UK retailer thinks PSP Go will flop badly; Pachter calls retailer boycotts “foolish”
It seems that Nedgame’s open opposition of the PSP Go and Sony‘s digital download model has stirred up quite an issue. Igor Cipolletta, boss of UK retailer ShopTo, has also expressed doubts about the PSP Go’s success, reckoning that the handheld is already “dead before it has arrived.” Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, on the other hand, thinks that these retailer are being foolish, silly, and just plain ridiculous.
It seems that Nedgame’s open opposition of the PSP Go and Sony‘s digital download model has stirred up quite an issue. Igor Cipolletta, boss of UK retailer ShopTo, has also expressed doubts about the PSP Go’s success, reckoning that the handheld is already “dead before it has arrived.”
“I have the feeling that as a format it is almost dead before it has arrived, and it relies far too heavily on a customer base that is prepared to pay more for download content than the equivalent disc based product, and I suspect this market will soon dry up based on the technical limitations of the hardware,” Cipolletta told Eurogamer.
Cipolletta also said that while they do have the PSP Go listed on their site, they’re not throwing any kind of heavy advertising behind it. The lack of support seems to stem mainly from Sony’s decision to do away with the middleman — retailers. Not just the stores you have to walk to, too, but online retailers as well.
“Sony has decided to cut publishers and retailers for the software of the PSPgo and deal direct with developers, giving them a 70 per cent margin for any items sold on Sony PSN,” he said. “I believe if they had lowered that to 50 or 60 per cent, and given the opportunity to online retailers, it would have enjoyed greater success and retailers would attempt to promote the console to the market.”
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, however, thinks that these retailer boycotts are just plain ridiculous. Bit weird seeing as how he actually went so far as to say that Sony is ripping people off with the Go at this year’s E3. Still, it seems Pachter isn’t just defending the Go per se, but the whole idea of digital downloads.
“It’s just silly for a retailer to say that they won’t sell a big ticket gaming device because they can’t sell the games. Consumer electronics stores sell refrigerators and not food, everyone sells iPods and not the music for them; this position is just ridiculous,” said Pachter.
“Retailers have to face the fact that games will be increasingly offered over Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and cope with the outcome. To draw a line in the sand.”
Pachter also added that retailers refusing to carry the handheld puts them at risk that “Sony will bypass them for Gran Turismo or Uncharted, in which case they lose.”
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Via Eurogamer
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