@Azquelt: Agree with the PSN store prices, absolutely ludicrous..
But are we in the same UK here? Student's are pretty much the only people en mass who CAN afford to drop £200 on a handheld. Well, unless you're student loan isn't available yet, but still, it's coming.
@AllOfUsAreLost.: i wonder how student loans in the UK work. in america, they require you to cut off your pinky, sacrifice a family member to the Monkey God, and kill an elderly couple, all while singing showtunes. and sometimes after all that, you still get turned down!
@pandafresh: In England you can apply for a maintenance loan (to cover rent, food, transport etc.) of up to £4950 a year. You can also apply for a tuition fees loan of up to £3225 (which is the maximum yearly tuition fee that universities can charge for the majority of undergraduate courses). These loans are both means tested, but in practice, most students will get close to the full allowance every year of the three or four years of their undergraduate course.
Loans are managed by the Student Loans Company, which is a central non-government organisation that works in close partnership with the Inland Revenue.
Students don't have to pay back any of their loans until after they graduate and are earning at least £15,000 a year. If your earnings are over that threshold, then you pay back 9% of your income over £15,000 (so for someone earning the UK mean salary of £24,000, they would pay back 9% of £9000, equivalent to 3.4% of their total salary). Repayments are just taken out of cheque at the end of the week or month, in the same manner as income tax and national insurance.
The interest rate on student loans is determined by the Retail Price Index, which is a general inflationary measure of the cost of things such as consumer goods and accommodation. Because of the economic situation at the moment, the interest rate on most student loans is currently 0%, but it varies year on year.
When you reach a certain age (60 or 65, I can't remember) any outstanding loan repayments get written off.
So Wintrale's description is not entirely accurate. As far as I'm concerned, I think my student loan is probably the only time in my life I'll ever be able to get credit on such hugely favourable terms, and the fact that it went to pay for my education means that it was a debt that I was more than happy to take on. It is far preferable to the terms of most credit cards or mortgages, for example.
Didn't Sony say the launch price included the early adopter tax? I wouldn't be surprised to see a $200/equivalent Euro pricing scheme not too long after the Holidays.
I don't think this has anything to do with sales. According to Sony sales went up 120% compared to last week, with 50% of this weeks sales attributed to the Go, while also seeing an increase in sales for the 3000. (As Sony predicted).
What I think is interesting is that this could be a strong indication that there is indeed a large margin of profit for the device, specifically if retailers are able to sell at such a discount. They must be making some profit, even after such a discount.
I would hazard a guess that it's cost of production is closer to the 3000, and that the higher price tag, allowing for higher profit margins, could be a sign of good will towards retailers in lieu of having no actual software to attach to the device.
@bakagaijin: This sprung to my mind as well. Retailers obviously never sell something like this at a loss so they must still be making some sort of reasonable profit - especially since they won't be making anything from software. With that extra £25 tacked on for the RRP maybe the past stories about some retailers refusing to sell them was a bit of an over reaction?
Did Sony ship some brain slugs to retailers along with the boxes of PSP Go? Leave it to retailers to not only be doing Sony's job of getting the damned thing in the hands of consumers but also cutting off their own hands in the process.
@excel_excel: I don't think I've even seen any internet ads for it. No signs, no ads, no nothing. Kind of makes you wonder if even Sony believes it won't do all that well.
@excel_excel: Maybe the launch itself was low key, but I saw no less than 20ish commercials for it within a couple hours on TV last night. A lot just being the Go mentioned with other PSP games (like GT PSP) but a few of them just for the Go itself. Doesn't seem like they're sparing any expense to market it.
EDIT: Or maybe it's just the channels I watch. Apparently you guys have barely seen any and now I feel like a crazy man posting.
@RockyRan: Same here but the only one ad I've seen that even features it is at the end of a GT PSP ad. Thats all! I remember the big adverstising push behind the DSi, in comparison the PSPGo advertising is virtually non existant.
Why are Sony not advertising it anyway? Maybe they are still viewing it as an experiment?
@RockyRan: I've seen a couple of commercials on TV. I was disappointed in the ads since Sony is targeting that sort of yuppie Apple market with the Go by using lifestyle imagery. I was hoping the great PS3 ads of late might have shown that Sony was moving away from that garbage.
You're probably not seeing ads for it in GameStop since PSP Go is ushering in the end of retailers.
@excel_excel: I haven't seen anything online, but I get most of my gaming news from Kotaku and only ever visit a couple other game sites (sometimes GameTrailers, 1up, and Joystiq, but that's about it). So if it's not there, I probably won't catch it.
I saw a bunch of commercials over the weekend *especially* for GT PSP (which seemed like it came on every single commercial break) as well as a number for just the PSP Go itself. A lot during the South Park marathon on Comedy Central, as well as on Spike.
Last week's Ultimate Fighter w/ Kimbo Slice had a metric fuckton of PS3/PSP Go commercials (then again, PS3 was one of the ring sponsors, so maybe that had something to do with it as well). And, per usual, a number seemed to be on the typical Adult Swim programming (which always had a boatload of videogame commercials).
But yeah, maybe there's hardly any commercials for it on other stations, but I know those 3 seemed like they were bombarded with 'em.
@excel_excel: Given the margins for hardware I've heard about for other consoles, they are probably making $5 on the sale of the PSP Go with little chance of getting any more money for it in the future. Maybe they can con them into a "starter pack" with a plastic cover or a memory card, but that is it.
They'd have to drop it to $150 to make me interested. For real. I can get a 3000 (which I just did) for $80 less that plays umds and then get a 16g memory stick pro duo. insane.
@captain zach america: Lol this thing is decent hardware, its not a DS? What the hell does that mean? Seriously that make you look like some massive fanboy.
