Sony: PSP Go 'experiment' revealed consumers' love of physical media

I got my go for $100 refurbished then sold my psp 2000 for $75, very happy with the go, other than right now whilst I wait for the PSN update so I can get me some peace walker!!

the psp go does some very very neat things (as does the psp) sony just shot themselves with the price.

I've backed the DS all this time so I'm the perfect consumer market that Sony wants for the PSP Go (i.e. someone with no attachment to UMDs).

But the price is ridiculous. Make it less than the 3000, say $150 and you've got yourself a deal. If you take in to account that a used PSP can be gotten for $100 or so, the Go's price of $250 isn't even a blip on my consideration radar.

Couldn't they of just sent out a survey instead of having people spend $250 to find out this information?

I prefer Physical media.
Steam has been nothing but trouble for me. I hate the cleaning the fridge thing that comes with DL.. Unsure how long some services will last,DRM from others preventing me from getting back the content I paid for.

Go is a joke.

Someone should call Steam and tell them consumers like physical media.

That was one pricey experiment. I'm sure the price of the damn thing itself had no play in the experiment.

Sony's real mistake was not putting an Apple logo on the PSP Go. That's the real way to get people to buy a product with less functionality for more money because it looks nicer.

psp go.......... i think it pretty much just sux............ i mean thers barely ever any like price cuts on it...... physical hardware games cut prices all the time im just sayin.....

No joke. If they put the Go at $200 it woulda seemed like an amazing deal since it had a few nice new features alongside 16GB of packed-in space. It's the sort of hubris that makes Sony look like a bunch of douch bags even when their product is goddamned amazing.

And the funny thing is whenever this level of "hey, just buy our shit cuz it's awesome no matter what the price" fails on them, they only learn their lesson for 2-3 years before they are right back at it.

I enjoy my PSP Go much more than I do my PSP-1000. Sure there are lots more games available on the PSP w/ physical media that I may never find again, but I have pretty much everything I want and enough space to enjoy it.

SHOCKING news.

Hey Sony next time you have a stupid idea you want to "experiment" with, how about you just send me a check and I'll gladly play the part of Professor Obvious.

I agree with Stubbs24, SuiXide, ashkental, ccc, and liamario above.

This is just a ploy to avoid accountability. The reality is the digital distribution market (Steam, iTunes, Netflix, etc) is ultra-hot. Sony just found a way to screw it up, and now they're blaming it on the consumer's love for physical media, instead of the fact they didn't do their homework and don't know how to price things correctly, nor were they smart enough to get that full, already existing library out there in digital format on day one. So that way they can just chalk it all up as an "experiment" when it was really a failed initiative.

I have a PSP Go and I love it. BUT - I never had a PSP before, and I have no existing game library so I didn't have anything to cry about in that regard. But I think the unit is over priced, and it should have come with games, and there should have been (and should be) a much larger library. I love the fact I don't have to mess around with discs. If I did, I wouldn't have bought one.

But everyone likes to ignore to features that PSP Go has. Smaller size, high quality screen, blu tooth connectivity with PS3 controllers, the ability to store a ton of games on an internal drive available at the push of a button, which is perfect for trips and being "on the go" and not having to shlep dozens of discs around with you, and search for them and insert one each time you want to play a different game. And you never have to worry about losing or damaging game discs.

1. Unit is too expensive, and should have come with a few games.
2. VERY limited library of games which were released very slowly.
3. Most games are way too expensive considering you get no ability to rent, trade or sell your games.
4. It doesn't make sense for existing users to switch over. (But this was known before launch)

But in the end it comes down to pricing. Digital versions should cost 3/4 - 1/2 of the standard price for a game, and follow Steam type pricing. But people should check their facts, cause sometimes the PSN version is actually cheaper. Also there are some great sales on PSN if you watch it regularly.

Thank god for that.

Now, PSP 2, E3, go go go.
2 sticks, usual control system, memory card media storage / digital downloads.
Also, 3g/4g support. (sell externally as an expansion so it isn't outdated in a year or 2... wait, who am i kidding?)
'Kay, a little optimistic, but still...

