Sony to maintain 'pricing parity' for downloadable PSP games

psp go just a rly bad idea from the beginning.....

Gamestop has gone on-record saying they will not carry anything that's given a lower price, head start availability or other incentive to buy direct-download (it's okay to give a preorder incentive that's equal to what Gamestop can offer, but not greater). As long as this is the case, I do not see any major console manufacturers wanting to incur their wrath, which is unfortunate because a huge retail-vs-dd war would be hilarious.

Disappointing, but expected. If the downloadable games were cheaper than retail, stores would freak out about PSP Go even more than they already are.

Why do people insist on bashing the Go, I have pre-ordered it, I think its a fair price, and it is exactly what I want. If you dont want it, dont buy it. SONY is giving us the option to buy the device that suits what you need.

I dont recall people bashing the ipod touch for being download only!!

Digital Download is the future.

Sony needs to decide whether they want to go completely digital or to keep retailers happy. They can't have it both ways. Not many people are going to pay more for the digital version for a game when they can get a physical copy for cheaper, especially with all this inane anti-digital hysteria going on. (If you download a game to a memory stick, you now have a physical copy of the game. Furthermore, you can back that game up on to other hard drives in case the original memory stick gets lost, something you can't do when you buy a UMD.)

I bought a PSP 3000 because I thought Sony was going to be serious about moving to a DD-only model but the number one advantage of a DD-only model is supposed to be lower prices. New PSP games on the PSN at $40 is the reason why my PSP is only used to play PS1 games.

Thank you!
Finally someone important getting to the bottom of this. I complain on the blog a lot about the pricing issues, both with retail (like getting Patapon at 40€ when it was 20$ on USA) as well as PSN vs retail (getting Monster Hunter Freedom Unite at 40€ when it's 18£ on amazon.co.uk).

Now, how can they expect me to buy games with those prices?
Really bad idea from someone who wants to "fight the piracy". I make an effort to buy every game I like, but I guess I'll have to play fewer PSP games now. I buy NEW PS3 games cheaper (amazon, shopto, you know what I'm talking about) than what they want me to pay for PSP PSN releases.

Long live English internet retailers, the only way to get games on Portugal :)

Sony not allowing an upgrade path for existing PSP owners + High PSP GO Price = PSP GO is going to be a flop.

As a side-note, I always thought it kind of clever (read: bastardly) on Sony's part that eliminating the UMD meant games still neeed to be stored somewhere. And where is that? Why, its a Sony Memory Stick. I don't recall if the Go has a slot for a MS, but those of us on older PSPs who want games like, say, Patapon 2, not only have to lay out for the cost of the game, but we need to buy the Sony proprietary medium to store it on. Granted you can buy a third-party MS if you want, but I'm sure they'll do what they can to discourage this.

$40 PSP downloaded game + $15-$40 memory stick = screw the customers (and profit!)

AFAIK memory stick to micro-sd adapter do NOT work doe digital downloads (stuff bought at PSN) due to not being magicgate compatible.

DRM :)

Pathetic. Sony has dropped the ball continuously since releasing the PSP and PS3. It took three years to get the PS3 down to a respectable price and now they release a portable only $50 less. This is what led to the demise of Sega, Atari, and many others. Sony has other electronics to fall back on, but with the economy right now I don't think the PSP Go was wise. I'll take a DS or i-phone.

I can't believe anyone in the universe would buy this over a real PSP.

The PSP is already a low-tier system, but to eliminate the only decent reasons to have one (use of custom firmware + getting cheap used games)???? WHO NEEDS THIS ITEM. I've disliked the company since their first anti-2-D campaign, but this product deserves to fail even more than UMD itself did.

how is this surprising seriously ....... your surprised by any of this ?

The PSPGo will have
Less Noise because there is no UMD drive ...... Success
Games will be cheaper because there is no packaging and little distro cost.... Fail
The battery will last longer because there is now UMD drive ..... Fail
Kill second hand market .... Success
Stop Pirates ...... was never part of the equation but it made for a good soapbox

I said it atleast a year ago don't expect to see any savings on games because they are cutting costs, in fact expect to see less savings because they have no need to clear a warehouse of UMD games that no one is buying because the market hit saturation or the game is three or more years old.... save the occasional we want to drag you onto our new medium sale.

