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Retailers pleased with PSP Go ... because it helps sell the PSP-3000
Despite word from a few European retailers that Sony's download-only handheld, the PSP Go, won't be sold in their stores, the company's UK product manager isn't afraid of poor sales. Even with no ability to read physical media (read as: nothing for retail to sell other than the console), and a £224.99 price point ($362.07 -- seriously), Sony's Claire Blackhouse says retailers are happy to have the new console in their stores. "We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got," Blackhouse told GamesIndustry.biz. "[The retailers] were really quite fine with it." Furthermore, she says that retailers see the console launch this week as a "way of getting people into the store," that those not able to afford the new hardware will "aspire to it" and "might buy the PSP 3000 instead." She even riffs on a PSP-ified family, where "dad might buy the PSP Go but the kids might get PSP 3000s." Sony's 180° marketing shift we've seen recently for the PSP 3000 certainly helps to serve as proof of the company's belief in this strategy. Only time will tell if it'll work.
