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.
@APV
Yes, now it is. But when it was first made available on PSN it was $40 while the UMD version was on sale for $20. I apologize for the confusion caused by not being more specific.
So just to recap:
Sony spent millions developing, manufacturing, marketing, and releasing a product that was [partially] designed to figure out what consumers want?
Isn't is a good idea to figure out what consumers want before you release the product?
The disconnect that Sony has from both consumers and simple logic is alarming.
Down with digital downloads! I'm a bargain shopper. Digital downloads rarely go to clearance prices, rarely get deeply discounted, and are not resellable.
Sure there are some good deals sometimes, but the vast majority of good deals are on physical products. Even for the PC market which is way ahead on the digital download path.
And I am NOT spending $50-$60 on a digital download of a game I cannot resell. It's part of the reason I rarely buy PC games any more - thanks to various online keycode and DRM schemes, I simply cannot resell it later.
@greenmonkey
Apple's app store has proven that people WILL fully embrace digital downloads IF the price is right. Granted, most apps are $1-$3, but even if DD PSP games were $10-15 many people would buy them. When one considers that there is no used dd market to siphon off new game sales, the pricing for DD games should be dramatically lower than what they currently are.
The Go is an amazing little device. If Sony would be serious about supporting it, I'd ditch my other portable media players and use the Go exclusively.
@greenmonkey dude stop being such a cheap bastard, if you don't want to pay those prices then don't. If people are like you the prices will come down. If not then you'll be out of luck. There are plenty of examples of digital media being a great deal. Take a look at Steam's prices sometime. Or older games on XBOX 360 that they sell online for the same cut rate prices they sell them in Best Buy. If the damned Hard Drive didn't cost half the price of a new XBOX I would jump on some of those games. Sony are the morons that try to gouge you for the same thing, and if you choose to wait until they lower the price instead of being a lemming then it will drop. Otherwise you have no one but yourself to blame. But sooner or later you won't have a choice. Digital distribution is where things are headed and if you don't like it, break out the monopoly board because your gonna be sadly disappointed.
@sracer "Apple's app store has proven that people WILL fully embrace digital downloads IF the price is right."
Except the prices on Apple's store are due to massively lower budgets than PSP games, and massively lower quality and filesizes. You cant compare the 2
they should create a gamesystem out of their cellphones..
a dual boot system perhaps.. somthing that can play all those psp/ps2 games
if you cant figure out what the consumer wants, just quit your job.
well judging from the last graph i saw of PSPs mobile game market share drop and the surveys they've been sending out via email, i think some changes will be (hopefully) coming soon, They need a system were users can download their games to the PSP go that they already own on UMD, and also bring older titles to the store at reasonable (digital) price.
After reading this article, I got the impression that this Andrew House is just one of many, many layers of Sony (mis)management. And because of that, he can't respond to a single question with a straight answer. It sounds like there are so many layers of managers above this guy, that everything he said was diplomatic and vague because what happens next is still up in the air, and he didn't want to be on-record saying the opposite of what the company ultimately decides.
No, Sony... You have it wrong. Again.
We want all-digital, but when you offer only a small portion of the whole PSP library availible for download on PSN, people want older PSP games and can't get them, so they complain.
EVERYTHING would be fixed if all UMD's were uploaded to PSN.
@APV No, that wouldnt fix it. We want to use the UMDs we already own, not rebuy everything,
No...Im pretty sure it was to learn how to kill your brand.
Sony has learnt what the consumer wants…
…Nintendo DS and iPod touch
@(Unverified) ew god no
I had a feeling Sony was running around like headless chicken and this helps prove it they put out hardware and priced it nutty to test the market um ever heard of focus groups I mean come on
Why do they have such moronic executives? You're suppose to KNOW what consumers want. Just like Steve Jobs.
If you don't know then you should get a jobs doing something else besides running a tech company.
The PSP Go would probably have sold fine if it had cost $50+ *less* than the PSP-3000 ($100-150 cheaper than the PSP Go sold for), and if direct downloads offered some sort of consistent savings over UMDs, and if Sony allowed conversions.
The market is there, Sony just bungled it.
@Guspaz what you're asking for isnt possible.
Go cost more so they could give more to retailers who hated it cause it cut them out of used game sales.
And games cost more cause its illegal to undercut retailers.
