Sony's PSPgo has seen a lukewarm reception by the masses it would seem. The higher price point and the fact that the cheaper PSP-3000 can play all the digital games and UMD discs has made it a tough sell for some consumers. While we're still waiting on official U.S. sales numbers, the new portable did sell over 28,000 in Japan in its first day. Sony Computer Entertainment America has said that the PSPgo has led to overall PSP sales growing 300%, but we suspect much of that growth comes from the older PSP-3000.
Although one U.K. retailer said that PSPgo would "fail miserably," leading video games retailer GameStop has taken a more level approach, keeping expectations somewhat in check. Tony Bartel, Executive VP of Merchandising and Marketing for GameStop, told IndustryGamers that Sony really never planned for a huge launch to begin with.
"We clearly supported it in all of our stores. I think that, by Sony's own admission, you can tell by the small marketing that was done for this, that their mentality was more of a slow roll than a major launch," he told us on the phone today. "So this was clearly different than the way that Nintendo approached the DSi launch, and I think that was by design."
Bartel added, "I think the story is far from over and being written on the PSPgo. I think Sony knew it was going to be more of a slow build as opposed to a right out of the gate huge release. I'm not sure that anyone that spent a lot of time working with Sony on the launch was really surprised by the way that it's gone so far."
The idea for PSPgo itself is certainly not a bad one, and many people had been clamoring for an all-digital device from Sony. The problem was that they failed to provide any way to convert UMD discs and the portable was just too pricey for most. If Sony addresses these two issues, we still think the PSPgo could sell pretty well over the long-term.
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