UK retailers already discounting PSP Go

by JC Fletcher { Oct 5th 2009 at 3:31PM }

Following the first weekend of PSP Go sales, at least four UK retailers are offering sale prices on the new handheld. Amazon.co.uk, Play, HMV and GAME have all discounted the device to £199.99, which – while still really expensive (it converts to around US $319) – is a significant drop from the MSRP of £224.99.

While it's tempting to just write this off as the PSP Go bombing, we're guessing that the MSRP includes some room for retailer profit (unlike the standard price points for most consoles), and these stores are cutting the margins a bit in the interest of competitiveness. Of course, we don't know what the margin is for a Go, but we doubt all these companies would resort to a price drop so soon if they weren't still going to make a lot of money on the venture.

Tags: amazon, discount, game, hmv, play, psp-go, uk

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Zinger314 @ Oct 5th 2009 3:34PM

How long until Kaz Hirari jokes?

Shane_Kim @ Oct 5th 2009 3:35PM

[banned]

tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 5th 2009 3:38PM

You pretty much nailed it in the first line.

The Go sucks.

Alton Brown [ XBL: LordToastington] @ Oct 5th 2009 3:40PM

Please leave. I'm fairly sure nobody wants you here, seeing as how you've been banned twice.

Alton Brown [ XBL: LordToastington] @ Oct 5th 2009 3:41PM

That was at Halo Pony, not tmac.

Taco_Hell @ Oct 5th 2009 3:59PM

Woo, and he lasted 2 articles! Man, its kinda sad when the Joystiq staff know your writing style so well, they ban you the moment they see you.

Marius @ Oct 5th 2009 4:12PM

what did he say

RAVE Master 2.0 @ Oct 5th 2009 4:23PM

He was taking about how the PSPgo sucks, and he's crying because his life is ruined, and that he has no friends... or something like that....

SEE?! I READ!!!

copa @ Oct 5th 2009 3:37PM

Hell, at these low prices, I can afford a PSP GO and a Microsoft 802.11n wireless adapter.

I call it the Dumbass Combo Pack.

Jose @ Oct 5th 2009 3:39PM

LLOL (literally laughed out loud).

rickjamess04 @ Oct 5th 2009 3:51PM

Throw in the proprietary MS HDD for the 360 and you've got yourself an unbeatable combo!

Jimbotron @ Oct 5th 2009 5:14PM

While the Go looks cute, and the small box it comes in makes it appealing to look at on the shelves (even with the disclaimer that it doesn't have a UMD drive), it seems rather silly to sell a new model PSP right next to PSP games that it cannot run There will be more than a handful of newcomers to gaming who buy it thinking it can play the PSP-labeled games right next to it on the shelf, only to either be told by the clerk that it cannot, or finding out for himself whenn he gets home. And being rightly pissed.

Nobledevil @ Oct 5th 2009 5:26PM

/clap @ copa (even though I'm literally leaving to go pick up a PSPgo in two minutes)

Duke @ Oct 5th 2009 3:38PM

It doesn't seem to me that lowering the price on the Go would help the retailer. Usually you do that to gain on the attachment sales, but if this device uses DL games and no UMD, doesn't that limit the attachment income that usually makes up for taking less in on the device's sale?

Jose @ Oct 5th 2009 3:40PM

That's a good point. I suppose they can't sell games, but they can still sell accessories. Perhaps they'll start selling memory sticks with a game pre-loaded on it.

CaramelZappa @ Oct 5th 2009 3:43PM

Yea I was thinking that too. Most consoles bring in close to 0 profit for the retailer, and with no real attachments except for memory cards this doesn't seem like that great of a choice. Maybe Sony is actually giving retailers a decent margin of that $250, so they can afford to lower it a bit?

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio [Planeteer | Power of the Anti-Fanboy Bitch Slap] @ Oct 5th 2009 3:47PM

The only way I see this helping them is by clearing out the stock and then getting back to selling the regular PSP. I think the Go is going to be the biggest flop since the Virtual Boy.

Jose @ Oct 5th 2009 3:51PM

There were an awful lot of complaints about that 3000 screen.