You cant ask for everything AND have it cheaper
Use some common sense
@Extinction Retailers might hate it, but not all retailers sell used games (for example, wal-mart, bestbuy, future shop, etc). Also, it's nonsense that it's "illegal" to undercut retailers. Says who? Unless Sony or other publishers have an explicit agreement with retailers to not charge under a certain price, which would be somewhat contentious in itself, there is no law in the US or Canada that prohibits undercutting retailers (who are themselves free to set their prices as they wish). Valve regularly does this, charging a bit less for digital software over Steam than the retail pricing.
About the only thing you'd have a leg to stand on is the suggestion of trading in UMDs for digital downloads. Unless it was built into the original license granted by Sony to the publishers, Sony would have to negotiate individually with publishers in order to arrange such a deal. That was the least of the PSP Go's problems, in any case.
Well, they learned what the consumer wanted all right... The answer was "Not that".
Sony supposedly learned a lot, but last time I checked downloading games on my PSP GO still sucked ass.
3 things I saw wrong with PspGo.
1. Games are too large.
2. Games are too expensive.
3. PspGo doesn't have enought capacity.
Should of released a 32gb version.
I think he meant to say they released the PSP Go to 'learn more about what the consumer doesn't want.'
Work on getting the content same as media release date and lower prices, especially of the hardware. Then you'll have people interested.
http://www.professorhobo.com/2010/05/31/benefits
Uhh no sony. you still clearly dont know what we want.
Of course we want digital... im sure most of us all HATE CDS and cartridges.. but we want to be able to control our digital rights. you telling us we have only 3 copies no matter what. and not being able to trade our copies etc. On top of all that, we have to wait for a download when we can drive to the store and get something physical with a booklet, and has resell value.. at the same COST!
@I33 No, the majority of gamers prefer CDs/cartridges. Consistently, polls reveal the majority of gamers prefer a physical product for their money
I think Sony should continue to produce physical media so long as there's demand for it. Also put it on SD card because its smaller and has no moving parts. I also think that having a digital library is key in today's tech market, with that have all PSP games uploaded onto the PSNetwork thus you fulfill the needs of both physical media and digital media enthusiasts. I also think they should look into touch screen, accelerometer, second joy stick, and 4 trigger button integration and other options than just 16gb hdd in the next PSP. This is just my dream, I know its idealistic but I feel that matching the controls to that of the Dual Shock 3 would enhance game play. Touch screen and accelerometer integration because its technology that is becoming standard in playing casual gaming. With Sony having their PSP Minis brand the touch screen and accelerometer tech could be utilized as well as the other on board controls.
As others have said they need more content on their PSNetwork to bring more customers in. More music, movies and TV shows. I know that sounds like iTunes but since the tech market has changed since the introduction to iTunes it seems like if you want to have a fighting chance you need a app and media marketplace to keep up with the competition and garner attention from the consumer.
This is what Sony needs to work on before they hope to get the PSP brand back up on its feet in my opinion. Also work on the pricing of the actual device, its memory card line, maybe allow for saving on the SD card the game comes on if theirs room. Work on the digital pricing of the digital games and physical games so that there is some sort of parity so that the consumer can see "oh it costs a bit more because it has actual plastic packaging and comes on an SD card." Again just some thoughts on what might help, overall its still going to take a while to bring it up to par with other products and that all depends on how much Sony is willing to do in terms of taking time and money to fix their past.
Sony should be embarrassed and Howard stringer will want answers from the dev team.
It's sonys own fault. The damage cause by releasing the psp go will linger for a year or two. All the comment I read are what consumers want. Instead they tried to play us for fools creating a non hand friendly device with a lack of dial analogue sticks, charged a high price and say to us it's an aspirational device.
Because of that CRAP move you guys spent years developing a dud which puts you behind iPhones and android devices. Buy the time you catch up the "game" would have moved on. Shot youselves with that SUCKER MOVE Sony.
And if this 3ds is how it looks in the YouTube videos then Sony is in trouble.
Sony Has To Wake Up And Stop Taking Advantage Of It's Fan Base. While The Original PSP Lacked A Second Thumbstick, It Seems Like An Inexcuseable Ommission In The PSP Go, And A Slap In The Face When The PSP OS Displays A Camera Option When There Is No Camera Available For The PSP Or PSP Go. Sony Has To Wake Up And Realize That Customers Will No Longer Buy Repackaged Crap, As New As The PSP Go Is, It Is Hardly Revolutionary As It Was Just Evolutionary. This Kind Of Offensive Outlook To Customers Loyalty Is What Had Put American Automakers In Financial Jepeordy.
I think they look at apple and saw there market share rising and they use the me to approach. Well it didn't work you created umd stick with it and slowly bring digtail downloads to market. Sony needs to stop with the me to approach (cough) playstation move.
