With the PSPgo launching this tomorrow Sony has struggled to face an up-hill battle to convince retailers to sell their handheld. Without a physical storage reader, such as previous PSP version’s UMD drive, the bulk of retailers profit, from game sales, is lost as consumers have no other option than to download their games through the PSN.
Recently, various retailers have gone on record saying the device won’t be sold in their stores, and the UK site Shopto.net saying:
“As a format it is almost dead before it has arrived… we do have it listed on the site, but we are not concentrating any big marketing behind it.”
However Sony’s UK product manager, Claire Blackhouse believes that retailers are actually happy to have the new console in their stores, echoing statements by the director of PSN operations Eric Lempel, she commented:
“We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got,”
Further continuing:
“[The retailers] were really quite fine with it. They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it’s new interest, a new product.”
Blackhouse believes that those who cannot afford the new hardware will “aspire to it” and instead “might buy the PSP 3000”, citing an ideal example of how “dad might buy the PSP Go but the kids might get PSP 3000s.”
