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Wow, for once Pachter actually says something I sorta agree with.. | |
I think more important news will be when Sony DOESN'T rip someone off! | |
I don't see why a portable would be made without a disk-drive anyway. You're going to want to be able to swap out stuff without waiting ages for it to download. | |
Are you sure you meant to say "reduce" there?... Sony is dropping a physical format in favour of a digital one, which is the same kind used for pirating. Call me an idiot, Mr. Sony, but doesn't that actually make the pirates' work easier? | |
Yes, that's a ripoff... But what concerns me is the design of that thing. Is there some sort of fold-down grips or something which I just can't see, because that thing looks painful to hold in any way that lets you use the controls. The DSLite is bad enough, but at least the buttons on the DS are higher up. These new ultra-thin handhelds are really fucking up my hands because of poor design. | |
Sony has to try and make money somehow. It's called business. | |
The iPhone has the App store, the PSP has hacking and emulators. | |
And there is a difference between good business and bad business, and this, according to popular belief, is bad business. | |
Before I jump on his bandwagon I would like to know how much that disc drive costs them to manufacture. There is always the possibility that it is actually cheaper to make the umd drive at the current prices for the memory modules they need for this system to be I mean you can pick up a full sized DVD/read write drive for 40 bucks but most 16 GB memory sticks cost 50 bucks for the cheap junk ones. Not saying I agree with Sony ( I also think the price is a little steep) but I would like to know where he is getting his data from. Like does he have hard numbers on manufacturing costs of both systems? | |
Much easier in fact, especially with that
Much easier in fact, you can just input your pirated games via usb and save them on the 60g hard drive. Not that I condone that kind of behavior, but it in no way reduces piracy.
I'm actually curious to see those figures as well, I was under the impression that a 16g solid state hard drive would be a good deal more expensive than a UMD reader. It's cheaper to distribute media digitally of course, but I'm not sure if the cost to produce the actual device is cheaper. | |
Yeah I find that consumer awareness in the video game industry is on the two extremes. Either you are a person buying games and consoles for someone and don't know the internal value of the product or you are the person buying games because it is your passion and know the value of what you get for what you pay. I do find the cost a bit high for the amount of memory they are offering in the device. If they were offering about 32 or 64 gigs of memory and/or an expandable memory slot to increase the amount of space (SD or pro duo doesn't matter) then I would be perfectly fine with the 250 dollar price. The reason is that this handheld is going to be 100% digital downloads via PSN. Consumers will not physically own the product and if said account gets banned there goes all the games which no consumer really wants which is why people like physically owning a product or have the product come in seperate parts. If something breaks down one can figure out on their own which part it is, fix or replace the part and then get back up and running. Much like Apple products if the device is broken there is no way for the individual consumer to figure out how to get the device back up and running, you literally have to rely on the company and have them fix the broken product and they will charge you a fee to fix said device. I'm slowly accepting digital services like Steam for games I don't mind not owning physically but must have games I still NEED that physical disc knowing that I can replace a device and still have the game or replace the game and still have the device. | |
How is trying to just get some damn money a bad business decision? Sure, it's not that cheap, but they have to make money somehow especially for the other *ehem* investment, the PS3. People always moan and groan for cheaper products, but it's either A)Improbable or B)Unreasonable. Even if the PSP Go! was $150 at launch I'm pretty sure people would bitch for an even cheaper one and say "Well, why don't you remove some of the internal flash memory and make it 8GB! It's not like we need 16GB!" and then proceed to say "WAAAHHHH! I need more gigabytes!" But I'm starting to get riled up again. Besides, I'm sure it would probably be bundled in with some other stuff at around the same price. | |
He might be right. I mean the PSP was $250 when it came out, back when it was state of the art. But to pay $250 now for a system that may or may not play my old PSP games and doesn't have a second analogue stick? It kind of seems like a raw deal. I currently have six psp games on umd. What will become of them Sony? What about the children!? | |
Well if you already have a UMD PSP then why would there be a need to buy the Go? I know that when the Go is released or at around that time all PSP games from then on will be sold both in physical UMD and via digital distribution. I still don't know about previous UMD games to Digital, but couldn't you use a memory stick or something to port the save files there? | |
Mmm I'm not sure that's the case actually. It's not like steam where you have to authenticate your games every time you play them. Once you download the files, the game is physically yours, and you can save it on any media you wish. They don't have a means to lock your individual games, and even if they locked out your account (not sure why they would) all the games you had previously downloaded would still be unlocked and playable. They don't have the same DRM system that steam uses, steam requires you authenticate your files each time you load one up unless you download "local content." Even then I'm pretty sure they can lock your content if you ever log on to the internet with the account again. | |
