Sony PSP Go-ne?

Sony, over the past few days has been announcing that the PSP Go will be getting a tempting price cut. Yesterday it was confirmed that Japan and the States would be seeing a decrease in retail price shortly, and now Europe is in on the discount as well. The new prices are going to be as follow; £159.99, $199, and 16,800 Yen respectively.

The PSP Go for many critics was simply a polished test pilot to see how the market might take to download-only titles. While the archive of games available on the Playstation store is impressive, a lot of people took issue with the larger price tag on the new version with no UMD support.

I know from experience that a large percentage of the gaming population still want to have something physical to symbolise and confirm a purchase, even if it will only sit on a shelf with countless other discs. Now although the PSP2 development rumour hasn’t received the kiss of approval from Sony, the industry basically knows that a PSP2 exists thanks to Shaun Himmerick letting slip that his studio actually have one. Bad luck for Sony’s big surprise then.

It doesn’t take much of a leap to piece the two events together. Sony are panicking because now the word is getting around that the PSP2 is scheduled for release roughly Q4 2011, so handheld fans aren’t going to move onto/upgrade to the PSP Go if they know a better one could be out within a year. Hence price reductions in an attempt to restore a chunk of the PSP Go’s life cycle to the market. Will it work? Erm I’m not entirely sure. That cut is rather nice, but yet at the back of my mind I’m so aware that its successor is on the Horizon.

Details on the PSP2 are thin, but word is that it now has a front and back facing camera, touch screen functionality, and a larger HD display.