Friday, September 18, 2009

Why Sony in a hurry to push PSPgo?

PSPgo announcement came quite surprising and lukewarm. Firstly, with no UMD slot, it can only play downloadable games, therefore Sony has dual standard for PSP in the market (UMD and UMD-less). Though Sony said that they will provide user to convert their UMD games into digital file, until now we still don't know how they going to do it and when.  
Secondly, lack of games for PSPgo in PSN shows Sony's lack of preparation.
But why is Sony such in a hurry?
The most possible answer is Apple. The iphone has been a successful in states, not only for phone but for gaming as well. Apple realize that gaming sector is a huge market, and with the robustness of apple store, iphone quickly become a major force in console wars. 
What apple did was open up to all game developer. True, you most likely find cheap but crap games on apple store rather than a good one, but Apple did captured a huge chunk of casual gamer market portion by doing just that. And Apple start to invite big game developer to develop to its platform.
PSPgo is designed exactly to counter Apple's iphone and ipod gaming business. Recent announcement of PSP mini games that will be available in the future is another evidence that Sony is trying to compete in this market.
But will Sony be able to compete with already matured and robust Apple store? Sony is already behind in terms of online service. Compared to Xbox live, Sony has a lot of catching up to do with its PSN. The amazing high price Sony slaps on to PSPgo, and recent news of retailers boycott on PSPgo are definitely not helping.
Bottom line is, Sony needs to work hard to make PSPgo a success, and from current condition, its highly doubtful.

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