Author Topic: PSP Price Cut (Read 18130 times)

MaryJane · « **on:** April 03, 2007, 07:44:42 AM »

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After failing to keep up with Nintendo's DS juggernaut, Sony promised it would do a better job marketing the PSP, and now it appears that push is fully underway with a $30 price cut to the PSP Core Pack, the base system. That brings the PSP's MSRP to $169.99 or $80 less than the system's launch price of two years ago.

The entire article is here.

The article also hints that Sony plans on having more games come out at the $29.99 level.

Too little too late? I think so.

Price isn't the only thing holding the PSP back, IMO it does have some good games that I wouldn't mind playing, but overall I don't see the system as being worth the time of an hour.

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 03, 2007, 07:57:19 AM »

I wonder if they will follow this strategy for the PS3.
Not having a price drop for two years I mean.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #2 on:** April 03, 2007, 08:08:11 AM »

Doesn't help that the PSP still has a crappy software lineup... =\

nitsu niflheim · « **Reply #3 on:** April 03, 2007, 08:35:11 AM »

Yeah, true, but then again cheap crap does have an allure to some people.

Kairon · « **Reply #4 on:** April 03, 2007, 08:50:38 AM »

Could this be a second wind? And will software sales improve AT ALL?!?!

My dormmates are already pirating full versions of PSP games. *shrug* They love their PSPs.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

capamerica · « **Reply #5 on:** April 03, 2007, 09:18:32 AM »

Lets see a DS for $130 with a kick ass game library
or
a PSP for $170 with a sh!tty game library.

This is defintly to little to late, it might be able to help push a few more systems out when Final Fantasy VII-5 comes out but thats it.
You already lost most of the developers for the PSP with only a few people left. Even if this is the second wind that Sony needs to get the PSP moving again its going to be a good year or 2 before we see developers jump back on board with some good titles. By that time we'll be looking at PS2P and DS2.

I wonder if Nintendo will drop the price of the DS to $100 now =D

hudsonhawk · « **Reply #6 on:** April 03, 2007, 09:25:19 AM »

I realize this isn't the best place to find a fair and balanced view of the PSP, but rumors of its weak library are greatly exaggerated. It may have been true at some point, but it's been getting a steady stream of quality games for some time now.

I know it's heresy, but I switched to the PSP from the DS about 2 months ago - I ride the train for 45 minutes each way every day so I had burned through the library really quickly on the DS. I'll pick a DS up again when Zelda comes out, I just wanted to give the library some time to catch up. My impression of the PSP so far is that the it gets a bum rap.

MaryJane · « **Reply #7 on:** April 03, 2007, 09:51:08 AM »

I sort of agree, except that I'm still playing and plan on buying a ton of games before Zelda comes out.

The PSP has some decent games. They have Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure a Zelda:TP clone. OH NO NOT A CLONE! Yes, bad thing for public image, good thing in copying one of the best games I've played in years!

I don't own a PSP as there aren't any games that interest me enough to buy it. However were this game for the DS I would buy it in a heart beat, even if it was a one screen game. There are other good games, but I have to go pick something up, so I don't have the time too. But I bet the Resistance game is good, it is good on the PS3.

Edit: Added and clarified thoughts

vudu · « **Reply #8 on:** April 03, 2007, 10:01:14 AM »

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Originally posted by: capamerica
I wonder if Nintendo will drop the price of the DS to $100 now =D

Why don't you tell us?

The answer is no. They can't keep the system on the shelf at it's current price. It doesn't make sense to drop the price right now.

Ghisy · « **Reply #9 on:** April 03, 2007, 10:11:24 AM »

I might pick up a PSP when it's 99 bucks, no more.
There are only like 4 good games...and most of them are ports/remakes.

