That really is a much more reasonable price, and about what the system is worth in my opinion.

Now all we need is an affordable 10-20GB memory stick duo and the support for over 4GB. Then everyone will be happy!

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"The PSP has lost momentum."

Umm, isn't that jumping the gun? Jeese, we still have the great library of games on the way at years end and Q1 of 2007. I think we about ready to gain momentum.

Besides, the 'stock pile' that Sony has is likely to be the PS3s that ASUS started manufactoring about 3 weeks to 1 month ago. Should be over 200,000 PS3 units by this time.

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A $150 price tag would help it compete with the DS Lite... Still, i think more people would rather get a DS Lite + a $20 game @ $150.

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I may pick one up at $150 to play LocoRoco. Unless that game ends up blowing.

There isn't one game on the PSP now that I want to play that I haven't already played on the PS2.

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A 25% price drop is a bit much. I'd expect a smaller increment. Going down to $179.99 for at leat six months seems far more likely and in keeping with price cuts of the past.

Before anyone brings up the $250 price, that was for a bundle. The $200 PSP nekkid package just matches what was offered in Japan from launch.

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Lost momentum? When did it have momentum? Though some promising games may be slated for future release, there are currently no killer apps for the PSP.

the price drop, if it happens, would be on par to what the device is worth, but it'd be nice if they dropped it another twenty bucks so new adopters wouldn't be so fazed about having to buy a 4GB Pro Duo to really get the most out of the system.

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Yes, abilities. But DS Lite has a great community now. Much more than PSP (sorry)

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Damn... I paid nearly $300 at launch, (was sold out in retail so I bought on eBay), a mere year ago. Now its almost half the price? A little disappointing...

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Homebrew for the PSP really boosted up my interest. I am STILL messing and modifying my PSP. I am not even close to being bored with it. Applications such as AFKIM are really useful because I can use AIM on my PSP! And the Internet Browser which is a blast! I think like at the last firmware Sony should allow unsigned code. That will boost up PSP sales.

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"about what the system is worth in my opinion."

Who cares about your opinion? Your blog makes your 'opinion' (foaming-at-mouth anti-Sony) as known as any of us needs it to be.

About the news - I think it's a good time for the price drop, and I think although the system was 'worth' its price even when it was $249.99, $149.99 is far more competitive in this market at this time.

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A move like this only cheapens the PSP's image even further. It would've been better if the hilights were marketed better. It would most likely spell disaster for Sony's bottom line, while not improving the sales figures. And destroying the bottom line doesn't really help development all that much.

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I don't think the price of the hardware is the problem, but the software is. I just can't force myself to pay $40-$50 for a portable game. I think $30 is the sweet spot.

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@soupbun

I completely disagree. Alot of people, mainstream teens and tweens, see the PSP as something really nice and awe-inspiring. Seeing it drop to a price that is suddenly affordable would greatly boost its adoption rate.

Yes, Sony wouldn't be making more money off of that but if more people adopt the console than more games will be sold. Why else do you think that nothing in the PSP's library can touch NSMB's pristine position on the charts?

Dropping the price down to $150 should be something that Sony should consider. It would also help in propagating uses for the PSP - PS3 interactivity. If more people have PSPs, then developer's can assume that their audience will want some form of interaction between the two.

Mainstream audiences also go for the simple titles, like racing and sports games but the more they play, the more they get interested in other titles. With the good run of titles scheduled for Q4 of this year and Q1 of next year, the new adopters would have a lot of good games to choose from to build their library and establish the PSP as a better handheld.

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"A move like this only cheapens the PSP's image even further."

Your view of the PSP's image is so valid, too. Along with Suicide, you're about the last two people to be taken seriously on any PSP related discussion. Seriously soupbun old pal, you're a little lower on the 'Giving the PSP any credit at all' list than Reggie Fils-Aime.

"And destroying the bottom line doesn't really help development all that much."

What development? Hardware? Sony could take a huge loss and still come back with well designed, progressive hardware next quarter, like they did with the UX series micro PC and now the Mylo Skype/media/chat phone. As for third party software, Sony dropping the PSP pricing can't hurt, especially if they lower dev station prices along with.

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As someone else said, I highly doubt it will drop to $150. $180 sounds much more reasonable.

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pixelator, you can whatever BS opinion you want about me, but with the latest NPD data sagging PSP sales , the DS's affordable image, and the Nintendo's profit advantage on hardware, let me give you two words to describe clearly why lowering the price will kill the PSP - PRICE WAR. Nintendo has so many ways to stave off Sony because it makes so much money off the DS already. Sony needs to work on other things than just playing around with price. $200 is a good price point. Go get a clue.

