On October 1st, 2009, I was a giddy person. It was the PSPgo launch date and I had my unit already paid for and only needed the UPS man to bring it to my door. It was a little opposite of the PSP-1000 launch as I waited in line that day at a GameStop store. The original PSP was one of my favorite gadgets. Before I had an iPod, that little guy would hold my music, I had a load of UMD movies and had downloaded Anime on my memory stick and a load of games. Fast forward the PSPgo launch: I received my unit, fired it up and was in love. I immediately downloaded Grand Turismo and a few other games and took my PSPgo with me everywhere. But I noticed I kept going back to my PSP-1000 and it was for the simple reason that I still needed to beat Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7. Because of lack of option of playing Crisis Core on my PSPgo, my PSP-1000 had me in. But now I owned this beautiful unit and I couldn’t even give it the attention it needed. Soon I noticed that Amazon had a fantastic deal on Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Of course, this was on the UMD version, but for $20, how could I say no?
It’s with this that I noticed that the reason I don’t use my PSPgo is because I’m cheap! Seriously, one of the reasons I have been playing my original PSP more than my PSPgo is because I can go on Amazon and get cheaper prices or sales on games. Plus, at the end of the day, it will be the same game because yes the PSPgo is sexier and has a better screen, but the game itself is and will be the same. So while I do love my PSPgo, I don’t want to pay extra for games when I don’t have to. Also, the whole point of digital distribution is that there is no shipping, no packaging, no producing and booklets and boxes, so does it not make sense for the digital version to be cheaper? Plus, the big worry with game publishers right now is secondhand selling and how they don’t get a cut of that market. Well have the UMD version for $40 which can go be sold again and the PSN version for $30 because I cannot share those and sell that copy.
That is ultimately not the only solution. Sony needs to give a retailer like Amazon the capability go also put the PSN versions on sale as well as the UMD and give the buyers a choice (remember, there is a PSN store on Amazon as well for those who want to gift games or just buy them some other way). So to wrap this up, I’m not against digital downloads. I own 2 iPhones (soon 3) and my iPad, and I have nearly 30 PSN games on the PS3, but when I can get the same game for cheaper on the PSP as opposed to the PSPgo version and they are of the same quality, capitalism and supply and end demand indicate that the PSPgo will flop and so far, its been true, sadly.
Here’s a funny thing: in order to take the picture I did for the profile, I had to plug my PSPgo back in and charge it up and during its initial setup, I felt very guilty about this post and the lack of attention I have given that unit and the lack of marketing and attention Sony has given it as well because it feels so damn nice in the hand. Dammit Sony!
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