12th January 2004, 9:49 PM
That paragraph about lower developer costs is longer in another source.
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/462/462131p1.html
OB1, OB1, OB1... given your previous attitudes on this thing I thought you'd do this. I just don't get why you seem determined to be the biggest PSP fanboy you can be... it's so clearly flawed in so many ways! It's really perplexing how you keep insisting that it will crush the GBA and is direct competition to the GBA from the start despite so much evidence otherwise. I don't get it... before this I'd never have thought of you as a Sony fanboy... Oh, and you just don't seem to get what market Sony is aiming at with the thing. This price should clue you in.
But when you see a report that clearly has people from Sony saying "we are aiming at a somewhat different market" and "there is room for both to be successful" and price it more than four times more than the GB...
You react by saying 'it'll be cheaper here'.
Now. You may be right. Things usually do cost more in Europe and somewhat more in Japan than they do here. However, it's just by degrees, not by large amounts. As in, it might be $425, or if you're really lucky maybe even $400, but that'd be a bargain-basement price given what they are saying here, and the fact that they are saying that unlike with the PSX/2 they want to make money on the hardware. I think the fact that they are saying they want to make money on the hardware is a admission on their part that the PSP isn't going to crush the GBA anytime soon and making it a bit cheaper would be pointless as they will never get it down to GB-level prices. In some ways it's smart... what if it was $300, and they take a $100-plus loss on every one? They'd sell better, somewhat, but would be a massive loser and they wouldn't be getting profitable anytime soon... but this way it'll be profitable no matter how few it sells (now I'm sure it'll sell out at launch, etc... I'm talking about in a bit longer term than that)... it's an admission that the GB is not a realistic target, but also one that they intend to stay alive in the handheld business. If it was just a giant loser it might not survive... interesting.
Oh yeah, and it's also saying that the thing is for the market I'd call 'adults'. And it's meant to replace some of their various handheld appliances like PDAs and MP3 players and stuff... and play games too.
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/462/462131p1.html
Quote:"We want to make it affordable for publishers to make a very wide range of entertainment and so maybe the royalties will be somewhere lower down in the mix - and we've got to make money somewhere, so the plan is for the PSP hardware to have its own profit stream. I think it will be pitched as a great games machine that does other stuff, but that will be pretty important and impressive other stuff. I don't believe it's a direct competitor to GBA. First of all, it's more like TV picture quality and it's not a direct price point comparison.
There's room for both to be successful and our objective isn't to have any direct affect on GBA or anything else that comes along from them. We want to create a new market with a higher level of resolution and gameplay features that doesn't compete with handhelds or cell phones as previously defined."
OB1, OB1, OB1... given your previous attitudes on this thing I thought you'd do this. I just don't get why you seem determined to be the biggest PSP fanboy you can be... it's so clearly flawed in so many ways! It's really perplexing how you keep insisting that it will crush the GBA and is direct competition to the GBA from the start despite so much evidence otherwise. I don't get it... before this I'd never have thought of you as a Sony fanboy... Oh, and you just don't seem to get what market Sony is aiming at with the thing. This price should clue you in.
But when you see a report that clearly has people from Sony saying "we are aiming at a somewhat different market" and "there is room for both to be successful" and price it more than four times more than the GB...
You react by saying 'it'll be cheaper here'.
Now. You may be right. Things usually do cost more in Europe and somewhat more in Japan than they do here. However, it's just by degrees, not by large amounts. As in, it might be $425, or if you're really lucky maybe even $400, but that'd be a bargain-basement price given what they are saying here, and the fact that they are saying that unlike with the PSX/2 they want to make money on the hardware. I think the fact that they are saying they want to make money on the hardware is a admission on their part that the PSP isn't going to crush the GBA anytime soon and making it a bit cheaper would be pointless as they will never get it down to GB-level prices. In some ways it's smart... what if it was $300, and they take a $100-plus loss on every one? They'd sell better, somewhat, but would be a massive loser and they wouldn't be getting profitable anytime soon... but this way it'll be profitable no matter how few it sells (now I'm sure it'll sell out at launch, etc... I'm talking about in a bit longer term than that)... it's an admission that the GB is not a realistic target, but also one that they intend to stay alive in the handheld business. If it was just a giant loser it might not survive... interesting.
Oh yeah, and it's also saying that the thing is for the market I'd call 'adults'. And it's meant to replace some of their various handheld appliances like PDAs and MP3 players and stuff... and play games too.
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