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yeah, yeah, pixelator. you can give me as little credit as you want, but if you look back on your notes, you'll see exactly where I beat you down. You were always ranting about how great the hardware is, when I told you it would be useless for sales. You were always ranting about the great browser, when I told you that nobody would care because the interface sucked. and look what happened - the NPD data shows sagging sales for the PSP, EA criticizing the PSP in public, still losing money on the hardware, lost momentum. How about when I said the DS software sales will keep up. Or how I pointed how lousy the PSP ports suck (I Personally never cared that the games were ports, but my one time bashing a PSP port - Tomb Raider - was due to really crapping porting). Or how about when I pointed out about having all those multimedia features won't do diddly squat? Given I was never an outspoken fanboy like yourself, I still own one, trying to compare both. Still looking for the next great game for the PSP. You're always a SPECS and NUMBERS, but never looking at the real world. And I've seen you flip back and forth as soon as the numbers changed, saying how PSP needs to shape up when the DS started to really go on a roll. I think this article is just a great place to put you back in your place, goon. Although it's funny how I run into you in other forums, and how much of an ass you look like there too.

So let me give you a few reasons why I think a $150 price point sux:
- the target audience - adult males ppl with lots of disposable income like me - already think $200 is a good price point. Lowering it would only concede to the public that the product isn't really worth the time. Show me one product where it recovered miraculously after a price drop after it sagging sales, and I'll give this point up.
- Nintendo makes HUGE margins off the DS hardware and software. They have so many ways to fight with Sony on a price war - better bundles, lowering the price themselves, giving partner incentives, advertising, etc. Getting into a price war with Nintendo will just SUCK for the PSP's bottom line
- Stringer is trying to turn Sony back around into a profit company. I doubt he wants one of his best divisions to start sinking. And the best way to sink the division is to create further weakness on one of it's key projects. In the real world, businesses know it takes alot more than price slashing to recover your business. Your partners are having doubts about your product, you didn't manage to eliminate the DS like you promised, your competitor managed to trounce you after 2 years on the market, and all those features are starting to look like gimmicks (ironic?) because it didn't make any gains on sales. Do you really think price slashing will solve all that?

So let's see, the only thing I agree with you on is lowering the dev kit price. yes a good start, but seeing some of the ports, I think they need to work on the dev kit a bit further. That will take more cash. hmmm, if you propose to lower the price point to $150 when you're already making a loss on the product, where's the cash going to come from? Another division? Great way to piss off the rest company. That's like asking your dad to hand over your brother's allowance because you spent all yours. Or taking money from your wife to fund your gambling/drinking addictions. Hmmm, pixelator, what's your proposal now? I never had glowing reviews about the PSP like you had, but considering that I own one and resisted all opportunities to eBay it, I don't want it to die either. Price slashing is a great way to kill your product.

Great,you made me rant for a gazillion pages again. Thanks alot, pixelator :P

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yeah, yeah, pixelator. you can give me as little credit as you want, but if you look back on your notes, you'll see exactly where I beat you down. You were always ranting about how great the hardware is, when I told you it would be useless for sales. You were always ranting about the great browser, when I told you that nobody would care because the interface sucked. and look what happened - the NPD data shows sagging sales for the PSP, EA criticizing the PSP in public, still losing money on the hardware, lost momentum. How about when I said the DS software sales will keep up. Or how I pointed how lousy the PSP ports suck (I Personally never cared that the games were ports, but my one time bashing a PSP port - Tomb Raider - was due to really crapping porting). Or how about when I pointed out about having all those multimedia features won't do diddly squat? Given I was never an outspoken fanboy like yourself, I still own one, trying to compare both. Still looking for the next great game for the PSP. You're always a SPECS and NUMBERS TOOL, but never looking at the real world. And I've seen you flip back and forth as soon as the numbers changed, saying how PSP needs to shape up when the DS started to really go on a roll. I think this article is just a great place to put you back in your place, goon. Although it's funny how I run into you in other forums, and how much of an ass you look like there too.

So let me give you a few reasons why I think a $150 price point sux:
- the target audience - adult males ppl with lots of disposable income like me - already think $200 is a good price point. Lowering it would only concede to the public that the product isn't really worth the time. Show me one product where it recovered miraculously after a price drop after it sagging sales, and I'll give this point up.
- Nintendo makes HUGE margins off the DS hardware and software. They have so many ways to fight with Sony on a price war - better bundles, lowering the price themselves, giving partner incentives, advertising, etc. Getting into a price war with Nintendo will just SUCK for the PSP's bottom line
- Stringer is trying to turn Sony back around into a profit company. I doubt he wants one of his best divisions to start sinking. And the best way to sink the division is to create further weakness on one of it's key projects. In the real world, businesses know it takes alot more than price slashing to recover your business. Your partners are having doubts about your product, you didn't manage to eliminate the DS like you promised, your competitor managed to trounce you after 2 years on the market, and all those features are starting to look like gimmicks (ironic?) because it didn't make any gains on sales. Do you really think price slashing will solve all that?

