The Channel Wire

June 03, 2009

Sony needs a big splash product if it's ever going to muscle into Nintendo's commanding market share for video game handhelds, and its unveiling of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) Go at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles confirms that Sony's thinking lighter and smaller. The new PSP, which, according to Sony, will begin shipping in the U.S. and Europe in October, will sell for $249 and is both smaller in size and weighs less than Sony's PSP-3000.

PSP Go, the latest in Sony's line of handheld gaming devices in its PlayStation line, was revealed Tuesday at E3 and is designed to appeal to "today's on-the-move consumers who prefer not to carry around disc-based content and are looking for on-demand entertainment," according to the PSP Go's official press release from Sony.

After posting its first annual operating loss in 14 years, Sony needs a hit, handheld or otherwise, in its consumer electronics division -- long thought to be a Sony stronghold. But Nintendo has since 2004 sold more than 100 million Nintendo DS handhelds and also saw its Nintendo Wii blow by Sony's PlayStation 3 in overall sales in 2007.

PSP Go, however, has a unique attribute, in that Sony gamers can download games from Sony's PlayStation store through the PSP Go's WiFi network or by connecting to a PS3 -- there's no Universal Media Disc to be inserted into the device.

The PSP Go also sports 16 GB of internal flash memory, according to Sony, and gamers can use Media Go, a new software application or PCs, to download content. The PSP Go will be available in two colors -- piano black and pearl white.

If anything, it's that price -- $249 -- that's going to vex gamers in a down economy, especially considering that the PSP Go will be $80 more than what they'd pay for a PSP-3000. Sony confirmed it would continue to sell the PSP-3000 at $170 after the PSP Go arrives in the fall.

The PSP Go was one of a number of product announcements made by Sony at E3 this week. Sony also introduced new technology for the PlayStation 3 that uses a camera to track the hand movements of players, similar to the PlayStation Eye accessory Sony already has available. The motion tracker technology will arrive in the spring of 2010, according to Sony.