In a rather staggering display of – well, we’ve no idea what – SCEE have just announced a new PSP. A new PSP. PSP. In white. We pinched ourselves, and it’s still there. We even checked the date.
Look, the damned thing is real:
Whilst we assume that in doing all this not a single second of research and development has been diverted away from future consoles and – you know – the PS Vita, this isn’t what Sony should be doing. They, and their consumers, need to focus on Vita.
There’s a brand new handheld console out there that’s suffering sales-wise, and this won’t help, it just won’t. This isn’t even a proper PSP, it’s that daft restricted thing that nobody even noticed when it was released in black.
We’re confused. Frightened. Shocked.
TheDeathAvenger
It’s not a new PSP though, just a new colour. Still think it seems too pricey, if it was priced properly (i.e. £70, even £60) I think it could sell pretty well (especially with some advertising). It’s not like it’s aimed at the same market as the Vita, so I don’t see what the issue is.
Watchful
What I find interesting is that it suggests the E1000 is selling.
I know the post is exaggerating, but in all seriousness it’s not taking anything away from the PS Vita as it’s less than half the price and is a great way to take advantage of all the bargain UMDs around. Sure it’s single-player only but Europe’s not as into their portable multi-player as Japan.
And you can buy 32GB of memory for it for about £10 less than you can the PS Vita. :-) (It’s nice to see PS Vita memory card prices are falling. Well done Sony on that one.)
stueeeee
And the big hardware launch of e3 2012 is going to be a ps2 that is the size of the Vita!
In pink.
nofi
Note: we were not confused, frightened nor shocked. It was meant to be funny… :/
halbpro
Speak for yourself, I’m permanently confused, frightened and shocked by everything.
simplebob
Long live UMD…
hazelam
http://uk.gamespot.com/news/white-vita-headed-to-japan-next-month-6375665
japan gets a white vita, europe gets a white psp.
i’m used to europe getting stuff after japan, despite the fact europe is a bigger market by a factor, well god knows, but it’s gotta be a lot, the uk is a bigger market than japan now, just the uk, add in the rest of europe and it dwarfs japan.
anyway, i expect europe to be lagging behind, but not by a whole frakking generation.
Watchful
“the uk is a bigger market than japan now”
Where have you got that from?
We’ve half the population of Japan, are on the whole less interested in tech and Japan isn’t across the channel from an economic zone whose currency is in trouble with many members economies in dire straits (having found out you can’t get money for nothing).
Last I checked you need to combine the video game markets of the UK, Germany and France to approach Japan’s. Not saying you’re wrong but what’s your source?
hazelam
http://www.vg247.com/2009/02/09/uk-market-bigger-than-japan-in-terms-of-unit-sales/
ok so it was a few years ago now, but even if the uk isn’t a bigger market today, it’s still comparable to japan on it’s own.
maybe the 3ds will have bumped up the numbers in japan a bit, but they will have bumped them up here too.
ok i found a more up to date source.
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/creative_industries/3274.aspx
the uk is third it seems.
though it’s far bigger than the next two biggest markets in europe combined, being france and germany.
but it’s gotta be close if a few years ago they were talking about the uk overtaking japan.
since then gaming has been growing in the uk, overtaking other media like films and music.
i guess i was wrong, or maybe out of date.
but still, with the rest of europe added in, japan is relatively tiny in comparison.
and as far as sony are concerned, aren’t almost half the ps3s sold, sold in europe?
despite that bullshit excuse they made up to give them time to cripple a feature for the eu machine.
Watchful
You weren’t wrong, we were talking about two slightly different things, unit sales and market value. The older link says we might have overtaken Japan in market value later that year (don’t know if we did) but your second link (good find by the way) says we’re behind them now.
The deep discounting below RRP that we see here in the UK means our unit sales are probably disproportionately high. (E.g., we buy more units because they’re cheaper and gamers elsewhere in Europe import from us to take advantage of the prices. That second point also pushes our market value up higher than it would otherwise be, though I’ve never seen figures that estimate by how much, which would be interesting.)
Deezoned
Look, Sony is still a big company, they need to make money and obviously they are very challenged company financially.
They need to maintain a portfolio of devices and the PSP, which still sells worldwide is their way of “milking-the-cow” … so, with a minimal development and production cost they have a great margin on the “new white PSP” which hopefully will be good for the entire company.
It must not, I repeat NOT, take focus from future developments and certainly currently the Vita, then Sony is making a huge mistake. I see this new PSP as an entirely tactical move for maintaining the portfolio, hopefully bolstering the company for even more Vita stuff, and eventually a “PS4”
skibadee
what strange reaction they are hardware company this is normal they made a new PSP last year it still sells.
skibadee
the white Vita will be at E3 overreaction guys.
hazelam
yeah and europe won’t see it till 2013, at least.
MayContainEvil
Oh dear…
At least they’re persistent. *sighs*
The Lone Steven
OMFG! A NEW PSP! Screw the Vita i’m going to get a dead platform. #sarcasm
SCEE, focus on the Vita. You know the portable console that was released in feb. The one with the two sticks, it has UC:GA on it. Fine, *shoves picture in their faces*
fattyuk
Focus on the vita?? do you really think its taken alot of time and effort to say “make the PSP case white not black”
As for a dead platform? riiiighht ok?