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Forums - Sony - PSP Go: Digital Distribution Killer?

Procrastinato on 23 November 2009
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
The Go could never fail at its price point. Its not a new product, its just a new form factor -- it probably didn't cost that much R&D to develop.

I would actually say that, given its high price point, the PSP Go is a resounding success. Some people are willing to pay $80 for the new form factor and 16GB of internal storage, while losing the UMD drive.

If the PSP Go had been priced at around $200, I bet its sales would be double or more. No retailer would carry it for that small of a retail cut, though, and Sony isn't going to directly pay retailers to sell them at a loss. The used software retailers damaged the Go's business model, because it wasn't compatible with their own -- but they didn't quell it completely.

The software publishers probably make more than 2x as much per software unit sold on the Go, so the number sold is very misleading, in terms of the big picture. Each one put into the wild likely yields more than 2 PSP-3000s worth of publisher software profit, in the long run, in addition to the hardware profit garnered from the device sale itself. On top of that, Sony gets to refine its pricing structure to fit its demographics well, and now has an active DD experiment in the works. The PSN PSP download library is VASTLY superior to the WiiWare library, after all. If Nintendo and Sony are going digital in the next gen, Sony will have at least one significant advantage thanks to this early experience.

Turning a blind eye to the PSP Go, and pretending that its a "failed experiment" like the GameBoy Micro, etc., is folly. It didn't fail at all. If you think so, you're looking at it from a very limited perspective, and you won't "see it coming" when the future is upon us all.

Selling half the devices, and making twice the profit per device, can be a very good thing -- because there's more potential for growth, assuming the model it uses is prevalent in the future. The PSP Go isn't at that "halfway" mark, but it's good enough to be considered an experimental success, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't know why Sony doesn't allow retailers to sell PSN cards at a discounted price (via a point system, like MS or Nintendo -- say $20 for a 2400 point card, where 2400 points would cost $24 online), and, in return, have the retailers sell the PSP Go for something closer to $200. Thus, everyone is happy, and everyone makes more money... except the used retailers that is. The big department stores would be pleased, however. HUGE shelf space savings for them to stock tiny cards that net such large profits.

This is all speculation.

Uh oh.  Intelligent, informed speculation on an internet forum, where the interesting topics are intelligent speculation.

Look out, you might think while reading my post. =)



 

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Grimes on 23 November 2009
Procrastinato said:
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
The Go could never fail at its price point. Its not a new product, its just a new form factor -- it probably didn't cost that much R&D to develop.

I would actually say that, given its high price point, the PSP Go is a resounding success. Some people are willing to pay $80 for the new form factor and 16GB of internal storage, while losing the UMD drive.

If the PSP Go had been priced at around $200, I bet its sales would be double or more. No retailer would carry it for that small of a retail cut, though, and Sony isn't going to directly pay retailers to sell them at a loss. The used software retailers damaged the Go's business model, because it wasn't compatible with their own -- but they didn't quell it completely.

The software publishers probably make more than 2x as much per software unit sold on the Go, so the number sold is very misleading, in terms of the big picture. Each one put into the wild likely yields more than 2 PSP-3000s worth of publisher software profit, in the long run, in addition to the hardware profit garnered from the device sale itself. On top of that, Sony gets to refine its pricing structure to fit its demographics well, and now has an active DD experiment in the works. The PSN PSP download library is VASTLY superior to the WiiWare library, after all. If Nintendo and Sony are going digital in the next gen, Sony will have at least one significant advantage thanks to this early experience.

Turning a blind eye to the PSP Go, and pretending that its a "failed experiment" like the GameBoy Micro, etc., is folly. It didn't fail at all. If you think so, you're looking at it from a very limited perspective, and you won't "see it coming" when the future is upon us all.

