PSP CORE price drop is official for North America
As confirmation to the EBGames and GameStop price drop sightings, the official word from Sony claims that the price tag has dropped by US$ 30 all over North America, making the U.S.-only word CVG got from Sony extends its horizons over Canada. So if you check a couple of Canuck EBGames retail stores there, you’d find that the PlayStation Portable CORE package is also now available at a modest US$ 169 tag.
Lazard Capital Markets noted that in Black Friday just last year, a Wal-Mart discount promotion sporting the same price of US$ 169 was able to reel in greater sales. They claim that this proves the demand for the handheld actually exists, although it is price-sensitive.
Sony, however, is not only hoping that the PSP would garner a modest gain in sales for after the price drop. They are also hoping that the line up of popular franchise titles, such as Ratchet & Clank, Syphon Filter and God of War, will also help the PSP sell like hotcakes. Gran Turismo for the PSP, coming in the second half of 2007, is also expected to boost unit sales in the near future.
Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets hopes to breathe new life into the PSP marketing campaign. They are planning an online and print campaign for young adults and teens, besides gamers-on-the-go. “In terms of software, we believe hardware price cuts can positively affect game sales with an expanding installed base as well as additional foot traffic in retail stores,” said Sebastian, concluding:
It is too early to conclude whether Sony’s pricing action will cause game developers to increase the pipeline of new PSP titles; however, several publishers publicly called on Sony to lower the PSP price and broaden the consumer end market. At the new $169 price, we note that the PSP is still $40 higher than Nintendo’s DS.
Via Game Daily
As confirmation to the EBGames and GameStop price drop sightings, the official word from Sony claims that the price tag has dropped by US$ 30 all over North America, making the U.S.-only word CVG got from Sony extends its horizons over Canada. So if you check a couple of Canuck EBGames retail stores there, you’d find that the PlayStation Portable CORE package is also now available at a modest US$ 169 tag.
Lazard Capital Markets noted that in Black Friday just last year, a Wal-Mart discount promotion sporting the same price of US$ 169 was able to reel in greater sales. They claim that this proves the demand for the handheld actually exists, although it is price-sensitive.
Sony, however, is not only hoping that the PSP would garner a modest gain in sales for after the price drop. They are also hoping that the line up of popular franchise titles, such as Ratchet & Clank, Syphon Filter and God of War, will also help the PSP sell like hotcakes. Gran Turismo for the PSP, coming in the second half of 2007, is also expected to boost unit sales in the near future.
Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets hopes to breathe new life into the PSP marketing campaign. They are planning an online and print campaign for young adults and teens, besides gamers-on-the-go. “In terms of software, we believe hardware price cuts can positively affect game sales with an expanding installed base as well as additional foot traffic in retail stores,” said Sebastian, concluding:
It is too early to conclude whether Sony’s pricing action will cause game developers to increase the pipeline of new PSP titles; however, several publishers publicly called on Sony to lower the PSP price and broaden the consumer end market. At the new $169 price, we note that the PSP is still $40 higher than Nintendo’s DS.
Via Game Daily