Lack of PSPgo pre-orders bemoaned by UK retailers

So that "certain premium" for the UMD-less PSPgo? We may gripe about the $230 price tag here, but our friends across the pond might actually have it worse. Right now, while UK gamers are shelling out on average £100 (about $165 US) for a new PSP, the "guide price" for Go is currently set at around £230 ($370 US). Egregious? We think so, and it looks like British consumers might agree, as two independent retailers have reported zero pre-orders so far. Ouch. Of course, it's not indicative of the entire region, especially given there's no data here from the big chains, but as a "canary in a cage" indicator, it still doesn't sound good -- but hey, there's still plenty of time before its October 1 launch, and anything can happen.

[Via Joystiq]

[Jay L @ Jun 26th 2009 8:29PM]

Looks nice visually but yawn

[bigsofty @ Jun 27th 2009 7:53AM]

As a British consumer, generally fed with being ripped off with ridiculous premiums being added to the value of imported products I would like to say... FUCK OFF SONY!

No sale!

[Mike @ Jun 27th 2009 10:14AM]

@BigSoftey

As another British consumer, I'd like to second your statement:

+1 FUCK OFF SONY!

Have you seen the MS Windows 7 Pre order prices? I seen 2 Priced in american $ at $49.99 and $99, then below in £ as £49 and £99, what the hell are these companies playing at?

[TT @ Jun 27th 2009 10:57AM]

As a Dutch consumer, who gets it slightly better with Apple and Sony products (Videogames too) then those poor fella's in the UK, I still agree.
(Dollar=Pound=Euro in their world)

[Lazarpandar @ Jun 28th 2009 5:11AM]

@bigsofty & TT

None of those comments have to do with the comment you replied to. Stop habitually hitting reply to the first comment to get your comment bumped to the top.

[rogXue @ Jun 26th 2009 8:32PM]

$230 thought it was $250 is that a typo?

[E C S Sucks @ Jun 26th 2009 8:36PM]

No £££££££££££££££££££££££££ not $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Read the frigging article.

[gonintendo @ Jun 26th 2009 8:39PM]

"We may gripe about the $230 price tag here, but our friends across the pond might actually have it worse"
You RTFA.

[me @ Jun 26th 2009 8:39PM]

"We may gripe about the $230 price tag here"

Wow you jackass looks like I did read the article, did you? Think before you type jackass...

[XChrisX @ Jun 26th 2009 9:05PM]

Agreed, other engadget posts have mentioned a $250 price tag. The PSPGO looks nice but I'm not so sure I'm into a umdless psp. However the idea makes for less to store and cary around.

[I hate mingers @ Jun 26th 2009 9:19PM]

^ uhm many of us already have umd-less psp and its great!

[copeys @ Jun 26th 2009 11:41PM]

the normal PSP in Aus is around $225 US. I can't wait to see the rip off on the GO.

[Miker @ Jun 27th 2009 6:54AM]

OK, so the guy misread the post - jeez, there's no need to be so abusive towards him, that's totally uncalled for. All you needed to do was point out he'd made a error and move on.

[ghex88 @ Jun 27th 2009 9:35AM]

The $250 version is called P5PGOAL which is made by Sory Corporation of Guangzhou China,

It is priced $250 by the mainland company because guess what???
It has a UMD slot! whoaaaaaw!

Since the GO is lacking something, it puzzles me as to why Sony made its version of the GO more expensive when than its previous model that actually has that something.

[JackB @ Jun 26th 2009 8:34PM]

That's "canary in a coal mine", not "in a cage".

[E C S Sucks @ Jun 26th 2009 8:38PM]

Well its "a canary in a cage in a coal mine".

[BlurMagic @ Jun 26th 2009 9:07PM]

Well its "a canary in a cage in a coal mine on Mars".

[glenskey @ Jun 26th 2009 8:34PM]

oh sony, why didn't you just put a touch screen on it?

[Boards of Canada @ Jun 26th 2009 11:21PM]

I personnaly prefer buttons than a touchscreen. You spend more energy wiping the screen with your thumbs than you do with a single up-down button.

[PhotoFre@k @ Jun 27th 2009 3:19AM]

For game it will always be better off with buttons. Since the GO can do web browsing, the touchscreen seem like a logical thing to do when you fold down that GO.

[Jamesology @ Jun 27th 2009 2:09PM]

Yeah I too prefer buttons rather than touch screen. But this PSPGo is still a FAIL. I'll stick with my PSP2000 and NDSLite. So far in "my" books the PSPGo and DSi is a FAIL!!!

