PSP Go launch generates 'platform' sales boost

by James Ransom-Wiley on Oct 8th 2009 11:00AM

Without disclosing actual sales figures, Sony has found a way to trumpet last week's launch of the PSP Go: In its first three days at retail (October 1–3), North American PSP platform sales soared by 300 percent over the previous week's figures. Again, we don't yet know the numbers -- but that's not even the most important part of the equation.

Read it again: PSP platform sales soared by 300 percent. Whether the Go tanks or not, it's got the PSP brand on consumers' wish lists again. "With several blockbuster games launching digitally and on UMD in the coming weeks -- from LittleBigPlanet to Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines -- we expect this momentum to continue and look forward to a strong holiday season for both the PSP Go and PSP-3000," SCEA corp. comm. director Patrick Seybold told Gamasutra.

The PSP Go currently retails for around $250, and its most compelling trait could be that it highlights what a great deal the only $169.99 PSP-3000 model is -- it plays all the same games, after all; from Minis to full-game downloadables.

Source

Tags: launch, psp-3000, psp-go, sales, scea, Sony-Computer-Entertainment-America

Reader Comments (56)

Is the Go talking in stereo?

In stere-ere-o?

IN STEREO!

Jose, where have you been?

Packed like sardines in a tin.

I effing LOVE YOU uncle jesse.

Have mercy!

Uncle Jesse, I always thought you were the Uncle Jesse from Dukes of Hazzard. My bad dude, my bad.

dual speakers? O MAH GAHD!

"Momentum"
"Strong holiday season"
"Several blockbuster games...in the coming weeks"

It's like PR Mad Libs in which the words and phrases never change.

Hey, sales are sales. I think Sony is more concerned with PSP sales as a whole, rather than Go vs. 3000 sales.

What they should worry over is how much they (presumably) spent on R&D to make that system, and how lukewarm (putting it kindly here) its reception has been thus far.

@Martin

R&D spending? Have you ever seen a Sony Mylo 2? All Sony did was take that and make a few minor asthetic changes. I'm guessing the development cost was minimal.

the damn Go is a cheaper R&D cost for the PSP2....lol...people still dont get that huh??

Lost among all the criticism of the Go during the past few weeks was the insight that its very existence would help the platform. Great to see that it has. I have a 1k and a 2k model, and am grateful that there are tons more games to download from the store. I'm even considering buying a Go in spite of the high price because I loathe UMDs and the poor battery life, not to mention the slightly-too-big-and-heavy size of even the 2k.

Nice move Sony, you got the developers to put their games on the Store. Now drop the price!

Flashing text FTW!

Except for this siezure I just went into. Gurggaeranfgjagearjkl;hngrag

Well, I found it a bit irritating, now I know why it isn't commonly used.

Unfortunately I am unable to reproduce such effects. Most likely for the better of humanity, as I can see myself typing full, flashing paragraphs of nothingness.

It gave me a flashback of websites in the mid 90's that were all seizure inducing...that or a teens myspace page.

It is annoying. Plus, every time I see it blink I keep hearing it in my head like

169 US dollars

169 US dollars

169 US dollars

Would you like it as much if it said

599 US Dollars

599 US Dollars

599 US Dollars

They are KILLING me with that!!

I literally am holding my stomach from laughing so hard

$129.99 was the price I bought my new PSP 2000-1. (10 months ago) it can play all of the same games too.

I also charted out the games I have bought and have spent an average of $13.87 per game. (17 games) (Lots of thanks to Circuit City's death sale)

It's called anchoring. Companies release a more expensive model, and even if it doesn't do well, customers compare the price of the base model to the more expensive one and suddenly the less expensive product looks much more enticing.

This is what I was thinking all along. Either buy the cheaper (better) PSP or fork over 50 more dollars and buy a PS3 Slim.. Sony, you devils!

Well played Sony.

Yup, the PSP Go has made me want to buy a PSP 3000. Yup yup yup...

The PSP Go has made me want to wait for them to announce a PSP 4000

I bet this is what Sony wanted to accomplish all along;I'm sure they were expecting the Go to sale bad on it's own.That being said I want to get my hands on the white Go by Christmas at the very least.

Triple from what number?

0

Yeah, mind blowing, isn't it?

it was there plan all along! they prob only made like 300 GO's!

this is total BS. Of course sales went up from the past week. When people know that a new product is coming out on a given day people arent going to continue to buy the old when the new drops in a week. Common sense says you just wait. Just like when I was about to buy a 3G iphone I found out the 3GS was coming out a week or two later so i didnt buy the 3G it was the old model i wanted the new new. SONY is a fail with the Go! all mini games are way too over priced. Some of them are the same price as a PS3 game on the store or DLC map packs. How can you charge 6.99 for a game that is going for 1.99 or 99 cent on the iphone?

Sony has already stated the Mini's prices are chosen by the publishers, not by SCE.

The game devs are doing that....reason most likely is because the development cost are higher on a PSP dev kit than already owning a Mac....

ok I didnt even think of the cost of the dev kits which are like $1000 bucks if i remember right. So i'll give them that part.

> Sony has already stated the Mini's prices are chosen by the publishers, not by SCE.

Load of B.S. since the price also factors in the cost of PSP SDK of course. And the PSP development license. The prices for the SDK and PSP development license are set by Sony.

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK might cost you ftat $599.99 - the price of Mac Mini. Xcode (SDK) is a free download.

Triple from platform sales! How many psps were sold last week? I'm at work and all of those sites are blocked so I wanted to know how many 'psps' were sold last week.

I swear I hate the reply button.

Well it's nice to see someone on Joystiq displaying some knowledge of product development strategy.

I'm just happy with all of the interest that Sony has generated in the platform. I'm also hoping that this will lead Nintendo to actually get their act together in regards to DSiware.

That was meant as a response to James.

I'm so sick of hearing about the fucking PSP every 2 minutes. Wake me up when Peace Walker comes out.

Well, the demo is out today...so WAKE UP!

Today? What do you mean? It was out days ago, in Japanese. I'll only play it in English, and besides, I can't be bothered to switch firmware from M33 to play it.

I saw that the english demo is supposed to be out today.

that has got to be one of the weirdest damn strategies in history. gotta give sony the credit for thinking up something as crazy as this.

Just picked up a used Slim, my first hand held since the Atari Lynx. It's my bedtime gaming machine. I was hoping the iPhone could have filled that void, but man those games control horribly.

So Sony is going to allow the publishers to make the minis fail? I hope they work out pricing. Alot of the games are way too much compared to other versions of the same games.

Tricksy hobbitses

they almost had me with that one! I think by the time the go becomes affordable the psp2 will be out so.. meh

Have you seen the latest TV spot for the PSP Go? Sony finally has a quick interesting ad targeted to the perfect audience for the PSP brand, that ad combined with the hype of the PSP Go has made the PSP brand itself desirable again, it's cool to own a PSP!

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PSP Go launch generates 'platform' sales boost

Reader Comments (56)

Posted: Oct 8th 2009 11:03AM Uncle Jesse said

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