So... That thing costs about as much as a less ripoffy wii | |
There are a couple of really good reasons I need the Go. It slides, its smaller and umm...I'm sure there's one other really good reason, I just need time to invent it. Seriously though, there's no reason for me to get one. But it's like the Geek version of Everest. Why climb it? Because its there man, its there! | |
Now Mr lion, no need to get jumpy. I stated what popular belief was, which is that it's a ripoff. Case in point:
While I disagree with NinTendo's talk on the second analogue stick, as they are not making a new console here, he and Pachter make an point. It's costing the same price as the original for a console that may or may not play older PSP games (though I've heard word of download stations) means it's similar to the DSi, where it's questionable whether or not the amount of added content makes it worth the price when there are already two models out there. I guess the added price isn't a bad business decision, a good one in fact if the consumers lap it up, but it seems to be a ripoff from the consumers side. I am personally going to get an original PSP soon enough, as it should get cheaper soon surely. But bear in mind people will always complain. Always. | |
As does an MP3 player, or an ipod, iphone, or just about any high tech handheld device. And it has far better games to boot. | |
I'll admit it's pretty damn pricey, for something that isn't that different. Although I'll also admit I don't know the intimate details so if someone can correct me, please do. | |
Digital downloads don't always equal convenience. Dropping the UMD is a smart move for Sony, but my experience with the PSN infrastructure has been terrible. Extremely long download times, followed by long installs, not to mention the hassle of simply setting up my account. (It took two days to enter a payment method because PSN wouldn't recognize the format of my street address.) That experience on the PS3 would make me very hesitant to buy this, even if it is more convenient than carrying a disc around. | |
Slow download speeds? I download at a solid 1.25 MB/s and that's my estimated max download band max (10 Mb/s = 1.25 MB/s). I don't think the problem was server side, it probably had to do with your connection. I never had any kind of problems setting up my account, but I don't have a special address situation either. | |
Well we all remember how Enron tried to "get some damn money" and look how that turned out. Granted releasing the PSP Go at a price well above what it should be to most people is a lot different than book-cooking, in that Sony isn't doing anything illegal (...this time*). However let me try and get myself back on topic. Sony can easily make money the way every other video game company has (in theory), through licensing fees and royalties, especially in this new digital model. Sure the console will be sold at a loss, but the profit from game sales will (again in theory) offset it. Now maybe this doesn't work anymore, in fact it may very well not given how the price of games have shot up recently, but through digital distrubution you can actually cut out some expenses like packaging, hence driving down the cost of games and...well i'm just trying one's patience now. Simply put I have no real proof as to whether or not the PSP Go is a ripoff, but the fact it's $80 than the current iteration of the normal PSP despite not having a UMD drive leads me to believe something isn't quite right there. *DISCLAIMER: I have absolutely zero proof that Sony has ever done anything illegal. I'm sure they've come close with a lot of the false advertising they've generated under false pretenses, but that's a grey area. This was merely a joke. | |
fanboying it up a little there aren't we? They're not doing anything illegal (this time) eh? When have they ever? All this talk about it being cheaper to produce and priced higher is all speculation without hard figures to back it up. Solid state hard drives (flash memory) is still pretty expensive vs most disc readers. If I'm not mistaken, i think the screen on the go is a little bit larger than that of the 3000. | |
Well I do agree 250 bucks is a little steep, quite frankly it should be in the 150-200 dollar margin. I also heard that they are still debating the price so 250 MIGHT not be final but don't take my word on that. Also, NO they are not dropping the damn UMD, I made a thread about this a few days ago. Sony is working on a service for UMD owners to be able to get digital versions of their UMD games for free. That and they even said at the conference that even when the go comes out, devs will be distributing ALL games on UMD AND digital. So UMD aint goin anywhere as there's 50 million users shit out of luck. As for the piracy issue...well there is no doubt the go will be hacked eventually but it's going to be a whole lot harder. First off, the 3000 is still rather unhackable, there have been some breakthroughs but thus far it's still rather secure. Second of all, the go is gonna be WAY harder since the general premise of hacking a PSP is manipulating the battery THEN uploading software. You can't do it any other way right now, and the go is like the DS in the fact that it has a built in internal battery. It'll be hacked eventually but it'll take far longer, hell the 3000 has been out for almost a year and it's held up.
