without the help of retailers. I especially think PSP Go software will flop hard, as smart gamers will not buy a copy of a game that can never be owned or resold unless they are absolutely sure it's worth the price. They also won't be able to rent games to test them in advance before making a decision. That is going to kill sales on the system.

@Hcapt, I think a number of online retailers are looking at the idea of digital rentals. The only thing holding it back is concerns about piracy (and, let's face it, downloadable games are even easier to pirate).

If Sony sees the rental thing as an issue vis-a-vis their bottom line, look out for digital rentals by early next year.

The worries of retailers aren't unfounded. In a capitalist society, Game Stop found an uncatered gap in the market for used games, and exploited it. Nothing wrong with that all at, even if some in the industry forget how capitalism works.

Publishers wanted a sniff of second hand money, but did not want to store or deal with the second hand product itself. Could this be called fair on retailers had they complied with the greedy pubs? Not really no, unless the pubs wanted to help store and refurbish the items etc. Since they haven't, the retailers should get what they currently get.

I too feel PSP Go will fail, simply because not everyone has broadband at home. Like someone said, if PSP could work like an iPhone and be open to the net all the time, gettng games could be easier. Sony could even try the Kindle approach. Kindle uses cell phone tech to send out updates and books to customers. Why not use something like Skype, Sony, which is free, in a similar way? PSP has used Skype before.

While I agree PSP games have been lacking, its also up to Sony to advertise them well enough, another area they fail in. There are some sweet games on the way to PSP, but will we see Dissidia, Dante's Inferno and Valkyria 2 in tv ads? All that's required here is a montage video of a few games, slap on the PSP/Sony logo at the end, job done. Get it on tv, and in front of people.

I have a theory that Sony have deliberately overpriced PSP Go, in response to PS3s price cuts. This way, they aren't losing anything. They can make £/$100 on each PSP to make up for the £/$100-150 PS3 price cut loses + more money for them. I think what reinforces this thinking in me, is that PSP Go also has no moving parts like its brethren, and thus should be far cheaper by using flash memory. The DS also uses flash memory, and while a paltry amount, still hits the magic £120 mark. Moving parts always cost more, and while the 16gb card inside may seem justified in PSP, I reckon its worth about £20-30 for that, not bloody £100.

Down with a DLC only future, and up with co-existence, this is working for film and music already (Netflix, DVD or BD, itunes or CDs, you choose). I like having a collection of cool games to choose from, thanks. This is the best and only way to take the games industry, in my opinion.

@ xaligen

Personally, I think an online rental shop would destroy sales completely. People buy and then sell games because they can be completed in about a week. In some ways gamestop is a $30 ($15 vdollars for PSP games) rental service, where you can pre-order a game, rent it for a week, and then return it (for when Blockbuster is all rented out of the game you want, like it is during the first week of release). Digital Distribution means games cost $60 (in this case, $30 for PSP games), and can't be returned for a rebate. Digital rental means that there is an unlimited supply of copies for any game the day of release, which can be played for a week and then not purchased. Instead of getting the sale from every gamer who ever buys and then sells a game used, you don't get a sale from that gamer - he just rents instead.

I've been wondering why Sony doesn't go the touch-screen root though; the DS monopoly on exclusives would be destroyed if the Sony platform could port games from the DS, Maybe it seemed too much like a "me too" decision from a PR standpoint.