PSP Go gets price drop
PSP Go, the latest iteration of Sony's popular portable gaming platform, is getting a price cut. According to Reuters, the PSP Go will soon sell for $199, down fifty bucks from the original price tag of $249. Plenty of online stores – including Amazon.com – are already listing the PSP Go at the reduced price point.
The PSP Go, which was unveiled this summer at the annual E3 conference, was greeted with generally solid reviews, although some analysts worried that Sony had overpriced the device.
"Like Nintendo's done with the DSi, Sony is extending (and, it hopes, revitalizing) a portable platform that's sold tens of millions of units worldwide," CNET noted at the time. "Considering that this is an evolutionary product – the only real appeal is the smaller form factor – the high price is certainly going to be a barrier for those who already own and enjoy the existing PSP."
It certainly makes sense that Sony would now drop the price on the PSP Go. For one, the competition is fierce. The Nintendo DS remains popular, and the forthcoming Nintendo 3DS looks poised to shake up the mobile gaming market all over again. Meanwhile, good, solid smartphone games – including the deservedly popular Angry Birds – continue to flood the market.
For our part, we would find it very hard indeed to shell out hundreds of dollars for a PSP Go or a Nintendo 3DS – and the slew of attendant titles – when we could simply download a bunch of cheaper games for our phones – especially iPhone and Android devices. As we have noted in the past, the new breed of smartphones make for formidable gaming machines, from the increasingly-fast processing speed to the fine screen resolution. Sure, the scale is different – you pay 99 cents for a couple hours of iPhone fun and $30 for long-term DS gaming (150+ hours if we're talking about Dragon Quest). But portables are designed to be bite-sized, both in price and game length.
But hey, we don't want to speak for you. Is there something we're missing? What can you get from a PSP Go that you can't get from another device? Drop us a line in the comments section – and keep it civil, folks.