Well, how about Little Big Planet - arguably the biggest PSP release of the past year - being available day and date with the physical version? How is it harder to get a game onto a web server than it is to get it mass produced on a proprietary physical format and in stores?!
PSN needs more games, for less money, and with a better delivery system than the horrible Windows-only Media Go software. Sure, you can download directly, but the PSP can't even do background downloading. It's slow and painful.
I bought my first PSP game in ages at the weekend (Fat Princess). I figured it was easier to get it on UMD as it was the same price, didn't incur a ridiculous wait, and I can get some of my money back if I don't like it.
BS. They don't listen. They produce a brick and when it sinks they take that as "proof" that the current version was perfect.
It is OBVIOUS they don't listen. Some crackhead doufus exec like the one pictured just gets an idea, forces all his employees to produce it then blames the customer for making it a failure.
Sure Mr. House,
Customers wanted to lose their entire library of PSP games.
Customers wanted to have a limited quantity of titles available.
Customers wanted to jump through hoops to install games.
Customers wanted to have a battery they send back to you to replace.
Customers wanted to buy new more expensive proprietary memory cards.
Customers want you to kiss their arses Mr. House. You are full of it.
@HektikLyfe When your out for the day and packing light how many game discs do you carry with you?
@04k3R If I'm out for the day and packing light I don't take my PSP, its too bulky. I take my iPhone alone.
When I go somewhere where I know I will play I like to have all my games with me. Either to play with other people or to show them the games. I don't like to have to select which games I will need. Right now I have 25+ so you can imagine my PSP bag is pretty bulky.
I am looking for a More Portable Playstation Portable. Not one that sacrifices features and functionality at a higher cost. The capability is there. Decisions was made not to take them. Bad ones.
I so hope the PS2 will have physical media.
make that the PSP 2
shouldn't you learn what the customer wants, then release a product???
@spacemonkey086 Normally yes, unless you want to blame the consumer for your products failure.
The future that we wanted included dual sticks.
@hyporez Among many other things...
3 issues:
One...they gave zero upgrade path for those (like me) that have well over $500 invested in physical media.
Two...Digital media at physical prices
Three...Price point of hardware was way too high.
I can't believe that focus groups didn't give them this feedback in the first place.
@kspraydad I can't believe they even had any focus groups. Digital media should cost LESS than physical media.
'learn more about what the consumer wanted'
For a company as old as Sony, wouldn't you think they have learned something about what the consumers want?
LOL, they are like a Dinosaur with its head buried in the sand as the apple shaped doomsday comet goes hurdling by!
PS Lead don't follow, run don't walk, DO don't talk Sony. Your wand is better but so what. You copied instead of inovated. PSP phone should have happened already. A bluetooth enabled cell powered Aibo version 10.0 that acts as a robotic peripheral to PS3, PSP etc. should have happened already (versing my robotic dog in COD would be totally kick ass). A flexible display device with roll out screen is now, don't wait for the fruit guys to do it first. Everyday that Steve OG rolls out another presentation should be like hammer to nail in hand with a cross on the other side! Notice how he doesn't talk 10 years out? When he's done yapping, shit is ready in a week! YOU LOST YOUR WAY! Please come home SHANE!!!
I did not get a pspgo because I had too many games on umd. Even though I hate umds , I will not rebuy games I already own... I will not pay the same price for download only games, also the screen was SMAllER - wtf?- and only one joystick. Fix that and I would be in the market because of portability. The ds and the itouch are way more portable . I don't carry my psp around any more. In fact I have not played it in some time. Oh and what happened to the psp hooking up to theps3 for gaming ?
I just don't know what the marketing team of Sony was thinking. Introducing something with the same specs as TWO older models and WITHOUT a very important functionality? On top of that... yeah, digital game pricing is a HUGE issue which was absolutely ridiculous. I still have my used games thank you very much.
@darknessangel Oh and I forgot... more expensive than the other TWO models! Absolutely laughable.
by "packaged media" i'd say he is referring to a singular device that can do everything ie iphone, ipad, smartphones in general.
Everything that is me is on my iphone i read news about the games i like. I play quirky games on the iphone because that's about all the thing can handle, notes, music, movies, photos, facebook etc. This is a "packaged media" device. You might call it a MID, but i don't really see the purpose of a mid when the future of a mid is in a smartphone. We need a new name for smartphone though because smartphones are what we used to know as Blackberrys and Treos. These new brought a lot more to the ball park.
Well, they learned what consumers DON'T want: a PSPGo.