Analyst Michael Pachter has put Sony in the corner and given ita firm spankingfollowing the announcement of thePSPgoat E3. Criticizing the company’s decision to charge so much money for its new handheld, Pachter has deemed the PSPgo a “rip off,” stating that Sony is asking too much money.
“$249 is too much. Period,”claimsthe analyst. “The [current] $169 PSP-3000 is a profitable device — the disc assembly, for a UMD, costs more than 16 gigs of flash does. So this new device doesn’t cost them as much to make as the PSP-3000 and they jack the price up $80.
“I’m sorry to say it. I don’t want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys, but… They’re ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple million and if consumers don’t buy it then the price is going to come down.They’re making a lot more money on the PSPgo than the PSP-3000. And the PSPgo helps them because there’s no piracy.”
It all comes down to what Sony thinks it can get away with, and I fear that those aforementioned Sony fanboys will be more than happy to justify the price hike by shelling out money for the fourth iteration of the water-treading handheld. As much as I love the PSP and would like to get a PSPgo, this is one of those rare occasions where I’m 100% with Pachter — $249 is downright cheeky.