SixthAngel · « **Reply #10 on:** April 03, 2007, 10:33:21 AM »

Since this is a "core system" I assume you are required to spend about 60 more dollars before you can play a game with even basic save functions much like the ripoff that is the 360 core system.

hudsonhawk · « **Reply #11 on:** April 03, 2007, 10:46:31 AM »

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Originally posted by: SixthAngel
Since this is a "core system" I assume you are required to spend about 60 more dollars before you can play a game with even basic save functions much like the ripoff that is the 360 core system.

You have to buy a memory stick. They're about $15-20 for a 1GB.

Deguello · « **Reply #12 on:** April 03, 2007, 11:47:36 AM »

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I realize this isn't the best place to find a fair and balanced view of the PSP, but rumors of its weak library are greatly exaggerated.

No, it's actually the inverse truth. The PSP somehow avoids mainstream review wrath for its incredibly weak library. There are three major reasons the PSP library is so impotent, and all reasons are due to misplaced sales.

Reason 1: Too many ports. I mean seriously. This is not overstatement. Every game that is announced for the PSP has a 80% chance of being a PS2 port. This really wouldn't be such a problem if the gaming public at large were not already tired of everything the PS2 had to offer, and it really wouldn't be so bad if every other PSP wasn't some sort of old game redressed.

Reason 2: Not enough originality in the original games. The actual original content on the PSP is sometimes a continuation of a series on the PS2, so to the untrained eye it may just as well be another PS2 port, which is already an unappealing proposition.

These two reasons are linked for a quite disturbing realization. The ports are outselling the new PSP efforts by a tremendous factor. The PSP game-buying audience is telling the 3rd parties and Sony themselves that they do not wish for new and original games. They are happy with PS2-ports.

And Reason 3, and this one's the biggie: PSP owners by and large don't really seem to care about GAMES much. Seriously. Check out any community on the internet about the PSP and you'll see what I mean. topics about firmware and emulation, ISOs and bittorrents, hacks and homebrew, but never about the new GAMES coming out. And people think third parties having to compete against Nintendo on the DS is tough. The PSP offers a tougher adversary. Owner Apathy

And the PSP does get a fair look around here. But not balanced. The DS is not equal to the PSP. The DS is much much greater.

Infernal Monkey · « **Reply #13 on:** April 03, 2007, 12:41:36 PM »

Sadly, after all these years, there's still only a handful of PSP games that appeal to me. Two of them already got ported to PS2 (Lemmings and Lumines). I don't know how much this price drop is going to help the situation over there, but I doubt anything would here. It's still officially $350-ish. That's $290 American. Sony killed it with price rape, and they're still humping the corpse. UMF UMF.

More $30 titles and $20 Greatest Hits are welcome though. That's one thing Sony got right. Nintendo has some fear of re-releasing their portable games under a budget price.

stevey · « **Reply #14 on:** April 03, 2007, 01:06:20 PM »

I wonder if this is only because of retailers were threatening to pull the psp of selves if there wasn't a price cut due to horrible sales or sony thinks they can really still win. I don't this will help at all because the psp dead due to it's bad library. I haven't seen a single psp that wasn't hacked playing snes/neo-geo games...

AwesomeMan · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2007, 02:22:11 PM »

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PSP owners by and large don't really seem to care about GAMES much. Seriously. Check out any community on the internet about the PSP and you'll see what I mean. topics about firmware and emulation

this is what i don't understand about PSP. the screen is horrible for classic games(stretch), you want emulation get a GP2X the screen proportions are right for classic games.

capamerica · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2007, 02:46:26 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: hudsonhawk
I realize this isn't the best place to find a fair and balanced view of the PSP, but rumors of its weak library are greatly exaggerated. It may have been true at some point, but it's been getting a steady stream of quality games for some time now.

I know it's heresy, but I switched to the PSP from the DS about 2 months ago - I ride the train for 45 minutes each way every day so I had burned through the library really quickly on the DS. I'll pick a DS up again when Zelda comes out, I just wanted to give the library some time to catch up. My impression of the PSP so far is that the it gets a bum rap.