nope, it's half an inch smaller than the other PSP screens, although it still maintains the same resolution as every other PSP. Sony's trying to go for portability, so everything is smaller, but hey half an inch is nothing too bad. Normal PSP screen - 4.3 inches, PSPgo screen - 3.8 inches | |
In my country PSP 3000 is 348$ so I don't see the reason for complaining about PSP Go-s price (yet it's scary how rest of the galaxy has lower prices than my country) | |
the old psp dint do great why bring this pile junk out and then charge more | |
Wait...Patcher said something logical...? I need to lie down for a second... | |
I was stoked on this PSP until this point was made, definitely rethinking it now | |
In that case imagine how expensive the Go! will be in your country... | |
There was some talk that Sony had said that selling the PSP Go will be made "worth retailers' while". This lead to the speculation that at least some of the increased price is going to retailers to improve their margins on the units themselves, since they wouldn't be making money selling the games. Now, that doesn't change the fact that it's a ripoff for the consumer, but it could help explain the higher price when, on the face of things (removing a complex piece of machinery), it looks like it should be sold cheaper. | |
Well if you already have a psp(original, slim or 3000) it basically is a rip-off because you are basically paying for the same thing but with a slidy feature(ohh!) plus with a price tag with a higher number on it, just what I always wanted. -_-. | |
Wow, this sure makes me wanna go out and price original PSPs in the hopes they will become dirt cheap, eh? It probably won't happen, but you never know. Or I can just wait a while longer and PSP emulators will be available on the internet. Then I can finally play those like.. two or three games I was curious about without having to pay for a portable console I never liked for 2 or 3 games. Oh, and while I am a fan of the DS, I'm not a fan of the Lite or DSi. I think the DSLite is too freaking hard to hold sometimes because of the button placement, although the power switch is in a better location. And the DSi is absolutely useless to me. I don't need a handheld with cameras, nor do I wanna pay MORE money for yet another iteration of a handheld I already have. It was bad enough when my DS broke and Nintendo forced me to pay for a DSLite because broken hinges (a design flaw I might add) aren't covered under warrenty, which I'd just renewed. :/ Basically what that last bit meant was that simple because I can't stand the PSP doesn't mean I don't dislike other consoles/handhelds, even ones I own. | |
Obviously this video has no relevance to the topic: | |
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Analyst Calls PSP Go a "Ripoff"
Industry analyst Michael Pachter says Sony is "ripping off the consumer" by charging $249 for the PSP Go.
In an E3 follow-up edition of the Bonus Round, Pachter spoke bluntly about Sony's new handheld device, pointing out that the PSP Go costs less to make than the current PSP-3000 because of the lack of a UMD drive but will retail for $80 more. He also noted that while Sony has positioned the device to compete with the iPod Touch, the PSP Go is more expensive but lacks the App Store, iTunes and other features that have made the Apple handheld so popular.
"$249 is too much, period," Pachter said. "The $169 PSP-3000 is a profitable device... The disc assembly for UMD costs more than 16 gigs of flash does, so this new device doesn't cost them as much to make as a PSP-3000, and they jack the price up $80? 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."
Pachter said the new device will also benefit Sony through its digital-only design, which will drastically reduce piracy. He added that a slow rate of adoption will force the price down but not before Sony "takes advantage" of consumers willing to pay top dollar for new consoles.
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