Selling half the devices, and making twice the profit per device, can be a very good thing -- because there's more potential for growth, assuming the model it uses is prevalent in the future. The PSP Go isn't at that "halfway" mark, but it's good enough to be considered an experimental success, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't know why Sony doesn't allow retailers to sell PSN cards at a discounted price (via a point system, like MS or Nintendo -- say $20 for a 2400 point card, where 2400 points would cost $24 online), and, in return, have the retailers sell the PSP Go for something closer to $200. Thus, everyone is happy, and everyone makes more money... except the used retailers that is. The big department stores would be pleased, however. HUGE shelf space savings for them to stock tiny cards that net such large profits.

This is all speculation.

Uh oh.  Intelligent, informed speculation on an internet forum, where the interesting topics are intelligent speculation.

Look out, you might think while reading my post. =)

 

I'm thinking something, that's for sure... that my BS detector is going off the charts.



Anyone can guess. It takes no effort to throw out lots of predictions and have some of them be correct. You are not and wiser or better for having your guesses be right. Even a blind man can hit the bullseye.

silicon on 23 November 2009
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
The Go could never fail at its price point. Its not a new product, its just a new form factor -- it probably didn't cost that much R&D to develop.

I would actually say that, given its high price point, the PSP Go is a resounding success. Some people are willing to pay $80 for the new form factor and 16GB of internal storage, while losing the UMD drive.

If the PSP Go had been priced at around $200, I bet its sales would be double or more. No retailer would carry it for that small of a retail cut, though, and Sony isn't going to directly pay retailers to sell them at a loss. The used software retailers damaged the Go's business model, because it wasn't compatible with their own -- but they didn't quell it completely.

The software publishers probably make more than 2x as much per software unit sold on the Go, so the number sold is very misleading, in terms of the big picture. Each one put into the wild likely yields more than 2 PSP-3000s worth of publisher software profit, in the long run, in addition to the hardware profit garnered from the device sale itself. On top of that, Sony gets to refine its pricing structure to fit its demographics well, and now has an active DD experiment in the works. The PSN PSP download library is VASTLY superior to the WiiWare library, after all. If Nintendo and Sony are going digital in the next gen, Sony will have at least one significant advantage thanks to this early experience.

Turning a blind eye to the PSP Go, and pretending that its a "failed experiment" like the GameBoy Micro, etc., is folly. It didn't fail at all. If you think so, you're looking at it from a very limited perspective, and you won't "see it coming" when the future is upon us all.

Selling half the devices, and making twice the profit per device, can be a very good thing -- because there's more potential for growth, assuming the model it uses is prevalent in the future. The PSP Go isn't at that "halfway" mark, but it's good enough to be considered an experimental success, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't know why Sony doesn't allow retailers to sell PSN cards at a discounted price (via a point system, like MS or Nintendo -- say $20 for a 2400 point card, where 2400 points would cost $24 online), and, in return, have the retailers sell the PSP Go for something closer to $200. Thus, everyone is happy, and everyone makes more money... except the used retailers that is. The big department stores would be pleased, however. HUGE shelf space savings for them to stock tiny cards that net such large profits.

This is all speculation.

Uh oh.  Intelligent, informed speculation on an internet forum, where the interesting topics are intelligent speculation.

Look out, you might think while reading my post. =)

 

I'm thinking something, that's for sure... that my BS detector is going off the charts.

I liked Procrastinato's post. If there were more post like that this forum would be better off.

 

You're right about the experience they'll gain and it will be important. I heard an interview with John Carmack, and he believed that Nintendo could be one of the first console makers to go pure DD.



Icyedge on 23 November 2009
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
Grimes said:
Procrastinato said:
The Go could never fail at its price point. Its not a new product, its just a new form factor -- it probably didn't cost that much R&D to develop.

I would actually say that, given its high price point, the PSP Go is a resounding success. Some people are willing to pay $80 for the new form factor and 16GB of internal storage, while losing the UMD drive.

If the PSP Go had been priced at around $200, I bet its sales would be double or more. No retailer would carry it for that small of a retail cut, though, and Sony isn't going to directly pay retailers to sell them at a loss. The used software retailers damaged the Go's business model, because it wasn't compatible with their own -- but they didn't quell it completely.

