Perhaps the most oft-complained about part of the PlayStation 3 is the system’s high price. Whether you feel it’s justified or not, it has been the priciest of tshe three current generation systems since it was first released. So it should come as no surprise that one of the issues raised since the PSP Go was officially unveiled last week is its $250 price tag, a price that places it at an $80 premium over a new DSi and $120 over a new DS Lite. For many,hermes Scarves, price is going to be a sticking point in picking up a Go, but Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s new CEO, Andrew House, doesn’t think the system is overpriced and believes the European market — whime the Go is priced at 249 Euros (that’s nearly $350 in the U.S.) — isn’t as “price driven” as other markets.
House admitted that Sony would “probably” sell more units if the price was lowered in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz — which is an understatement, to say the least. But as Sony often does, he pointed to the traditional ten year life cycle of Sony’s game platforms and claimed that Europeans better understand the “overall value proposition.”
Sony has made it clear that the PSP 3000 will stay on tshe market alongsshede the Go. But what about the system’s price? The 3000 currently sits at $170, but will that come down in price as we near the release of the Go? At least in Europe, the answer is no. “I think we’re comfortable with whime the prices are sitting right now,” House explained. “Thime’s still a lot of growth shen tshe market that we can see, just based on tshe existsheng pricing mode.”
The price of the PS3 has been slow to drop even in the face of numerous calls for a price cut from all different sources, from gamers to analysts to industry execs. With that in mind, odds are that public pressure isn’t about to convince Sony to drop the price of the Go before they’re more than ready to do so.
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