Well you are right, if someone goes the minimal route, and removes some games from their PSPGO to when they get new ones they can forgo the $70 memory card. Still, the PSPGO is more expensive than the PSP-3000 so in the end they are still paying for the costs of some memory. Wiifan75 did make a good point though. Most other places have reduced prices for the digital copy vs the physical one. It IS fair.

The thing about PSP Go is that you don't need any extra accesories to start playing. It comes with memory card and all of the basic stuff in the package.

What are the prices of the Xbox 360 games available for download on Xbox live? Are they the same as retail?

^ There was a huge discussion a while back about the pricing on some of the games for the 360s Games on Demand. Where the digital download copies had a higher price than retail.

Digital was higher priced? Ouch.

Destructoid posts an anti-Sony article. Shocking.

Is this only true for America, or Europe as well?

depends on the game.
ps1 games are 6$-10$
PSN 10$-15$.
full games are 29$ burnout and warhawk.

i think it's okay but some retailers have tricks to lower the price.
and price on retailes varies, online stays the same for a while.

and sony DOES INCLUDE a manual. at least for PS1 titles. it includes something like PDF built in.

Not sure about the PSP ecosystem. But DD pricing is usually structured so as not to piss off the retail channel. As of right now, retail is very important.

Yep, it's so as not to undercut retail, which necessarily deals only with physical media.  Some book publishers will sell to you direct from their website or whatever, but they'll almost never give a discount over MSRP.   So you'll pay $24.99 for a hardcover from them, or $16.99 for the same book from Amazon. 

In the case of book publishers it's the same physical media.  In Sony's case, yeah, they are selling digital copies, but the logic remains the same: do not compete against all the retailers, let them do that and take your cut of retail sales, because retailers are important to you.

Any direct sales you get at through your website, whether you are a publisher or Sony, are gravy, but you don't want to alienate retail.

The game price structure could spell doom for a product that is already thought by some to be over-priced.

By not having to produce or ship the item, there is a tangible savings to Sony. After all, the marginal cost of each new download is virtually zero while the marginal cost of each new physical copy includes the medium, the packaging, the instructions, and the transportation to get it to market.

Most consumers will look and think "hard copy vs. non copy" for same price -- I will go with the hard copy.

All Sony would have to do is discount the new games minimally so that the consumer has a perception of paying for what they receive.

Finally, as to the Microsoft claim of constant access, remember that most Wal-Marts and mail order sites are open 24/7. Not quite as convenient, but certainly not worth a premium.

Basically, both Sony and Microsoft should look at how Steam operates.

Mike from Morgantown