Selling Both the PSP-3000 and PSP Go! Is a Good Decision, Says Sony

The PlayStation Portable is one of the most popular handheld platforms in the world, managing to move over 50 million units ever since it was released and seeing three new versions launched and an upcoming revamp in the form of the PSP Go!.

But don't forget that the PSP Go! will be sold alongside the “older” PSP-3000 model, which was outed last year, boasting improved functionality as opposed to older versions. While the UMD-less PSP Go! will cost around $250 dollars, the price of the regular PSP will stay the same, at around $170.

This decision hasn't been met with favorable analyses from industry specialists, who believe that a lot of people will go for the regular PSP-3000 because the PSP Go! is priced too high in order to be attractive for hardcore gamers.

But this is exactly what the maker is good at, according to the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Andrew House, who talked with GamesIndustry about this subject and revealed that the lower priced PSP-3000 would continue to be a hit on opening markets and with customers who prefer packaged media for their entertainment needs.

“It's a market segmentation issue,” said House. “If you look at the broader strengths of Sony, we're very good at managing multiple products against different consumer segments – look at the number of SKUs at Sony Electronics. It's not something that's set in stone, it's a moving market and we feel we want to respond to it. The decision to push this alongside PSP 3000 is absolutely the right one because there's still a very large, untapped market there for a traditional, package media based portable gaming. This allows us to extend into other areas. The beauty is that we can respond to consumer's tastes and balance the two platforms against each other. There's a price point difference between them and we'll monitor that as we go along.”

Are you interested in the new PSP Go!, which boasts improved multimedia capabilities and the elimination of the UMD drive in favor of a much easier digital download service? Or will you go with the tried and true PSP-3000, which is cheaper? Leave us a comment with your choice.