Sony's Andrew House: PSP Go launched in part to 'learn more about what the consumer wanted'
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 8th 2010 5:13PM
posted June 8th 2010 5:13PM
Sony's certainly been fairly candid when discussing the PSP Go in the past, but SCEE CEO Andrew House went quite a bit further than usual in discussing the download-only handheld with MCV recently. When asked if he considered the PSP Go to be a success, he responded by saying that it was "introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted," and that Sony has "definitely learned a lot," adding that "one of the reasons we launched PSP Go was to understand where that consumer behavior was going." He further went on to say that Sony was "getting signals from consumers that this was the kind of device that they wanted," but says that Sony needs to "recognize that consumers like their packaged media library." Does that mean a return to physical media for the eventual PSP 2? House unsurprisingly wouldn't say, but we have a feeling Sony will be getting plenty of questions about it at E3 next week.
We did tell them that digital media was the future. Then we bitched about not begin able to own a physical copies of our media.
We are hypocritical whiners
@DefPoet
Digital media can be the future, just not at physical media prices
@EGOvoruhk yes if it is cheaper and we are able to transfer it to all of our devices like we can with sd cards/cd/dvds then digital will reign supreme forev.............. well until we have telepathic media
@DefPoet That's not true.
I do want digital distribution. Digital distribution all the way.
I DON'T want a digital handheld where prices are the same or not competitive what-so-ever. I don't want a digital handheld that gives publishers the option as to whether they want to make their PSP game available digitally.
You have to pass the savings on when there is no packaging, UMD discs, distribution or retail negotiating involved. Sony wanted me to pay top dollar like a fool. That's not how digital distribution is going to work.
@DefPoet telepathic media? pfft. That's about as low as tech can go. We all know Holographic media and distribution is the future. Well, that is until the Force supports the open ForceDATA standard. Now that is a distribution method that is strong with the Force
@Lord Vader actually Mr Vader. You are already use telepathic memory mighti remind you. Have you forgot you jedi mindtricks to easily
@DefPoet No. I send Mind Tricks using the standard Force® Network
@Lord Vader
half way there,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOxW19vsTg
Dear Lord Vader
I am suing you for intergalactic patent infringement regarding your Force® Network, You Force® Network infringes on technology used in my Cerberus® Network.
Signed, Illusive Man
@DefPoet Big Mistake
@JONNNathannn Instead of UMDs in the next gen they should sell the games on memory cards or a UMM slot just for it that way everyone is happy users get physical goods others can download it directly and not have to carry around spinning disks
Thankfully Go taught Sony that any future PSP actually needs to play current PSP games. That means UMD is a requirement.
I am VERY thankfully they learned this lesson sooner rather than later.
I have a Go, and I wish that UMD attachment that was rumors was actually real
@Fragmented They Learned how to Rip Us Off...
if you have to learn more about what the consumer wanted you blew it.
and our AppleTV project is still a hobby.
they could have just browsed destructoid or kotaku for an afternoon and come to the same conclusion.
@whormongr :: Maybe they did but exclaimed all at the same time (in the office), "Lets make the PSP GO anyway!"; And that is the tale of the PSP GO.
@whormongr Yeah, this smacks of "We were dumbasses and now we are trying to cover our very stupid and dumb "asses". Don't blame your poor judgement on either your customer or the market. Just because you were "greedy bastards":TM and refused to admit that people are not willing to pay the same amount for less (ie, no physical media, no packaging, no shipping, no retail space needed) doesn't mean you get to just say "do over" and try to wave some magic wand. How about the PSP Go was not an improvement over the many PSP's that people already had. Why would someone buy something like that, oh yeah they didn't. Last time I checked companies don't build an item, package it, market it and try to sell it to find out what the Consumer wants. Those are called "Surveys" not the PSP Go. Oh and if your sending out physical survey's about DIGITAL MEDIA then your an idiot and deserve everything that happens to your company.
@ttringle
TLDR
Sony-- the leader in every consumer electronics market-- clearly had PLENTY of capital to blow on this "PSP Go experiment" to find out what consumers wanted.
Wait . . . it's not 1984? Never mind what I just said.
Nice cover up, but everyone knows Sony failed hard here.
I am fine with download only content as long as there is a mechanism to back it up where I don't have to rely on some server somewhere operating to be able to restore and use my content.
They could have made a concept video with commentary feedback then....just sayin'.
Translation:
The PSP Go was a complete and total failure and we are going to pretend it was only a experiment even though we were showing it off so much last year saying it was the future.
The PSP Go's problem isn't the lack of UMD, it's the lack large capacity storage.
@Mr Pips
and non-removable battery, missing second thumb stick, missing proper wifi support(still on the B standard), usage of a slower memory card standard(m2 micro speeds suck).
@Mr Pips Go's biggest problem was indeed lack of UMD.
The real problem was the lack of CFW. The moment CFW is out of the Go it'll be flying off shelves everywhere.
@zcubed Didn't it cost more with providing a worse experience without being able to play any PSP media you owned? If so, that about sums everything up...
