Following the trend set last month in the United States, Sony of Europe is also cutting the price of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in all European territories, down by 24% to €129.99.

 “The price cut is aimed at increasing adoption of the player in Europe,” said Satoshi Fukuoka, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Sony’s video-games unit. The previous suggested retail price was 169.99 euros. 

With the NGP looming around the corner, it’s no surprise to see the price of the PSP fall all over though Sony has said that much like the PS2 and PS3, the PSP will live on beyond the NGP launch. Still, we can’t help but wonder how much more penetration Sony could have done had the PSP price cut happened a year or two prior. Still, we have to also take into account that due the PlayStation 3’s high costs, Sony was losing over $300 per console for the first few years the product was on the market and that the PSP was the only product bringing in a profit into the PlayStation division. Taking that into consideration, you might see why the price was not cut prior.