PSP Dips to $200
Apparently the soft case, headphones and Memory Stick added up to $50.
Published: March 15, 2006
Among the many, many bombshells dropped at the PlayStation Business Briefing late last night, Sony offered up a couple of interesting tidbits, chiefly among them that North America would see a PSP version that weighs in at under two Benjamins. The catch? You won't get the 32MB Memory Stick, nor the headphones, nor the soft case, it would appear, since Sony's only keen on mentioning that it'll come with a battery and AC adapter, which, uh, one would hope for that price the system came with.
"The PSP is the first portable device to deliver upon the promise of console quality game play, and together with the ever evolving multimedia capabilities, provides consumers with functionality never seen before in a portable device," boasted Jack Tretton, executive vice president and co-COO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "This new price point demonstrates our ongoing commitment to provide the best entertainment experiences, at affordable prices."
Some may argue that $50 doesn't make the system all that much more attractive, especially without the frills like being able to listen to music and movies without annoying the guy next to you on that four hour plane ride, but with 15 million of the things shipped worldwide in less than a year, clearly some demand still exists.
It probably helps that here in North America alone, there are 107 games and a whopping 347 UMD movies (and now our UMD section is starting to look a little bare...), and shipping numbers do not equal purchases, but there's certainly no shortage of the systems now. Sony, in their infinite number-crunching wisdom, is quite happy to point out that the PSP has generated $1.6 billion for the Japanese giant in 2005, which is more than the DS and Xbox 360 combined -- nevermind that the 360 wasn't out for more than a month or so in 2005, it's still a big number with lots of zeroes.
Expect plenty of big news about the PSP -- particularly how it will play nice with the PlayStation 3 -- as we get closer to E3 in May.
"The PSP is the first portable device to deliver upon the promise of console quality game play, and together with the ever evolving multimedia capabilities, provides consumers with functionality never seen before in a portable device," boasted Jack Tretton, executive vice president and co-COO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "This new price point demonstrates our ongoing commitment to provide the best entertainment experiences, at affordable prices."
Some may argue that $50 doesn't make the system all that much more attractive, especially without the frills like being able to listen to music and movies without annoying the guy next to you on that four hour plane ride, but with 15 million of the things shipped worldwide in less than a year, clearly some demand still exists.
It probably helps that here in North America alone, there are 107 games and a whopping 347 UMD movies (and now our UMD section is starting to look a little bare...), and shipping numbers do not equal purchases, but there's certainly no shortage of the systems now. Sony, in their infinite number-crunching wisdom, is quite happy to point out that the PSP has generated $1.6 billion for the Japanese giant in 2005, which is more than the DS and Xbox 360 combined -- nevermind that the 360 wasn't out for more than a month or so in 2005, it's still a big number with lots of zeroes.
Expect plenty of big news about the PSP -- particularly how it will play nice with the PlayStation 3 -- as we get closer to E3 in May.
