Portables’ prices: The PSP would sell better if…

Curmudgeon Gamer‘s JVM has a really nice article up that puts into layman’s terms some observations on the current landscape of handheld gaming. He notes how handheld game prices are shifting somewhat in favor of the PSP, though it might not be enough to tip over the DS as handheld gaming’s best-seller.

Though both the Nintendo’s DS and Sony‘s PSP have a wide assortment and almost equal number of games overall, JVM saw that the previously held notion of DS games being the lower-priced software titles wasn’t so true anymore. Checking EB Games‘ lineup, his assumptions seemed to bear some merit. He says,

In fact, several PSP games have launched recently at $30 or less: Capcom Collection Reloaded, Activision Hits Remixed, EA Replay, Sega Genesis Collection, Every Extend Extra, and Lumines II. Each one of those is starting at US$ 19.99 or US$ 29.99.

Even more importantly, it seems Sony’s pricing scheme is a lot more flexible than Nintendo’s, meaning that, as a game ages on the handheld, it gets cheaper a whole lot faster than a Nintendo DS game that keeps its price the same for more than a year. Better still, the average price for DS and PSP games as a result seems to end up the same at 30 bucks a title.

Of course, he also says low-priced games won’t be the defining factor in keeping the PSP a strong contender. “If the PSP were priced at US$ 150, my gut tells me it’d sell a lot more strongly,” he says. Frankly, a cheaper PSP would definitely be a welcome sight.

Curmudgeon Gamer‘s JVM has a really nice article up that puts into layman’s terms some observations on the current landscape of handheld gaming. He notes how handheld game prices are shifting somewhat in favor of the PSP, though it might not be enough to tip over the DS as handheld gaming’s best-seller.

Though both the Nintendo’s DS and Sony‘s PSP have a wide assortment and almost equal number of games overall, JVM saw that the previously held notion of DS games being the lower-priced software titles wasn’t so true anymore. Checking EB Games‘ lineup, his assumptions seemed to bear some merit. He says,

In fact, several PSP games have launched recently at $30 or less: Capcom Collection Reloaded, Activision Hits Remixed, EA Replay, Sega Genesis Collection, Every Extend Extra, and Lumines II. Each one of those is starting at US$ 19.99 or US$ 29.99.

Even more importantly, it seems Sony’s pricing scheme is a lot more flexible than Nintendo’s, meaning that, as a game ages on the handheld, it gets cheaper a whole lot faster than a Nintendo DS game that keeps its price the same for more than a year. Better still, the average price for DS and PSP games as a result seems to end up the same at 30 bucks a title.

Of course, he also says low-priced games won’t be the defining factor in keeping the PSP a strong contender. “If the PSP were priced at US$ 150, my gut tells me it’d sell a lot more strongly,” he says. Frankly, a cheaper PSP would definitely be a welcome sight.