The App Report: The Death of the PSP Go...Er, Sort Of
by Carlos Macias, posted on 25 April 2011 / 1,326 Views
The PSP Go is dead. Wait...is it? Production of Sony's push into downloadable-only retail titles has -- at least -- met its demise in Europe and Japan and will continue to see further production in the US. But, really, it's only running on fumes until the NGP releases, trouncing any failed hopes of the PSP holding onto any more of the last, few gasps of air it has left.
The PSP Go was Sony's experiment, a dip in the water, to gauge public interest in downloading full, retail shelves-sharing titles, but it was one the company went into half-heartedly. Sony's initiative exuded confidence when it was announced at E3 2009 to release for a wallet-busting $250 and the promise of day-and-date game releases as downloads with retail counterparts.
The big push was Gran Turismo Portable later that year, but quickly the cards started folding on Sony. Many games started missing simultaneous disc-based and download releases and some never bothered to show up (i.e. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep). Now, the PSP Go's future is opaquely lit and will see the final death grip when the NGP launches in Fall 2011/Winter 2012.
It seems blatantly obvious, but the only the way the Big Three (those being Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony) will ever have any chance to topple the App Store's dominance in the mobile space is to, and pardon my French, have the balls to go all in. In support of the PSP Go, Sony should have forgotten retail; their games were not selling, anyway! Well...if a company's game didn't contain Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or God of War in the title, they weren't selling.
Sony was the latest culprit in the fearful tip-toeing of the dominating console powers into downloadable gaming waters, but it certainly wasn't the first. Remember Halo ODST being strongly hinted at as coming by way of a cheaper, DLC title veneer? Microsoft was a bit too timid and expanded on the initially DLC title and instead opted to throw in multiplayer into the 4 to 6 hour Halo 3: ODST campaign to compensate and get a plastic disc out into the world for $60.
That was one missed opportunity to see the potential of the reach a triple-A title could get going download-only. Unfortunately, there is precedent enough for Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to avoid download-only titles as on of the biggest names in gaming, Grand Theft Auto, was barely able to get past a million copies sold of its excellent GTAIV downloadable episodes: The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned.
Sales numbers have never been truly confirmed, but whatever the sales ultimately came out to be, I'm sure it was a far cry from whatever Rockstar planned on making and definitely less than the 2.5 million needed sell-throughs for Microsoft to break even on its $50 million exclusivity deal. This is likely what lead to the decision to make the still good, but slightly less ambitious Undead Nightmare add-on and four smaller game packs for Red Dead Redemption.
Rockstar may have started down the road and reined in their efforts on DLC content but it doesn't necessarily mean it can't work. More and more consumers are accepting the download future of games. Take into account the latest movie tie-in game, Angry Birds Rio. Sure, there are console video game adaptations of the movie, but it's doubtful that it has taken as much a hold on the public as the iPhone game evident by it -- still -- blowing up the Top 10 Paid Apps list on the App Store. It certainly helped that the game was tied into a game that's become an instant first-buy when people get an iPhone, but it's still a significant indicator of how the download future of games is just at the beginning.
PSP Go suffered from a myriad of problems: slim/missing software downloads, declining interest in the PSP brand as a whole, and a high asking price that never quite offset that by offering cheaper games. Most people probably dismissed the download-only portable thinking: "Why pay the same amount for a box-less executable file?"
It's like I mentioned above, it's going to take one of the companies going all-in to prevent the inevitable takeover by the iPhone's successful App Store who is grabbing more and more share from traditional handhelds. From the looks of it, the 3DS is failing to take off as swiftly as expected and Sony's NGP is looking at the opposite direction of the PSP Go and bringing back physical media into the mix.
The writing is but clearly written on the wall...
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to start up a discussion in the comments, wherever your loyalties may lie.
[The App Report focuses on Carlos Macias' ramblings on everything iPhone gaming (and maybe other mobile things outside of Apple's influence). If it's related to an app or downloadable game and it isn't held together by a physical box, the topic of the week will have a place in this column. He does not own an iPhone (read: hates contracts) but acts as if he does as his iPod Touch serves the same purpose with front and rear-facing cameras and a microphone picking up the slack. He can be reached at carlos_macias@ymail.com for potential app coverage and other inquiries.]
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