Pachter : PSPgo Price A 'Rip Off' For Consumers

[wraggster]

Outraged about the $249.99 announced price point for Sony's new PSPgo? You're not the only one.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter complained on an episode of Bonus Round that Sony shouldn't be charging so much for their new UMD-less device.

"$249 is too much. Period," he said. Pachter's main complaint is that Sony's current PSP model, the PSP-3000, is already profitable at $169.99. And with the reduced production costs of not having a UMD drive, Sony shouldn't be charging an $80 markup on the PSPgo.

"I'm sorry to say it. I don't want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys, but they're ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple million and if consumers don't buy it then the price is going to come down," he added.

Only time will tell if Sony made the right move with this price.

http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/993/993682p1.html

[fpcreator2000]

I will have to agree, it is a rip-off with less features and the trade off is that it is smaller ( a plus), a smaller screen (a minus) , sliding controls (a plus), no change in the internal hardware (a big minus), no UMD ( minus for me at least but I understand), a lack of a miniUSB port (why?!), and all for $249?! WTF Sony!? WTF!?

[jxx2005]

hate to say it
but sony seems to be ****ing the dog on this one

and if sony decides they want to charge to convert UMDs to play on the GO

sony must think we're as bad as nintendo fanboys and will just buy anything they push at us no matter what the cost

[Shadowblind]

Nothing Nintendo hasn't done 400 times already...

[megaman_zer0]

refresh my memory what has nintendo done that equates to this?

[Ultima Chocochu]

Nintendo has brought back out the same handhelds for more than older models before, not saying they repriced them as much or anything but it is the same basis.
Sony is not forcing the PSPgo on anyone in the end at all, UMD is still an option and you can even most likely download the same games for your current PSP as the PSPgo, the PSPgo is just an option for the whiney kids whom hate the UMD drive, these kids will even most likely trade-up for it and it'd cost them as much as a current PSP possibly.

I actually want a PSPgo, so I can have a non-hacked PSP to just play the games on and such. Am I going to get one now? No I'm not, I'm going to wait for them to either offer some free stuff with it or a price drop. I however, don't believe it's a rip-off, it's an option.

[paul3100]

I however, don't believe it's a rip-off, it's an option.

Well you believe wrong then don't you! , Your right though its not been pushed on any one but $249.99 for something with many less features and still selling the 3000 @ $169.99... know which i would choose.

paul

[wiggy fuzz]

back when nintendo had the gameboy line, each revision had been smaller and more powerful and had better battery life.and obviously a colour screen gameboy would fetch a higher price than the old greyscale ones. the inevitable thing happened with the gameboy advance lines (except the gameboy micro. that was a step backwards)

even the dsi has more powerful hardware inside it (though not enough to justify its price tag until it drops to £125)

[Seven7]

Don't mind this, it's just a collection of thoughts, not totally unrelated to the price point stuffs...

Was this sony's plan all along?

Think about it a second, maybe more if you can spare it.

I feel the PSP GO is nothing more than Sony's definite answer to piracy. They used the PSP 3000 as a testbed, to see if they could produce a PSP that hackers could not crack, and while it seems to be possible to a limited extent now, it's nowhere near as readily available as it was for the first 2 generation PSP systems. We have to assume the PSP GO takes what sony learned from the PSP 3000 and improved upon it. Add to that the fact that you can now download any UMD quality game you want, for a fee. Admittedly, the downloads seem to be backwards compatible with any PSP, a good move marketing wise, but I also have to call into question the new proprietary ports. Perhaps a means of controlling access to the console? If you control the way the hardware is handled on the computer side, that's one more way to control the hardware in general.

Oh, do keep in mind this is all purely speculation.

On that note, i'd also have to guess that the higher price point isn't due to hardware alone, but rather, i'm also gonna assume there's some new fancy licensing thing going on with the PSP GO, something that'll be hidden in the TOS, probably something to secure the system to make it a "secure, viable" system for developers again, well, those that got scared by all the "piracy" hype that the media just loves...ugh.

*shudders*

I'll rant about that another time. And thats it for this time methinks.

[kboon]

you could be right...but then again...im guessing that sonys trying to regain all the money they lost from the previous psp's due to piracy who knows. maybe they thought peole werent smart..thinking internal memory costs more than a umd drive...but im ont that dumb...or maybe just because ipod pulled off that high priced selling thing they dow ith their ipods sony probably thought they couldve pulled it off. i bet you that when people download the games, theyre gunna have to enter their serial numbers of their psps so it officially becomes their own game, compatible with their own system. fireteam bravo 2 pulled something like that with the savedata. for the time being tho, there is noway in he11 im planning to get a pspgo aka 4000 when i just recently bought a 3000, and im quite happy with my 3000, running isos n such, as for the 4000... how am i suppost to get used to tiny buttons? as well as the pissoff analog stick right next to the dpad? what a waste...i guess the 3000 is more for gaming, and i still have my 1000 available. what a true waste of money sony(Y) and you wanna know the bad thing? no sencond analog stick instead they put the frikken start and select button right right where the second analogue is suppost to be... theyre basically mocking people with that one... nahh im not mad... i really dont even give a rats beep about the price...know why? cuz im not gettin one.