PSP Price Drop? Not This Year

Kris Erickson • Mar 26, 2009 • Comments (2)

While we all sit and wait patiently for the PS3 price drop that never comes, our minds wander to Sony's other console, the PSP. According to recent NPD hardware figures, sales of the PSP have declined by 18 per cent year-over-year when compared with February 2008. This drop in sales suggests to many that a PSP price cut should be forthcoming, to spur sales of the flagging handheld.

Sony doesn’t see it that way, and there are signs that the company has decided to stick to the hardline approach of Japanese execs who think that profitability should come before market share. Speaking to Wired magazine this week, European marketing boss John Koller said that price is not what’s keeping consumers away from the PSP.

“We believe that what's happening right now is that consumers are waiting for the software titles to launch, and a lot of those, as I said, are coming after June. We'll see some of the consumers saying, "We'll wait until Rock Band or Assassin's Creed comes out." There's such a wide array of software titles being launched this year that I think consumers are going to jump in and get a PSP at any point and be pleased with the software selection. As far as a price drop, there's nothing planned and we're not looking at that right now.”

The strength of the yen has made Sony hardware more expensive on the global market, and bigwigs in Japan are reluctant to drop the price of any of the company’s hardware products. However, there are probably other factors at work in the pricing of the PSP. Nintendo’s latest competitor, the DSi is priced in the same range as the PSP at $169. With a lack of other cheaper competitors in the handheld gaming space, Sony probably feels less pressure to slash prices. We expect to see a PS3 price drop long before a corresponding reduction in the cost of the PSP.

What do our readers think? Are you just waiting for Rock Band to come out, or is the price of the PSP keeping you away from the system?