Mr.Blonde510

Its not oficial(announced by Sony)yet, but various sites have published that at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony have confirmed to various members of the press that the PSP would indeed retail for 38,624 Yen in Japan and $349.99 here in North America. As well, PSP games (as they are disc-based) require a memory stick that itself retails for $29.99.

darkside

Yikes, I thought they were too expensive at $249.99. If this is accurate the PSP will not compete with the DS at all. They will be going after two very different types of audiences.

PixyJunket

My God, you could practically buy all three current consoles for that much..

Josh H

That's absurd.

I'd never pay more than $100 for a handheld gaming system. Sure this one plays movies, but even that is useless since it doesn't play DVDs. Who the hell want's to rebuy movies on a special portable format?

Roto

I can't believe anyone expected this to be under $300. That screen is huge and obviously so is the processing power. I do think at that price they should throw in a full game. They aren't planning on that, are they?

Being able to play movies on it is cool, but not when you have to buy the movies specifically for it. That feature going to fail big time. If you could copy your movies to a PSP disc somehow (even if it took some work) this could've competed with the Personal Media Center devices.

msdmoney

I still take this news with a grain of salt, it hasn't really been substantiated yet. But if Sony does sell the PSP for this much I don't think they will be competing, not just with Nintendo, but with anyone. They will price themselves right out of the market IMO. I just can't see even the techies wanting a $350 portable gaming machine, that plays proprietary movies on a format that you can't record youself, and going with a non-mp3 music player (I believe).

Josh H

I thought they might be willing to go at $249 to be more competitive with the DS and GBA, but I guess they were serious when they said they weren't competing with Nintendo.

kvrdave

I'm getting this just so I can buy my movies over again

What a fantastic feature.

mullivan

My guess: They accidentally on purpose leak "news" of a $350 price, and then when it's actually released and they put a $299 price on it it seems like a relative deal. We will see...

BabiG

From what I understand, they got the price from the conversion of the yen price to dollars. The price in the US might be slightly lower, but I'd be surprised if it's significantly lower then $300.

Even at that price I don't think I could come close to justifying it. Maybe if they made it a cell phone too.

azeledge

Wow even if the Price is $250 I think I'm gonna wait this one out until price drops. The last 3 generations of systems I bought on launch day. It will be weird to not be the first kid on the block anymore

BeckysBoy

Whether at $350 or $300, Sony is setting themselves up for a bad fall. Not only will this make it difficult for them to compete with a Nintendo portable, it will fragment their market share overall. At that price, few gamers will be buying a PSP and a PS2/PS3. They'll invest in one or the other. Nintendo's genius has always been in encouraging their fans to buy both their portable and home consoles by pricing them lower, establishing franchises back and forth across platforms, and pushing connectivity (to mixed success, though Four Swords is a reason to invest in it all by itself).

Nintendo doesn't even need to play up all the nifty stuff the DS can do. They can just run plain white ads with the text: "Two screens. Half the price. Period."

The PSP is a little box full of impressive technology. But so far it looks like that technology has been badly mishandled.

jeffdsmith

The price of the PSP was #2 on the list of my concerns for the device. #1 being the battery life.

Three Years From now
Knock Knock...
Who's there?
Sony PSP.
Sony PSP who?
.....

Mopower

You would have to be high as a motherfu.... to buy that thing for more than $200. Where's the market for a $350 handheld gaming device? Japan?

Breakfast with Girls

Breakfast with Girls

Pictured, clockwise from top-left:
Sony's announcement of PSP portable gaming system
Sony's announcement of a $350 price point
Sony's announcement of the PSP's failure due to "market conditions not being appropriate at this time"

Mr.Blonde510

found this article

Analysts speculate that the Sony PSP's "disappointing" TGS showing--and lack of a fixed price point--may be causing investors to flock to Nintendo.
TOKYO--Even though the company was a TGS no-show, Nintendo's stock price shot up early this week, reports Bloomberg Japan. Nintendo's share price rose 2.1 percent, or 260 yen, to 12,760 yen on the Monday following Tokyo Game Show. Financial analysts in Japan are debating whether the rise in share price was directly influenced by the events of Tokyo Game Show or simply coincidental.


KBC Securities' Hiroshi Kamide noted that investors might have simply been looking for something stable to buy. "Nintendo's shares are probably being purchased as defensive stock, a stock that tends to remain stable during difficult economic conditions, since the company's performance is stable and the market is hitting a low," he said.

But UFJ Tsubasa Securities analyst Kei Oka painted a different picture. "People who were disappointed after seeing Sony's PSP and its games [at TGS] may now be anticipating the Nintendo DS," he said. While Sony Computer Entertainment had more than 20 PSP games at the show, many of them were still in the early stages of development. And although analysts did not seem to have any issues with the hardware itself, they questioned whether Sony could indeed release the PSP by the end of the year with a solid third-party game lineup. Furthermore, questions regarding the PSP's battery life and price went unanswered at TGS.

Whatever the reason, there may be additional movement in Nintendo's share price on October 7. On that day in both Japan and North America, the company will have a media-only event that will introduce the DS's final form and update the software lineup that will complement the new handheld's launch.

Mopower

Better yet here is video of people waiting to hear how much this thing costs. And their reactions to the price.

http://members.cox.net/ednortenscores/carcrowd.mpeg

joshd2012

I can't believe you all believe this.

Since when is anything in Japan priced 38,624 yen, instead of 38,500?

Its more fake than Pamala Anderson's boobs.

jeffdsmith

I'm not saying you are wrong, but how do you explain Sony's lack of a denial to these claims?

darkside

Sony has been very quiet about the price and battery life. That alone is reason to worry. If Sony goes over $250 for this thing it's doomed. Maybe they will realize that at some point.

TOPDAWG

This man is %100 right I bet. Have you seen his post? You know he works for Sony.

belboz

Even at $350, it'll sell well, at least initially. It's a pretty sexy gadget and frankly there's a lot of people out there who can easily afford expensive toys.

These are the people who bought DVD players when they were $800 and there were only a few movies available. They buy $400 iPods, $500 cell phones, and blow two grand on wheels for their car.

Longer term, its success will depend on how well Sony markets the device. If they're able to maintain the sexy/cool image and provide real value (good games, cheap movies, flexible access to music), the PSP will do fine. Much of the current market for portable gaming won't buy it, but then many of the people who will be buying it won't ever even consider buying a GBA or DS.

Draven

Once again, I've said from day one this thing would be at least $300. This is not surprising news at all.

Groucho

Might be worth it if it could play DVD's and was fully backward compatable with all PS2 and PS1 games.