NotCliche

Most new devices are likely to be expected with great enthusiasm. Take the PS3 Slim for example, before it was even released it was met with great anticipation, even to the extent of a possible “fake” release sometime ago.

However, Sony’s follow up on the PSP-3000 — the PSP Go — does not seems to share the similar fate as PS3 it seems.

Rather than being a hit with most people, the PSPGo has generally received low favours from many people, and most notably retailers that would be the ones to carry these handheld to the masses. The PSPGo has one very prominent feature that is so-called marketed to draw people in, that is the UMD-less design of  console itself.

However, while this feature would appeal to the many of the consumers out there, it’s definitely not good news for retailers. According to the retailers who had banded together for a complete boycott of the PSPGo, the UMD-less feature of the PSPGo robs their only source of income: the mark-up pricing of the games they sell.

Retailers would usually sell consoles/handhelds for their suggested retail pricing, which is not a lot of income to be honest. To make this up, they would mark-up the pricing of the games and sell them at a much higher price to balance out all the expenditure that they need to maintain a living/shop. With the disappearance of the UMD drive… well, you can probably figure out that much.

ShopTo, a UK retailer had expressed that the PSPGo is more or less a dead handheld even before it arrives. Sure, they do sell the handheld on their site as of now, but they are definitely not going to spend their time promoting such a product.

However, as we move towards the future, more and more games will definitely be offered through online service… one would wonder how the retailers would cope in the near future.

Via: Kotaku.

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