The software publishers probably make more than 2x as much per software unit sold on the Go, so the number sold is very misleading, in terms of the big picture. Each one put into the wild likely yields more than 2 PSP-3000s worth of publisher software profit, in the long run, in addition to the hardware profit garnered from the device sale itself. On top of that, Sony gets to refine its pricing structure to fit its demographics well, and now has an active DD experiment in the works. The PSN PSP download library is VASTLY superior to the WiiWare library, after all. If Nintendo and Sony are going digital in the next gen, Sony will have at least one significant advantage thanks to this early experience.

Turning a blind eye to the PSP Go, and pretending that its a "failed experiment" like the GameBoy Micro, etc., is folly. It didn't fail at all. If you think so, you're looking at it from a very limited perspective, and you won't "see it coming" when the future is upon us all.

Selling half the devices, and making twice the profit per device, can be a very good thing -- because there's more potential for growth, assuming the model it uses is prevalent in the future. The PSP Go isn't at that "halfway" mark, but it's good enough to be considered an experimental success, in my opinion.

Honestly, I don't know why Sony doesn't allow retailers to sell PSN cards at a discounted price (via a point system, like MS or Nintendo -- say $20 for a 2400 point card, where 2400 points would cost $24 online), and, in return, have the retailers sell the PSP Go for something closer to $200. Thus, everyone is happy, and everyone makes more money... except the used retailers that is. The big department stores would be pleased, however. HUGE shelf space savings for them to stock tiny cards that net such large profits.

This is all speculation.

Uh oh.  Intelligent, informed speculation on an internet forum, where the interesting topics are intelligent speculation.

Look out, you might think while reading my post. =)

 

I'm thinking something, that's for sure... that my BS detector is going off the charts.

His post may be speculation, but it is definitly not BS. Its written in an intelligent manner and what hes saying makes sense.



famousringo on 23 November 2009
silicon said:

 

You're right about the experience they'll gain and it will be important. I heard an interview with John Carmack, and he believed that Nintendo could be one of the first console makers to go pure DD.

I'm thinking that this is why Nintendo is sinking millions of dollars into research on holographic storage technology, and why they're trying everything short of actually including online modes in their games ( ) to get people to connect their Wiis to the internet.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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silicon on 23 November 2009
famousringo said:
silicon said:

 

You're right about the experience they'll gain and it will be important. I heard an interview with John Carmack, and he believed that Nintendo could be one of the first console makers to go pure DD.

I'm thinking that this is why Nintendo is sinking millions of dollars into research on holographic storage technology, and why they're trying everything short of actually including online modes in their games ( ) to get people to connect their Wiis to the internet.

I felt that might he have some good insight, considering in the same interview he spoke about making a launch game for the next gen of consoles. In order to do that you need to have to know what you're going to be working with.



Avinash_Tyagi on 23 November 2009

Iwata said that pure digital is a few decades away



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

steverhcp02 on 23 November 2009
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Iwata said that pure digital is a few decades away

No doubt. Until we have insanely large flash drives, like 500gb AT LEAST of internal memory as well as online anywhere, DD on portable devices and even home distribution wont become the standard.

People look for functionality and ease of use. When either of those are slightly compromised it will be viewed as either gimped or insufficient.

That said, steps need to be taken, the PSPgo is a step in the right direction but its still so niche, obviously by the sales, but ushering in users to DD is always good, but nowhere near becoming standard.




Get Your Portable ID!

silicon on 23 November 2009
steverhcp02 said:
Avinash_Tyagi said:
Iwata said that pure digital is a few decades away

No doubt. Until we have insanely large flash drives, like 500gb AT LEAST of internal memory as well as online anywhere, DD on portable devices and even home distribution wont become the standard.

People look for functionality and ease of use. When either of those are slightly compromised it will be viewed as either gimped or insufficient.

That said, steps need to be taken, the PSPgo is a step in the right direction but its still so niche, obviously by the sales, but ushering in users to DD is always good, but nowhere near becoming standard.

Iphones are portable DD devices. Are there any smart phones that aren't DD only?

 

It will be a few decades away for HD gaming though.



Avinash_Tyagi on 23 November 2009

^Most successful DD devices have rampant piracy



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)