So let's see, the only thing I agree with you on is lowering the dev kit price. yes a good start, but seeing some of the ports, I think they need to work on the dev kit a bit further. That will take more cash. hmmm, if you propose to lower the price point to $150 when you're already making a loss on the product, where's the cash going to come from? Another division? Great way to piss off the rest company. That's like asking your dad to hand over your brother's allowance because you spent all yours. Or taking money from your wife to fund your gambling/drinking addictions. Hmmm, pixelator, what's your proposal now? I never had glowing reviews about the PSP like you had, but considering that I own one and resisted all opportunities to eBay it, I don't want it to die either. Price slashing is a great way to kill your product.

Great,you made me rant for a gazillion pages again. Thanks alot, pixelator :P

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I 'made' you rant? Dude, you've been ranting and railing against the PSP for like two years or more. I've seen your Quixotic posts all over the place.

You 'beat me down'? Uh, OK - whatever you say, kid. Yes, the browser is decent - not perfect, but certainly better than the featureless one you have to PAY for on your beloved DS. PSP sales sagging? It's shipped over 20 million worldwide and likely sold 17+ million. Even in Japan, while a distant second to the DS Lite, it's making a decent showing at #2 and sales have been edging back up of late.

Multimedia on the PSP 'doesn't do diddly squat' for you, who hasn't owned one and has no idea what it's like, but for the people who own and use theirs, it's another story. Yeah, you're no fanboy at all - you're a hateboy, and your 'crusade' against the PSP has and continues to mean, nothing to those of us who know better. I don't believe for a second you own a PSP. You bitch about ports you haven't played, and then I guess you turn to your wonderful DS and... Play ports. Nevermind the fact that Gamerankings/Metacritic establish a higher overall rating for the average PSP game, and show many more higher rated titles than the DS. And yet, according to Nintendites like you, the PSP has crap for games, and they're all 'crappy ports'.

Speaking of goons, it's Nintendo freaks, slavering and raging on Sony, etc. forums who are the true asswipes of the online game community. You can flame me to your Sony-despising, jealousy-steeped hearts content and it doesn't make you any more credible, or right.

You go on to call me a 'specs and numbers tool' when it's YOU who keeps going back to the numbers: DS sales higher, PSP sales flagging, DS game sales, etc. This 'roll' of yours is due to the Lite, anyway. Prior to that, the PSP was faring very well against the DS in the USA saleswise and even in software sales. You wave NPD figures around and then try to say using those figures is stupid, or not 'real world'.

Lemme tell you something about the real world, kid: I own both, have owned more Nintendo products than you ever have and likely ever will. I developed games for 14 years and have gone to CES and E3 since their inceptions. I like the DS, the Lite's a huge improvement, and your doomsaying and insane screaming against the PSP hasn't changed how good a system it is, that it has many good games, that it has sold incredibly well given Nintendo's historic stranglehold on the handheld market and there's more goodness coming (as you can see from the upcoming games). You, on the other hand, are such a rabid and aggro Ninty fanatic, that you can't even begin to allow for both handhelds having their own value and respective market places. From day one, you've gone on record with this hilarious tirade. Don't talk to me about 'credibility', son.

Now you take the incredibly waffled stance of saying $150 is TOO CHEAP for a PSP, that it was better priced before. Absolutely incredible, this reversal of yours. But then, anything that Sony does is going to meet with your ranting disapproval, so what diff does it make?

I never said the PSP would eliminate the DS, either. More fallacious bullshit from your foaming mouth. God knows what else you have up your jittery sleeve, freakboy.

Please provide any real data about all your wild conjecture re: Partners having doubts, how multimedia features didn't have any effect on PSP sales, how Sony gives no partner incentives while Nintendo does, that the DS 'bundles' are 'better', or how DS hardware and software nets 'huge' more margins than PSP. Otherwise, you're talking out of your ignorant Nintendo-loving ass, just like the rest of the loudmothed, Sony-forum-crashing Nintendo fanatic contingent.

Finally, you say that lowering a price for a FAILING product doesn't save it. That's taking for granted that the PSP is FAILING in the first place, which most would disagree on point of fact - the sales have been actually quite good, and worldwide figures don't bear out your dour, Nintendo-favoring views. Imagine that.

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Let me first say that IF the PSP goes for $149.99, then it will sell more than the DS. Wouldnt someone spend $20 more for something that has incredible graphics, plays movies, MP3 player, access to internet, stores photos, and much more? In my opinion if someone thinks about buying a PSP or DS, and they dont want to spend that much money ($20=big difference for them) why go with the DS? The PSP IS your own ipod, movie player, and much more.

My opinion:

PSP = YES

DS = NO

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