Enjoy the age of sony being like disney ..... and you can look forward to seeing games get dragged out of the Sony game vault for a limited time then taken down in a month only to replete the process about once every one to three years. When you could have just walked into your local target or gamestop and picked it up at your leisure. But its awesome !!!!!

If I were Sony I would've taken the time and resources taken to design the psp go and work on a psp2.

Honestly it's a waste.

I mean it was a novel idea but it's just not the time to be doing it, the retailers aren't ready to do away with physical media and the consumers aren't ready either.

I desperately love the PSP system but Sony is setting up the PSP-go to be a fail festival of epic proportions with all their policy goofiness, pricing, etc.

I realize that my situation isn't typical, so I appreciate the generally negetive view on the pricing of games on the PSN. But I'm happy to see the arrival of a situation where new games are available as downloads on the PSN as well as in stores. I just got the Rock Band PSP bundle for my daughter for her birthday. One of the reasons I was excited to get that for her was that I knew I could load it up with all the games I've already bought for my 2000 off the Playstation store. Even if new games are available on the PSN from now on for $40, I can then load them on both of our systems, so I'm getting a better deal than paying even $25 for 2 copies.

But yeah, I know most of you aren't in that same boat with me.

I also think that if Sony continues to sell downloadable game vouchers in stores (I also bought Patapon 2 from Target for $14) they could continue to be successful with retailers keeping their own store prices at MSRP. That way, those of us who live in metropolitan areas are covered by retailers and those of us who live in rural areas still have availability or can still buy from Amazon or other online retailers.

Also, I agree that the Go is a lame idea. I don't hate it, but it's just not for me. I like the wide screen I have and I want to play the UMD's I already have. Just lowering the price to same as the 3000 would make it a much better product. But it still wouldn't be for me.

I don't see any good reason for their being a delay on PSN release. It's the exact same data, making slightly repackaged. I'm sure there's a program in the dev tools package that does the conversion in one click. It's not like it has to ported or anything, and this can't be any harder than installing games to my 360 HD, which takes very little time and then runs perfectly (exceptions, I know).

Maybe now, people will see the psp go is a piece of shit. I've been saying it since it was unveiled, and all I got was down voted in the comments. I have a psp 2000, I was hoping to upgrade, but not to the Go. It could have been so much better, but now its just a way for Sony to fool morons into spending way too much money. It's a console designed purely for profit. with quality and entertainment following at second and third priority. DONT BUY THIS! I want a better psp. Not a money trap.

I really would like this psp go, I'm done with the physical media age. However, the price isn't the only thing that is concerning me about the go. I have a concern with every system on backwards compatability of DLC products. Seriously, I'm pooring money into this new digital media, and yet for all I know its going to be stuck on these old products when I get a PSP 2 or Xbox x+360=y. Then what? I won't be able to trade in old systems for new ones anymore because I will never be able to play those games again, or worst, I might have to rebuy last generations DLC games.

does sony want the pspgo to FAIL?

on the other hand i wonder how many pspgo supporters feel about this?

Maybe it isn't obvious but Sony can't piss of retailers. Once digital distribution gets popular, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can give Gamestop the finger but until that happens, they are still Gamestop's bitch.

Hmm true! im still gonna buy one. just to stay up with the times. plus the psp 3000 is too wide in my pocket. more room for my penis to move to the side when i have a awkward boner momment.

Peace out.

Wu-Tang Killa Beez forever.
Buy Chamber music.

Well, EB Games and Gamestop are having a deal online and in-store where if you trade in the PSP 2000 or 3000 and 3 PSP games, you get $100 off the PSP Go. Just because of that, I'm getting it.

Man, really? this thing is cool! just like when people complained about the DSi and PS3, im still gonna buy it. im excited!

and you know what else is a money trap? fast food restaurants. yet, everyone is still going. getting fat. you dam heathens.

anyone complaining is probably still gonna buy it. or get wet as soon as they can see one and hold it.

Rook told you so!