[Alphathon @ Jun 27th 2009 7:05PM]

Maybe because it's still a PSP and PSP games aren't designed to use a touch screen? Just a thought.

[E C S Sucks @ Jun 26th 2009 8:35PM]

£230?
are you effing kidding me.
I thought £150 with the original going for £95.

What a frigging joke. Now is the time to bring in the xbox equivalent. They know what consumers want but sony just keep getting worse. Part of the reason i turned away to xbox.

[BigD145 @ Jun 27th 2009 12:43AM]

It's probably cheaper to buy from North America and just pay shipping and duty fees.

[b3tan @ Jun 27th 2009 1:20AM]

Yup. I can't see region being a major problem if there's no UMD.

[CreepinJesus @ Jun 27th 2009 6:26AM]

Xbox 360 Elite on Amazon: £214.92.

[Mark @ Jun 27th 2009 7:24AM]

I don't understand this. £230 for a 16GB PSP GO is better value that a 16GB iPod touch, better features, better games, better audio.

As for this stupid article. Nobody has heard of these 2 independent retailers, I suspect they have 1 store in some back street somewhere...

[KarlW @ Jun 27th 2009 8:30AM]

@Mark perhaps, but the PSP is using pretty old technology - the processor has never been updated and it only has 64Mb RAM (only 32Mb used for games, 32Mb is a cache). The original PSP at £100 is about right for the technology. Sony is charging a massive premium just because they can - they've even admitted it.

If the iPod touch gets the 3GS treatment (as it is expected to), the PSP will have a faster CPU, GPU and more RAM than a PSP. And faster WiFi to make content acquisition easier (downloading a 700Mb file over 802.11b is not fun and the PSP can't even download things in the background)

[Alan Partridge @ Jun 26th 2009 8:35PM]

I like it but its tooooo much

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 26th 2009 8:40PM]

Holy cow, no preorders at two small retailers with only 3 months to go? Wow, the significance of this is astounding!

I know the price situation isn't great, but it seems like weblogs sites are going out of their way to slam the PSP Go more and more each day.

BTW, Amazon shows the PSP 3000 as £130 and the PSP Go as £230. Dixons shows the PSP 3000 as £140 (no Go price). Argos hows the PSP-3000 as £127 (£147 for black, oddly). So the price differential (although still enormous) is also overstated.

[Massmass @ Jun 26th 2009 10:03PM]

Whatever it takes to show Sony that their insolence will no longer be tolerated is fine by me.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 26th 2009 10:33PM]

How about you just don't buy if you don't like it?

[trilobug @ Jun 26th 2009 10:38PM]

They are slamming it because it is too expensive. This is the 4th iteration of a product with a different form factor, but it costs just as much as when it launched. Sony doesn't have fans like Apple, they cant pull that crap, also it is a different industry where hardware is typically sold at a loss to be made up by the games sold.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 26th 2009 11:04PM]

So how about you just don't buy it?

Does joystiq need to repeat the info until they program you not to buy it? Nintendo added a remote to the Gamecube and jumped the price from $99 to $250. Did joystiq feel they had to talk about it 3 times a week for weeks on end?

If it costs too much, people will decide on their own not to buy it. And then Sony will have to cut the price. It doesn't behoove joystiq to tell others how to make their own decisions.

[solmar @ Jun 26th 2009 11:27PM]

So it behooves Joystiq/Engadget to report on things like the huge (nearly 2x) price difference in the UK? And they're also not to report on stuff like no one pre-ordering something that's supposed to be a big release for a major company? Both of which were not reported before?

Then Joystiq/Engadget should probably just stop reporting, period? Or just stop reporting bad stuff about companies that some people like? Or... perhaps readers who don't like what Joystiq/Engadget are reporting, should take their own advice and "how about you just don't" read them?

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 26th 2009 11:40PM]

First, look up behoove. You seem to not understand what it means, so perhaps you could enhance your understanding of what I meant by looking it up.

The data on who isn't preordering is such a poor poll as to be useless for informative purposes. It only serves to help give an excuse to write the same article again. This is only bolstered by getting the prices wrong! Perhaps they could give some accurate, useful info and then perhaps give us some reference by giving 3-month pre-order data for other systems so we can get an idea of what would be expected.

Indeed the price difference between the two is enormous. No getting around that. No need to inflate it either.

