Says PlayStation Network director

Oct 9, 2009 06:59 GMT  ·  By

The PlayStation Portable Go, the new handheld from Sony, was released on October 1 and along with it Sony also outed the first games in the PSP Mini range, which is set to offer small, easy to download and play and, more crucially, cheap titles for the fresh device. Unfortunately, it seems that their pricing is a major turn off for those looking to game on the gadget.

The Mini releases are more expensive than those on the iPhone from Apple. Fieldrunners, one of the videogames Sony was proud to bring to the Go, cost 6.99 dollars on it and only 2.99 on the Apple device. Hero of Sparta is 1.99 on the iPhone and 5.99 on the Sony device. The disparity is clear and the higher prices on the Go will likely mean less sales of videogames for respective developers and less sales of the hardware itself for the company.

Eric Lempel, who is the director of PlayStation Network operations, has told Joystig that the pricing for the PSP Mini games is not in the hands of Sony. He stated that “The publisher of the title sets the pricing,” adding that “I think they have to carefully look at that, carefully price their content. Mini was intended to be something a little different and we wanted to see a lot of different types of content through minis. If it's not priced correctly, consumers may be turned off at the proposition and say 'I'd rather just go for this kind of stuff instead of minis'.”

If the new Sony gaming platform, which has been criticized for the lack of innovation, the irremovable battery and the high price point, gathers momentum and gets a solid player base, then developers might cut the price tags on their titles and put them in line with those on other platforms and the iPhone. But it might just take a long time to get there.