UK retailers lament PSP Go pre-orders, demand PSN cards

[Marine Mike]

UK retailers lament PSP Go pre-orders, demand PSN cards
by Andrew Yoon { Jun 26th 2009 at 1:45PM }

If PSP Go is considered a "ripoff" in America, what do our friends in the UK call it, where it may retail for more than double the cost of the current PSP? The official UK price has yet to be revealed, but the leading national retailer Game is taking pre-orders at a "guide price" of £230, a significant jump over the average retail price of £100 for the current PSP.

The sticker shock may be scaring off customers, as independent shops are telling Edge some frightening pre-order stories. "I don't have a single pre-order for PSP Go at the moment," Chips' Don McCabe told the outlet. "We haven't got any [PSP Go pre-orders] at all," repeated Grainger Games' Chris Harwood. While the head of SCEE believes consumers will pay an early adopter premium, McCabe believes otherwise. "We can't see where that price justification comes in when effectively it's a lighter, slimmer PSP. It's got a bit more memory, but memory's not that expensive. It can't handle UMD so part of the mechanism disappears, so where does the price come from?"

Retailers are not getting an added benefit for stocking the PSP Go. Margins on game hardware have been historically low, and PSP Go looks to follow suit. In America, SCEA's Eric Lempel noted retailer enthusiasm due to the sale PlayStation Network cards at retail. UK retail partners currently don't have an equivalent revenue source, a problem that may hinder retail enthusiasm. "You need to see some sort of revenue streams coming off the back of these machines, otherwise from a retail point of view it's just not worth it," said McCabe.

[Elandyll]

I could see a big price drop before the PSP Go will even release.

Early adopter price is one thing, but there has to be an actual novelty factor.
The Go is a slim redesign, that even lacks a UMD drive.
Same price would have been one thing, and generated some buzz at least, but more than double ?

[Marine Mike]

I think thats insane to pay $150 ($400) more for this just because of where they live. If I was in the UK, I'd be pretty upset as well.

Also I don't know why they are complaining as its not like PSP UMDs are flying off the shelves like hot cakes, lol. They'll still be making money on selling the actual console plus all the accessories.