PSP World

Pachter Changes Tune on PSP Go Pricing

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter last week told the press that he thought Sony was ripping off consumers at the announced $249 USD price point for the PSP Go. He felt that the removal of the UMD mechanism and low price of flash memory should have been able to keep the price of the new machine in-line with that of the current model, which retails for $169 USD. This week, however, Pachter put away his consumer advocacy hat and replaced it with his industry analyst one, apologizing for his earlier remarks. He told Industry Gamers that he was sincerely regretful for his earlier choice of language:

"I sincerely regret the choice of words in my response to Geoff Keighley's question in last week's Bonus Round, where I said that Sony is "ripping off" the consumer by pricing the PSP Go at $249.99. I made a poor choice of words, and I do NOT think that Sony is doing anything nefarious in choosing their pricing strategy. The company has the right to price its products at a point that they think is competitive, and has no obligation to sell products at lower than a competitive price. They have been subsidizing purchases of the PS3 since launch, to the tune of 22 million sold at a loss of $100 or more apiece (on average), so if they are able to make a profit on the PSP Go, more power to them," he wrote in a letter to the editors.

While Pachter's public apology was no doubt intended to placate PR people at Sony, we hope that his overall complaints about the high price of the PSP do not fall on deaf ears.