Maybe it should be the same price as a normal PSP seeing as it takes out the UMD drive, and simple has 16GB flash memory which is the same as a PSP with a 16GB stick in it
@excel_excel: it IS decent hardware, though. Can a DS play music or video? Can it connect to a store where you're able to purchase movies? The PSP's web browser is also snappier and much faster than the DSIs.
@depward: huh? The DS is decent hardware, just because the PSP can do those things doesn't mean the DS is crap which is what his trollish remark implied.
@excel_excel: I didn't mean it in a "The DS has crap hardware" (well... not really), but I'm just saying that the PSP specs are a whole lot better than the DS specs, yet look at the DS price. What is it, 150 or 200, around that area? The PSP is a steal for 200, considering what it can do.
@excel_excel: The PSP 3000 is what, 170 right? Same as the DSi.
Like I said, because this comes with 16GB memory, 200 dollars would be a good price point.
16GB memory doesn't sound like a lot, but it's pretty expensive in terms of those little cards if you google it.
I do agree 250 is too high. I think Sony wanted to reap the 'geek benefit' (you'll know what I mean if you own a desktop gaming PC and buy graphics cards) for the first month or two, and perhaps drop the price after sales slow down? Common business tactic.
11/17/09
11/17/09
even the queen
wow thats some high hopes you got there Valve #left4dead2
11/17/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
a) I could afford it (I am a student)
b) I thought I wasn't going to get screwed over by prices on the PSN store
10/05/09
But are we in the same UK here? Student's are pretty much the only people en mass who CAN afford to drop £200 on a handheld. Well, unless you're student loan isn't available yet, but still, it's coming.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/06/09
Loans are managed by the Student Loans Company, which is a central non-government organisation that works in close partnership with the Inland Revenue.
Students don't have to pay back any of their loans until after they graduate and are earning at least £15,000 a year. If your earnings are over that threshold, then you pay back 9% of your income over £15,000 (so for someone earning the UK mean salary of £24,000, they would pay back 9% of £9000, equivalent to 3.4% of their total salary). Repayments are just taken out of cheque at the end of the week or month, in the same manner as income tax and national insurance.
The interest rate on student loans is determined by the Retail Price Index, which is a general inflationary measure of the cost of things such as consumer goods and accommodation. Because of the economic situation at the moment, the interest rate on most student loans is currently 0%, but it varies year on year.
When you reach a certain age (60 or 65, I can't remember) any outstanding loan repayments get written off.
So Wintrale's description is not entirely accurate. As far as I'm concerned, I think my student loan is probably the only time in my life I'll ever be able to get credit on such hugely favourable terms, and the fact that it went to pay for my education means that it was a debt that I was more than happy to take on. It is far preferable to the terms of most credit cards or mortgages, for example.
10/06/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
What I think is interesting is that this could be a strong indication that there is indeed a large margin of profit for the device, specifically if retailers are able to sell at such a discount. They must be making some profit, even after such a discount.
I would hazard a guess that it's cost of production is closer to the 3000, and that the higher price tag, allowing for higher profit margins, could be a sign of good will towards retailers in lieu of having no actual software to attach to the device.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
That's a good point (about the good will to retailers)!
I never thought of it like that. Now my perspective of the PSPgo is not as harsh anymore :/
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
EDIT: Or maybe it's just the channels I watch. Apparently you guys have barely seen any and now I feel like a crazy man posting.
10/05/09
Why are Sony not advertising it anyway? Maybe they are still viewing it as an experiment?
10/05/09
You're probably not seeing ads for it in GameStop since PSP Go is ushering in the end of retailers.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
I saw a bunch of commercials over the weekend *especially* for GT PSP (which seemed like it came on every single commercial break) as well as a number for just the PSP Go itself. A lot during the South Park marathon on Comedy Central, as well as on Spike.
Last week's Ultimate Fighter w/ Kimbo Slice had a metric fuckton of PS3/PSP Go commercials (then again, PS3 was one of the ring sponsors, so maybe that had something to do with it as well). And, per usual, a number seemed to be on the typical Adult Swim programming (which always had a boatload of videogame commercials).
But yeah, maybe there's hardly any commercials for it on other stations, but I know those 3 seemed like they were bombarded with 'em.
10/05/09
If I owned a gaming store, I wouldn't sell it.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
I think a good price is $200.
10/05/09
10/05/09
And your -so EDGY- with the DS remark.
10/05/09
Maybe it should be the same price as a normal PSP seeing as it takes out the UMD drive, and simple has 16GB flash memory which is the same as a PSP with a 16GB stick in it
10/05/09
10/05/09
It may be decent hardware, but it's also like 3 year old tech. It's almost completely identical to the 3000 and yet it costs $80 more.
I'm sorry, but 16GB and bluetooth =/= $80. Especially with the money you save by ditching the UMD drive.
10/05/09
10/05/09
Didn't meant to come across as a fanboy.
10/05/09
10/05/09
10/05/09
Like I said, because this comes with 16GB memory, 200 dollars would be a good price point.
16GB memory doesn't sound like a lot, but it's pretty expensive in terms of those little cards if you google it.
I do agree 250 is too high. I think Sony wanted to reap the 'geek benefit' (you'll know what I mean if you own a desktop gaming PC and buy graphics cards) for the first month or two, and perhaps drop the price after sales slow down? Common business tactic.
05/13/09
@FukDaPoh-leese Shank'd lol.
05/13/09
05/13/09
Since they started taking bribes. So, a very, very long time.
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
prisoners get to play video games? is there something wrong with this picture?
05/13/09
05/13/09
05/13/09
If anything, I'd make them play Superman 64.
05/13/09