Sony America scraps UMD-to-PSP Go conversion plans

[Onyxmeth]

Procrastinato said:

Onyxmeth said:

Procrastinato said:

Onyxmeth said:

You must not be aware of the power of upgrading a console to a new model. It isn't just VGChartz. It's everywhere. I wonder would the PS2 Slim and PS3 Slim have been better off getting rid of the drives and become DD only? It sure would attract the new customers, however big that market is, but it would alienate everyone that did upgrade to those slim consoles just for the new look.

It's also a detriment to gamers. As UMDs go down in price and get clearanced out, PSP owners have their choice of pricing the market on both fronts and grabbing UMDs on the cheap. If you think the DD market is going to follow suit, you're foolish. Really the only thing the PSP Go gamer gets is the compact handheld, but they lose out on every other conceivable front and are paying more money to do so.

First, the PSP-3000 is still available.  This is a side-grade, not an upgrade, unless you want what the Go has to offer.  If the PSP-3000 and its UMDs appeal to you, as a consumer... you can buy it (at even more retailers, apparently).  I have to disagree on the upgrading for look/feel being a major player.. I don't believe that it is.  In any case, upgrading hardware isn't in any hardware manufacturer's best interest, because console hardware is almost always sold at a loss...  Even the Go's high margin most likely merely goes to the retailer -- I doubt Sony sees much of it at all, or big retailers wouldn't even carry it.

Second, DD prices will come down if/when it takes over.  We have capitalism to thank for that.  Competition and the basic laws of economics -- profit will be greater without CoG, resale/used, and retail margins (MUCH greater), thus competing economic bodies will have price as a stage on which to compete, plain and simple.  Look at Steam, as an example.

Your first paragraph is basically questioning the existence of the PSP in it's entirety. You say it's not remarkably profitable, that the compact design is not much of a factor in a hardware upgrade, and the PSP 3000 is still available. So then since the PSP 3000 does everything the Go does, and does it for less, where and what is the market for the Go?

Regarding DD reacting anywhere remotely close to retail in regards to price drops and clearancing out items, I give you PSN, XBLA and the VC/WW as the three major examples of why pricing will stand still. Most games that have come out haven't seen a single price drop and only XBLA runs any sort of discount program with it's Deal of the Week thing.

 

On the contrary, the PSP Go appeals to consumers that don't already own a PSP for size reasons -- i.e. consumers who want what the PSP was originally advertised to be: an all-in-one entertainment product, without the weight of a cell-phone contract.  If you wanted that from the previous PSP models, you had to deal with the slightly-larger-than-convenient size of the unit.  In other words, you'd have to really be into power portable gaming, and the other functions of the PSP were probably secondary to you.  The PSP Go... sells itself to everyone who didn't buy a PSP in the first place, due to the size.  That comes with a price (no UMD), but the advantages probably make it worth it for the kinds of folks who like small all-in-one stuff, and honestly, with 16GB of storage, and all the other cool features the Go offers $250 is a good deal in my book (moreso than a PSP-3000 to me, anyway)

The PSP Go has a good chance to do very well, as, quite frankly, the best "high end" portable gaming console currently on the market.  I don't know if you've tried to play high-end games on an iPhone or not -- the graphics are good, but... the touchscreen just doesn't cut it for lots of genres.  The games are just plain inferior to the same kinds of products on the PSP.  The PSP Go fills a gap for people who want portable gaming, but not the size of the PSP, and not the weakness of the iPhone's limited input mechanism (which is great.. for most anything but games), and weak (although numerous) selection of high-grade games (that could change... but currently its the truth).

Console manufacturers make money from software, not hardware -- selling new hardware to existing consumers only helps them through used sales of old, "retired" consoles, and then not much, because the kinds of users who buy used consoles are also the kind who are likely to purchase used games -- i.e. not much benefit to publishers at all.

With regards to DD sale prices on XBLA, PSN, etc...  have you ever considered that retail might have a pretty heavy hand in setting those prices?  Consoles sell primarily through retail, and the console stores are a detriment to retail everywhere.  Retail does not want DD... but clearly Sony has worked out a deal with them (apparently the retail price point, from the looks of things) that satisfies them.  

Can you think of any other reason that software publishers would charge more for products online than they do in retail stores?  There's no cost-of-goods (or very little, if you consider bandwidth), there's no retail cut... you can't honestly believe that price gouging is a smart strategy, and something XBLA and PSN have both chosen to do on purpose.  If either had a choice, they would slash prices to reasonable levels and if the competition didn't do the same, they would absolutely destroy the other network, and retail, in the process.

 

Back to the original topic:  Sony doesn't get to decide about UMD upgrade programs, the software publishers do.  Sony stated they were still working on it.  These kinds of things are new, and tricky -- they're gonna take a long while for everyone to be happy, and all the kinks worked out.  Lots of people have to agree to do basically the same thing.  The truth behind this whole deal seems pretty obvious to me == business likes money.  Business doesn't give stuff away to make money.  DD is new for consoles.  No one is going to move an inch until it proves itself, in this economy.

The end result, with the current situation, is that consumers get stuck with the middleman getting more of their money, and the majority of that money never seeing the hands of the creators of the entertainment the consumers like so much, and pay so much for.  This is basically the reason I'm a fan of the Go -- anyone who whines about it is just shooting me, themselves, and every gamer everywhere, in the foot.

Regarding your first paragraph, didn't you just respond to me saying you didn't believe the Slim's physical change had anything to do with it's appeal as a new purchase? Why is the Go so different?

Your second paragraph describes the happy medium between the iTouch and the PSP, known as the DS, and yes I agree that's what people want, which is why the DS is the market leader. It doesn't describe the Go at all.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at with paragraph three, but I agree I suppose. Hardware does not gather much money. Software does. Used console buyers and used game buyers probably go hand in hand. Not sure what this has to do with this particular subject though.

Paragraph four and five. If Sony is going to take the steps into full DD, then they need to bite the bullet and do what's right for the customer, not the retailer. It's called being gutsy. This halfway approach of testing the market and not having all their shit together before launch shows me they just aren't ready to make any in-roads. This is Sony's fault, not retailers for wanting to continue to make money. PC DD has done it already, and are they suffering for it? Nope. They sell games for less than retail all the time. They put on more sales than retail. The industry hasn't collapsed and PC games still get sold in stores. Whodathunkit, huh?

Paragraph six. Sony can start it and be a leader. No, they can't control EA or Capcom, but they can start with their own first party titles, and build from there with their third party publishers. Even if they use it to be a profitable venture, say a small fee per game, at least get the ball rolling. CD and DVD learned not to fight DD, and there are now discs that come with codes all the time. Sony needs to have had this figured out by launch and show an incentive for 50 million people to side-grade to a PSP Go other than the more compact size.

Your last paragraph, speak for yourself. I love the middle man approach, I love the clearances, the sales and the used market. I take advantage of it all, and until PSN and hopefully it's online competitors become like Steam, I'll continue to hope I still have these options.