Vidikron @ Oct 5th 2009 3:51PM

Overpriced items sitting on shelves don't pull in any profit either. They're likely just hoping to sell accessories like memory sticks, power adapters, and carrying cases.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio [Planeteer | Power of the Anti-Fanboy Bitch Slap] @ Oct 5th 2009 3:58PM

I don't remember there being that many complaints about the 3000. The only thing I remember hearing about that was from people who directly compared 2 PSP's screenshots, they could barely tell a difference when the game was actually running.

Either way, this PSP needs to Go!

...that was horrible.

No Kill Tayler @ Oct 5th 2009 5:44PM

I have a Go, and its actually really nice.

psychoticdream @ Oct 5th 2009 9:50PM

i think it was mentioned that retailers were going to be able to sell like game cards that you can use for buying games online but i'm just not seeing much of a profit on it either

captainprotonx @ Oct 5th 2009 3:40PM

Much like the system, this news bores me.

RKN @ Oct 5th 2009 3:41PM

As the one and only Michael Kelso would say .... BURN!!!!

Aerothorn @ Oct 5th 2009 4:56PM

Man, I can't believe this thing costs more than a PS3.

Okay, unfairly comparing across markets, but still - at MSRP it's only 25 pounds less.

dogmaticatheist @ Oct 5th 2009 3:41PM

I saw a stack of unsold Go's at Target yesterday. While I applaud Sony's decision to embrace digital media distribution, the Go is an epic fail on many levels. If the price were just $199 it would be a little more digestible.

M.Garvey @ Oct 5th 2009 4:11PM

...or Inferno from Beast Wars...

...

I'm sorry for the Transformers reference.

M.Garvey @ Oct 5th 2009 4:18PM

Damn you Joystiq comment system! Damn you to hell! My comment was meant for RKN's response!

Viney @ Oct 5th 2009 4:21PM

What I don't understand is digital distribution already sets them up to make a ton of cash simply by cutting out the retailers and manufacturing costs. So why wouldn't they follow the tried and true formula of selling the system at a loss and recouping their money on the downloads? Seems like this system would benefit even more from that method than the consoles that've been raking in the cash that way for years.

Or maybe that's where the extra profit margin comes in, that they could be giving the retailers since they're cutting them out of the game sales?

Solace @ Oct 5th 2009 3:42PM

LOLOLOLOLOL

I don't know what the fuck Sony was thinking selling the PSPgo more than an iPod Touch and DSi when both have more functionality than a PSPgo. Let alone selling it at launcch price of the ORIGINAL PSP which came out 5 years ago.

I'll buy the PSPgo at $150 next year from dell.com when they lower the price.

David @ Oct 5th 2009 3:44PM

Quality>Quantity

Solace @ Oct 5th 2009 3:49PM

oh really?

4 PSP revisions compared to 3 each for the iPod Touch and DS.

CaramelZappa @ Oct 5th 2009 3:55PM

Toys R Us has the DSi for $130 right now. Not bad at all.

nomadic0ne @ Oct 5th 2009 3:56PM

This is what they were thinking:

"MCV asked SCEE's Andrew House if R&D or retailer markups were the reason behind PSP Go's high price. "Those aren't the factors," House admitted. "When you introduce a new piece of hardware you have the opportunity to say there is a certain premium that is associated with it, and we took that into account."

Essentially, House is admitting you can charge more for technology when it's new. It's unsurprising, but it certainly leaves a bad taste knowing Sony can easily charge less for the PSP Go."

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/25/scee-psp-go-takes-advantage-of-early-adopter-premium/

Fernando Rocker @ Oct 5th 2009 3:58PM

David

Sorry, but the DS has both: quality and quantity. Yes, it also has tons of bad games, but the good-to-bad ratio is just as good as the PS2.

The DS is truly a great system.

tony @ Oct 5th 2009 4:00PM

the original psp launched at 299.99 not 249.99. look it up. i remember because i bought one. so wish people would stop crying because they want one and cant afford it so they say bad things about it. i have one and i love it. its was better than any other model psp and the screen looks 10x better on it. it much more clear than the other psps. so until you have one in your hands playing it why say anything bad about it just because you cant afford it or chose not to buy it. everything electronic is expensive at launch. look at dvd players and blu ray players, both of which were near $1000 when they came out, and people still paid those crazy prices and no one complained about that. so why say 250 is alot when any other system before it was even more?