Make it a less crappier modification of the PSP Go style.
Mainly being the work on the control position, that left stick in their is just awkward.
And get rid of the silly curves.
DS, iPhones, iPods and countless others have a more blocky design and they are all still popular.
Wasting time and money designing curvy hardware is just inefficient.
People just want something that works and looks decent enough. PSP with gloss and less curves would be entirely acceptable. The curves add nothing to it, it is all looks, all they do is remove usable space and over-complicate the fabrication process.

I've always been a fan over function over looks. And PSP is failing in that respect, especially because they are keeping the PSN store locked down.
I would KILL for applications on PSP and PS3. As would the other several odd million people, especially those who use them as their actual "computer". (more-so with PS3 than PSP)
Considering how they killed off Linux, this would at least perhaps make more people a little happier. (especially if the kept the price down)
PSP badly needs some sort of application store. There has already been a bunch of applications sold on UMD, from maps to translators, so i really don't see why they are keeping it locked down, it is madness. The iPhone and Android store are proof that applications on handhelds do work.
I'd love a nice note taker as well, building one that used the web browser was *painful*.
Oh, on that note, GET RID OF NETFRONT BROWSER. PLEASE.
Anyway, went off on a bit of a tangent there

This is really disheartening to hear. Basically SONY didn't learn anything from the PSP Go. In an effort to coddle retail, they ripped off their consumers.

They overcharged for the system. They overcharged for games. That's it. That's why the 'Go' has failed. I want digital only, especially in a handheld. I have enough crap laying around my apartment.

Part of the cost of a retail game is retailer overhead, mark-up and shipping costs. Had they minused those costs off the price of their digital releases, I would have bought more games.

That's the only lesson Sony should have learned from the 'Go'.

Say what you will about gaming on the iphone/ipod touch, but people seem quite happy to download games with no physical medium to speak of. And they do it a lot. so sell hardware at the right price, and give them a massive library of content to download (bundle several games for free that require downloading to help train them) and I think you'll have something that people will want.
Perhaps a nice PSP2 with a right analog stick with a large online library launch will help things...

I dislike physical media. The issue with the go is the price first and foremost.

Remember, it's always the "next big thing", unless of course it fails, at which cases it becomes - posthumously - an "experiment".

See also the Jay Leno show on NBC.

Well now it does, which I am happy about, but I was an early adopter you know? It feels strange that someone who decided to buy it way down the line should get rewarded. But I guess people who pre-order technology can't complain they don't have the newest stuff forever, Nonetheless, I will be purchasing Peace Walker today on my Go so I will have to be joyed by that.

The iPod touch is also digital distribution only...yet it's hackable and very successful. The PSPgo is also only digital distribution, yet it's not hackable.

I think that sony just uncovered the consumers needs to be able to pirate software before they buy a machine. I'm sure we all know ppl that are waiting for the go to get hacked before they buy one.

For me, I don't mind buying the games I want for a system, and theres one big advantage of Digital over UMD. I buy 1 copy of the game and then can put it on both my PSPs to play 2 player. Can't do that with UMD. Gotta buy 2 copies of the same damn game.

Anyways, wait for the go to get hacked, and I'm sure the sales will go up.

No, it isn't because of a love of physical media (though, that's certainly part of it). The PSP failed because it was near-impossible to sell to existing PSP owners.

Substantially more expensive than the 3K, and no way to bring your previous PSP games onto the platform. "Yeah, it's a PSP, but it can't play any of those PSP games you already bought."

Imagine if Nintendo released a DS without a Game Card slot. "Yes, it's a DS, but none of your existing DS games can be played on it. You'll need to re-buy them through DSiWare." How many would go through with that? I know I wouldn't.

I think it might have been successful if it were a NEW console. People don't like the confusion of having two completely different distribution systems on the same platform.

