The PlayStation Portable is one of the most popular handheld consoles out there, having managed to move over 50 million units across the world. It has also generated a pretty decent profit for retailers around the world, as they sold not only the device but also UMD discs with games for it.
Now though, with the next version of the handheld, the PSP Go, the
UMD drive is no more and games will be delivered by using a digital content delivery platform, thus skipping retailers altogether and getting the games directly to the end user.
But don't think this will mean that retailers won't endorse the device for not offering them any profit opportunity, as, according to the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe,
Andrew House, the company will look for other solutions for its retail partners, like the sale of vouchers for digital titles or other such things.
“There are other ways in which retailers can participate in the model. I'm a firm believer in things like vouchers and cards at retail – other ways in which you can turn essentially a relationship with a network into a sold good at retail. We'll explore all of those options. It's new and different territory for us, but I think we've got a long enough history with retail partners that we've got a degree of trust there and we want them to participate. It's going to require some collaboration and promotional thinking. An example that looms large is Sony Online Entertainment, that has for years pursued a by and large network only model, does an enormous business in network access cards available at retail. The margin is great, the trade margin is good and everyone is happy with that.”
When the PSP Go will launch this fall, will you prefer to go to the store and buy vouchers for your games or just go online and download the titles straight from your own device? Leave us a comment with your preference.
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