I own a PSP myself and I've pertty much downloaded all the games that have come out and I can only say that there is MAYBE 10 games worth playing. Even less worth owning. I only own 1 game and thats HotShots Golf.

Quote
Originally posted by: hudsonhawk
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You have to buy a memory stick. They're about $15-20 for a 1GB.

I almost forgot about that. You have to have a Memory Stick inorder to save your games. So thats another $29.99 for a 512MB.

Quote
Originally posted by: vudu
Quote
Originally posted by: capamerica
I wonder if Nintendo will drop the price of the DS to $100 now =D
Why don't you tell us?

The answer is no. They can't keep the system on the shelf at it's current price. It doesn't make sense to drop the price right now.

SO Now you beleave in my power. =P
Actually I see the DS dropping to $100 by November maybe a bit earlier.

Flames_of_chaos · « **Reply #17 on:** April 03, 2007, 03:16:50 PM »

I think it came out at a time where people just don't care. I will doubt that it will increase sales that much, if it was a 50 dollar price cut then it could of helped some more.

IceCold · « **Reply #18 on:** April 03, 2007, 04:44:26 PM »

This will end up being like the GameCube price cut when Double Dash came out.

Djunknown · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2007, 05:23:09 PM »

Chances are they're trying to flush out their current stock. Time and time again, there are rumblings of a PSP-redesign. the biggest sell is the alleged internal flash drive that will cut the need of expensive of memory Duo sticks (Though are ways around this)... I'm still waiting for the official announcement or denial.

Pretty much all the PSP can do at this point is to keep current owners happy until the eventual PSP2 comes out. I wouldn't be surprised if they rip Nintendo off again in some way or another.

Deguello · « **Reply #20 on:** April 04, 2007, 01:50:39 AM »

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This will end up being like the GameCube price cut when Double Dash came out.

No way. That price drop actually drove unit sales above competitors and sparked interest for the console. I mean, just check out the crappy timing. A price drop now? Will it raise the PSP above the DS this month? It might if it weren't for the 600-lbs. handheld gorilla known as Pokemon that comes out in a few weeks.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #21 on:** April 04, 2007, 05:25:53 AM »

Nice point.

I think the price drop is needed, but yeah, the timing could have been better...or maybe Sony is just bowing to pressure from retailers.

TrueNerd · « **Reply #22 on:** April 04, 2007, 12:24:55 PM »

The PSP does have good games, but as Deg was saying, the PSP has no voice, nothing new to say. Mostly everything on the system has been done to death on the PS2 and it's usually done in superior fashion. I own a PSP and every now and again I'm glad I do, but for the most part, it sits in its soft case looking pretty.

With that being said, I would totally buy one right now if I didn't already own one for Dracula X Chronicles alone. And hopefully God of War, a game that takes camera control away from the user, will be good.

Deguello · « **Reply #23 on:** April 04, 2007, 03:54:59 PM »

That is kinda what makes me hate it. Nobody benefits from an original PSP game. The developers see it flop because the PSP audience would rather pirate an ISO if they are hardcore enough to be inclined to try it or they aren't hardcore at all and would rather get some PS2 port. Castlevania is already a set franchise on the DS and yet they waste everyone's time with a PSP game. Platformers sell like deep-fried ass on the PSP.

UERD · « **Reply #24 on:** April 04, 2007, 04:26:01 PM »

The next PSP will be awesome. It will incorporate new Motion-Sensing Technology® that will be even better than the Wii's. Instead of simply swinging the unit around to control the game, you can actually hurl the PSP in a particular direction in order to simulate actions like tossing a grenade or throwing a discus! Super-sensitive accelerometers can sense the tremendous impulse created when the unit smashes into a concrete wall, and adjust the in-game experience accordingly! It also goes online! Sony will also be selling a Lifetime Replacement Plan for $500, which doesn't cover 'negligent abuse'.

News:

Author Topic: PSP Price Cut (Read 18130 times)