Did joystiq spend a lot of time explaining how the Xbox 360 Elite was a ripoff at $479? (the regular Xbox was $299 at the time). Did joystiq spend a lot of time explaining how the Wii was a ripoff because it was a derivative of a console that cost half as much?

The articles go beyond the reporting of other subjects and appear to indicate perhaps joystiq sees themselves as having a cause. Is this really a cause we need joystiq to decide for us and fight for us on? It's not like any of us are roped into buying this thing. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

[Massmass @ Jun 26th 2009 11:40PM]

Great logic.

How about you just buy it and shut up as well (since you are coming off as telling people to shut up.)? It works both ways.

Also, be sure to look up opinion and fact in the dictionary and know that they are two different things and that within a blog or any article, they tend to mix and dance with each other but generally not replace each other.

That's the nice thing about the internet, people give it all too much. It doesn't work all the time just like not buying a product, I.E PS3 doesn't work to sway a manufacturer.

Sony screwed up royally this generation assuming they could charge price premiums for hardware that has very little exclusive software to back it up like the previous generations. The consumer didn't buy it and since I loved the PS1 and PS2, and PSP, I'd like for them to adopt a successful business model for once.

Brushing opinions under the rug hurts companies more than being a mindless drone that uses their wallet to speak for them.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 27th 2009 12:07AM]

I'm not telling people to shut up. I'm accusing engadget of deciding to take a side on an issue when it isn't needed and doesn't help us get gadget news.

Lack of sales has said a lot to Sony about the PS3. It says everything they need to know. It isn't necessary for you or anyone to "put Sony in their place" (as if you could). Just as I don't need people trying to ban Wal-Mart in towns because they don't like Wal-Mart.

Let your dollars speak. It's not necessary for anyone such as you or joystiq to make the decision for all of us and try to enforce it through dogmatic repetition and poor and possibly misleading research.

As to buying it, I'm not going to buy it. I gave up on the PSP. I have not charged mine in two years. I have not bought a game for it since Wipeout. I am kind of tempted to buy Patapon 2, since my main beef with the PSP was how stupid the choice of UMD was. But if I do buy Patapon 2, it'll be for my PSP-1000, not to play on a PSP Go. I do have a PS3 and I quite like it. I got Red Faction: Guerilla today and will be booting it up soon.

[Kelmon @ Jun 27th 2009 6:57AM]

Consider this to be "entertainment news" rather than "gadget news". I am entertained.

[Cellien @ Jun 27th 2009 11:55AM]

Chill out you anti-Ford, Toyota fanboy... Oh wait that's on Autoblog. I meant anti-Microsoft, Sony fanboy here. :P

No really if you like it, buy it! The rest of the gaming and gadget community can continue to acknowledge it's over-priced. I have a PS3 and had a PSP, but this crap is just overpriced and I, like many others, won't be buying.

[Daniel @ Jun 26th 2009 8:41PM]

Zero is not very many,

[DaLa @ Jun 26th 2009 8:42PM]

FAIL

[Mr. 14 @ Jun 27th 2009 1:14AM]

LOL ur smart howd u evr come up wit dat?

[voodoo @ Jun 26th 2009 8:43PM]

Sony exec: "Lets make this thing more expensive, give it a smaller screen, take away the UMD drive and add none of the things consumers want (touchscreen, extra analog stick). Im sure it will get millions of pre-orders."
/facepalm

[JehxOne @ Jun 26th 2009 8:44PM]

Sony Sony Sony will you not learn

you failed this console and handheld war

ok anybody wanna work on making a console and a pure gaming os with me I have these ideas i wanna pitch to ppl

Aim me

Aim: JehxOne

[Shola @ Jun 26th 2009 8:45PM]

The thing is not all that better than the previous model and even looks uglier IMHO...yet they want to charge an arm an leg for it. That kind of move only works when you're Apple. No RDF=No Preorders

[Steve Butler @ Jun 26th 2009 8:47PM]

It's call yo, we don't want it over here in jolly old England.

[Steve Butler @ Jun 26th 2009 8:47PM]

Cool*

I fail :(

[nowayman @ Jun 26th 2009 8:53PM]

its fugly. i like my psp slim better thanks.

[sweet greggo @ Jun 26th 2009 8:54PM]

Yay! Finally a post where I can call this fail fail fail fail and not have to worry about backlash!

This thing was doomed from the first photo on engadget. I hope Sony loses their shirts over this piece of shit.