If the next generation of portable game systems dealt entirely in digital distribution, that'd be fine by me. But don't ask me to replace my PSP with a new one that can't play the games I already bought. That's just stupid.

No, it didn't reveal my love of physical media, I pretty much use digital distribution now for all my PC gaming..

What it did do is cement my love for getting a product at a reasonable price..

Maybe if Sony had made ALL titles available for it digitally, I don't think that has happened yet... and maybe if they found a way to let people trade their physical copies for a key for the digital version...

The business model didn't have much of a chance the way they launched it.. it DID NOT AT ALL signify any love for physical media, they just f'd up...

This is what they really learned: They aren't apple. They can't just make a device without actually working hard on it and expect to make money off of it.

This really sucks, I was hoping that this would cause a shift towards digital distribution in portable gaming, I think it works great, but you can't keep idiots away from Gamestop for some reason

They were probably just testing to see how to design the PSP2

That's some real spin doctoring there $ony.

I own a 2000 and have a healthy collection of games, an extended life battery and a few cables/accessories. Love of physical media has nothing to do with it. I would never buy a system that can only play a portion of the games designed for it, and none of the games I already have in my collection. It's the most disappointing, idiotic machine to come out of the portable industry since everyone's favorite failure, the Virtual Boy.

I think the failure of the psp go has more to do with its 250 dollar price tag then the type of media it plays. Seriously, what kind of idiot will pay $250 for a psp when a ps3 is only $299. I bet if they had priced it below $200 they could have easily sold double.

You know Sony, in case you become super desperate, you can always beg Valve for some assistance.

And they also like borrowing/trading/sharing/renting games...

You know, I freaking love my 2000, if only it had the 3000 LCD, or the 3000 had the weight of the 2000. At any rate, I love my 2000.


...hmmmm, maybe I'll find a Go for like $150 or so in the next few months.

This is the logic that gets you in trouble Sony.

Im really satisfied with my Go,the screen is really sweet,the console is made with quality and all,but there a serious lack of game on the store like Crisis Core,The Simpsons,Final Fantasy Tactic(remake),Tales Of the World Radiant Mythology,Ace Combat Deception and much more other,the price is a little high too for the console,and the worst is that most of the game doesnt have the instruction booklet and we pay the same price than in a normal store while Japanese customer pay less because its digital.....
We even dont have the video store or the comic book store in Canada and these are supposed to be one of the reason why people should buy a Go :/

These reason explain in overall the fail of Sony with his PSPGo

"Experiment, my Ass!" It was/is a disaster.

they should experiment now on lowering the prices and releasing its classic games for it. HINT

1. lower the prices of the console and the games for d/l from psn
2. release the backlog of games it already has
3. ???
4. profit!

Ugh! Digital games are FINE! Apple has proven that people DO want that. The issue with the psp go is that people don't like to get ripped off.

Dd games should be cheaper, plain and simple. Even I it's 5 bucks.

The biggest issue though is that people don't want to REBUY something they already own. If this was a test, it really just shows that switching media formats in the middle of a systems life fails so hard..... Course they could've just looked at Segas efforts back in the day.

I think if PSP2 was all digital it would fair better because it'll START like that. People would expect it.

I mean really, people are still sticking to normal DVDs because they don't want to rebuy some movies.

START fully digital, don't switch in the middle. Tha's the lesson learned.

Also lower the proce of your over exspensive memory sticks.

I disagree completely and I think Sony are stupid for reaching this conclusion based on incorrect assumptions.

The PSPGo and downloadable games would have been a huge success if the hardware and software were priced right. Simple as that. There's no reason the digital games should have been the same price as the physical media versions except to appease retailers. There's also no reason the PSPGo should have been more expensive than the regular PSP, in fact, it should have been cheaper, since there was less hardware in it.

Sony, as usual are completely out to lunch.

Wrong. We like digital media if its handled right. Sony never gets things right, its pretty annoying at this point. If they fail to see that the PSP Go didn't sell because of the price and lag of digital releases then they will fail.