PSP World

PSP Go Price Drops to $200: Is it Enough?

It's official: The price of the PSPGo has dropped to $199 USD starting today. For the money, you get a standard piano black PSPGo console (also available in white), which includes a healthy 16GB of flash memory for music, downloadable games and other content. It can also support the Memory Stick Micro format in case you need more storage space. Bluetooth allows users to equip a wireless headset for skype chatting, although the device also has a microphone built in. The US bundle also comes with three free game downloads: Socom, Ratchet and Clank and LittleBigPlanet PSP.

The new price cut has brought Sony's premium hardware within striking distance of the standard PSP 3000 model, which is priced at $169 USD and comes with nothing more than a power adapter.

Is the new price cut enough to tempt customers? We've often wandered past the game shop and thought about picking up a PSP Go to complement the other PSP systems we already own. The 10 free game offer that ran this past summer in Europe almost convinced us to pull the trigger (what held us back was that 4 of the games were throwaway titles). It was difficult justifying a purchase when we already had PSP units that performed perfectly well (and I personally prefer the landscape orientation of the machine). One factor counting against the PSP 3000 model is that the screen is absolute rubbish, and shows visible interlacing scanlines in many games. The screen on the PSP Go is reportedly much more crisp and doesn't suffer from quality problems.

So, for those with $200, who want the best PSP system currently on the market, and don't mind paying a slight premium for downloadable games, this new offer might just be enough to push them over the edge. The problem for Sony is that marketing the PSP Go as a premium product when the entire handheld brand is in trouble won't fundamentally change its fortunes. What PSP consumers want, whether value-conscious or loaded with disposable income, is a unique handheld gaming experience wit lots of variety and quality titles. Whether it has a flip-out screen or not, or whether we play our games from flash memory or Pro Duo makes little or no difference to the overall experience. Another problem is that you can buy many UMD games for less than $10 while download titles on the PSP Go remain more expensive.