Analyst Michael Pachter has put Sony in the corner and given it a firm spanking following the announcement of the PSPgo at E3. Criticizing the company’s decision to charge so much money for its new handheld, Pachter has deemed the PSPgo a “rip off,” stating that Sony is asking too much money.
“$249 is too much. Period,” claims the analyst. “The [current] $169 PSP-3000 is a profitable device — the disc assembly, for a UMD, costs more than 16 gigs of flash does. So this new device doesn’t cost them as much to make as the PSP-3000 and they jack the price up $80.
“I’m sorry to say it. I don’t want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys, but… They’re ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple million and if consumers don’t buy it then the price is going to come down. They’re making a lot more money on the PSPgo than the PSP-3000. And the PSPgo helps them because there’s no piracy.”
It all comes down to what Sony thinks it can get away with, and I fear that those aforementioned Sony fanboys will be more than happy to justify the price hike by shelling out money for the fourth iteration of the water-treading handheld. As much as I love the PSP and would like to get a PSPgo, this is one of those rare occasions where I’m 100% with Pachter — $249 is downright cheeky.
