Here's the thing. Nintendo launched the DS in America for $150. Then they launched it in Japan for
15,000 yen, which (because of exchange rates) is/was slightly cheaper than in America.
Then Sony launched the (base model) PSP in Japan for 20,000 yen. The PSP is widely believed to cost a
lot more than that to produce, but after some creative "number juggling", Sony found themselves able to claim/boast that they're actually earning a
profit on the unit at 20,000 yen. Sony is rather obviously trying to agressively elbow their way into the handheld market, buying the love of the graphics whores, no matter the cost.
At this point, people realized that 20,000 yen = $180-185 American. Then an analyst from Bloomberg or something pointed out that historically Sony has
always (twice) launched a console at it's full price in Japan, then delivered a price cut before the American launch. So he logically concluded that the PSP would launch at $150 in America, which would be the same price as the DS, and send Nintendo panicking into a price cut of $25-50.
Since then, the exchange rate has kept on changing, and as it stands right now, 20,000 yen is equal to $192 American.
Sony recently sent out a bunch of invites to the videogame media, telling them to come to a special press conference being held on the day before the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where they intended to talk about the PSP. Everyone seemed to expect that Sony would announce the price and launch date. Sony just said "Hey. We've got this thing. It's called a PSP. What, you've heard of it? Oh. That sucks. No, we can't tell you the price. Launch date? Uhhh... sometime around March? Maybe? I dunno. Here, have a CD with screenshots of the Japanese games." Most media people seemed to be pissed.
Bloomberg however had a guy who apparently went to the press conference, and he said that Sony also said that the price would be a vague "something under $200", except that nobody else seems able to confirm that.
Now we've got G4 people who have apparently pulled a "$150" number out of their butts. I seriously doubt that there's anything to their number.
However, if Sony can find an excuse to make it $150, like if they say "Oh, everyone expected it", and they've got the financial guts to pull something like that off, then it'll be $150. Sony is looking
really agressive right now, and it would be a mistake to underestimate them.
Of course, if it does come out at $150, Nintendo needs to have the balls to drop the DS to $99 and can the GBA SP. The DS has what it takes to be two pillars at once (namely, a GBA cart slot).
Topic: should we worry now? (Read 7641 times)