Until Google, Apple, or Microsoft make a product that can access our media on any computer or device liek i can with a sd card or cd/dvd physical media will not die. I mention only those three cause they would be the only one the public would use
@DefPoet
Tell that to PC gaming.
@Voltage05 Valve's Steam is that
I can buy a new computer install Steam and it will install all my games that i own !
@DefPoet
Physical media when it comes to CD's is practicably dead. Only reason movies aren't is because the masses don't have an easy solution packaged in with the OS or the service being widely available on a media player like WMP or iTunes. I think with services like Netflix and the ability for almost any device to stream from WMP and other free clients will pull down movie sales.
It's just a matter of time and I think the only reason Hollywood hasn't jumped on the copyrighted material like the music industry is because if it gets a spotlight on it like Napster did it'll open the floodgates and their industry will be changed forever...
@PlatinumSkeet
During the three months ended April 4, combined U.S. sales of albums and track-equivalent albums (or TEA, where 10 tracks equal an album) totaled 113.2 million units, down 6.1 percent from 120.6 million during the corresponding period of 2009, when sales fell 7 percent year on year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
113.2 million cd's sold and you think it is dead WTF are you smoking
Word of advice Sony: when trying to get an idea of what consumers want why dont you try asking them and listening instead of releasing a crap machine that very few ppl will buy. honestly very few ppl in their right mind would go from the psp-2000 to the Go.
@zcubed Especially when it's so expensive. The games had no real savings, despite being digital.
The hardware was expensive as hell...and all because Sony openly admitted they could make it expensive, so they did make it expensive.
PSPGo could have, and needed to be, a lot cheaper.
@zcubed
Not to like Sony or anything, but the last thing people should trust is the consumers mouth. You actually have to see it that people will buy this stuff.
Just like how everyone on autoblog said that they would by a V8 Pontiac G8 and how GM should listen to the consumer. Well GM ended up broke, no one bought the G8 and Pontiac eventually disappeared. IMO I think Sony is nuts for trying to charge the same for a digital copy. A model like the Apple App store might have been better.
@zcubed
I disagree. The PSP Go is a GREAT device. If Sony had followed through with a "good-will" trade-in program for rebates on the DD version of titles, that would have helped.
The Go makes a great portable media player... but Sony has let the Go and "Media Go" wither on the vine from neglect.
@zcubed That isn't the market the device was going after. No one at Sony expected anyone who had a PSP to go out and buy it, that would be stupid. Every argument against the PSP Go says the same thing and they all don't get it.
It is for people who have gotten used to services like iTunes and Steam. A person who wants to get into portable gaming and see's the idea of carrying around discs as completely foreign as the rest of you nay sayers see's digital as not 'owning' your game.
With no way to migrate the titles I already owned to the PSP Go they left me little choice but to stay where I am.
"one of the reasons we launched PSP Go was to understand where that consumer behavior was going."
Mr. House, expect a bill for services rendered in the amount of $4000. That is my going-rate for performing market research.
He is either completely clueless or brazenly callous towards his customers to make that statement about the PSP Go customers. This explains Sony's lack of ongoing support and enhancements for the Go since its release. Sad.
I'm sure the complete dearth of games for the PSP Go and the inflated price tag had nothing to do with its performance.
@Faceless Troll
bingo.
DD of LBP = $40
UMD of LBP = $20
guess which people will prefer.
@Faceless Troll
You don't see the word "dearth" on blogs as much as you should.
Top drawer.
It's foolish to say people don't want digital distribution. From iPhone to XBLA, people embrace it. But you have to do it right.
Sony did it horribly, horribly wrong.
@JONNNathannn ::I think they did it pretty well except for the pricing and the prevention of the consume converting their physical games to digital download.
@JONNNathannn
i think it is foolish to say "people" want digital distribution when very few understand the strings attached. to give but one example, how many families do you think realize you can't transfer your wiiware from one console to another, even if yours breaks or gets stolen? what you want is a utopian fantasy, albeit a beautiful one. it worked fine on napster, but it's no way for a publicly traded company to make a profit, let alone a sustainable revenue stream. physical media is your friend.
@JONNNathannn
and one more thing: do you seriously think inventing iAd is "doing it right"? apple's business model is basically the same as a crack dealers: you only get the first one free.
@JONNNathannn iphone uses games a lot smaller than PSP though. Even Live has a smaller limit than PSP games! What works for them doesnt work for PSP.
Downloads work better the smaller the game is.
Its quicker to download, you can store more of them.
Conversely, they work worse the bigger they are.
And PSP games are pretty big. PSP2 games will be a few times larger.
I'm glad PSP Go taught Sony to stick with UMD
re: Sony needs to "recognize that consumers like their packaged media library."
No Mr. House. Sony needs to recognize that consumers like their electronics purchases to be supported by the company that made and sold them.
When the digital download version of Little Big Planet is $40 and the UMD version was available for $20, something is terribly wrong. Does Mr. House not understand that people would rather pay LESS for the same thing?!
@sracer amen.
@sracer LittleBigPlanet is $20 on PSN as well...