NaeemTHM @ Oct 5th 2009 4:03PM

"the original psp launched at 299.99 not 249.99. look it up."

In Canada you mean. It launched for 250 in USA; if you paid 299, you got ripped off.

NaeemTHM @ Oct 5th 2009 4:07PM

@tony

By the way, people are not complaining that it's expensive, we're complaing because it's expensive for no reason.

The PSPGo lacks a UMD drive (which was expensive to manufacture at the time) and substitutes it with a MUCH cheaper flashdrive (which literally cost pennies to manufature on that scale). Yet Sony expects us to pay full price for a system that packs 4 year old technology.

No offense but if you own a PSP and bought a Go you got suckered.

Solace @ Oct 5th 2009 4:08PM

I owned all 3 handhelds at one time or another and sold them all back also because they could never get it right.

I wanted the tech of the iPod Touch with all the apps and functionality to go with the games of the PSP but seems like that's never going to happen because of how old the PSP is. iPod Touch has horrible games and controls, the DS just never did it for me even though the games are good I still wanted one portable media player that I can use with ease like the iPod Touch because using the PSP is fucking annoying when it comes to listening to music outside. Hit the wrong button on the PSP and the song is ruined, not to mention getting out of hold is a delicate and annoying procedure.

I hated all 3 handheld systems equally but the PSPgo seems to be the best out of the bunch for me this time around but there is no way in hell I would ever pay $250 for it.

sk8monroe81 (PSN--XBL) @ Oct 5th 2009 5:03PM

tony- wasnt that psp launch about 4-5 years ago ?

the psp GO is not a new console or tech, only an updated take on the PSP.

and tony the $ 250 the psp cost in 2005 was OK because i think we felt the psp cost about that much if not more to produce then..

it has been said many times now that the psp go costs much less to produce than the offered price tag...

and price comes to mind because we can get a psp bundle with games and memory still for $ 50 less than a GO with nothing.

tony the ps3 was $ 600 at launch and the best blu ray player at launch, as some of the BD 1.0 players that were $ 1000 cant even upgrade the firmware versions. so not many of those were sold, mainly to rich dudes trying to impress at the pad.
'look at my new $ 1000 movie player that only plays movies' on my $ 10,000 HDTV. come on by, popcorn's cracking.

ZayCube @ Oct 5th 2009 8:12PM

The PSP can play games with multiple of other PSPs. It has Playstation Store/Network Movies and TV Shows, Skype, DLNA, Remote Play, RSS, Internet Browsing, movies, internet radio, music, videoes, photos, TiVo ToGo, Location Free TV etc. etc.

Now, what features does a DS have? And how are they better?

sk8monroe81 (PSN--XBL) @ Oct 5th 2009 9:21PM

ds has mario kart, mario, zelda, castlevania, final fantasy, chrono trigger, etc ?
and it has a camera (dsi). touch screen. 2 gaming / viewing screens.

u know most of us have a cell phone for that stuff you are talking about. and an Iphone blows the psp away as a multi tasking phone / gaming device. the psp wins as a gaming device.

of course its not the psp, but its also $ 130.00 right now. and not $ 250 like the go.

embassy @ Oct 5th 2009 9:31PM

Zaycube,

Better. Games.

ZayCube @ Oct 6th 2009 7:25AM

Still.. The PSP has more and better features than the DS.

The PSP has Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories/Vice City Stories/Chinatown (soon), Final Fantasy, MotorStorm, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear Solid, LittleBigPlanet, God of War, Killzone Liberation, Locoroco, Patapon, Resistance, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and the list goes on...

I dont know about you, but Ive never heard of a cell phone with Playstation Store/Network Movies and TV Shows, Skype, DLNA, Remote Play, Internet Browsing, TiVo ToGo and Location Free TV..

Also the PSP allows multiplayer, that has nothing to do with cellphones..