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Never say never should be Sony's motto for the PSPgo. The scruffy little hand-held is starting to be released to some rather lackluster reviews, but Sony remains positive. GameIndustry.biz sat down with Sony UK's Claire Backhouse to talk about the concerns and hopes of the PSPgo.
There have been reports of some retailers refusing to stock PSPgo, admittedly not in the UK, although some here have said they're not going to invest too much effort into marketing it in store or on websites. Is that presenting a problem for Sony?
Claire Backhouse: We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got. They were really quite fine with it. They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it's new interest, a new product. And they've had such strong sales as well of PSP 3000 almost off the back of it. If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP 3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us.
The lack of backwards compatibility - it could be a reason for existing PSP owners who perhaps own more than four UMD games not to upgrade. Was there ever a chance that it was going to be possible to offer a UMD to digital exchange?
Claire Backhouse: I'm not really sure because I don't know what the development team was working on. But I know that this is what they've offered us at the moment. I don't know whether there are any plans for the future for them to do it. We'll announce it if something comes about.
Check out the GameIndustry.biz interview for more on the PSPgo, how developers feel about the all digital format, and more!
Claire Backhouse: We were very aware of concerns when we went into it and I actually expected a lot more negative responses than we actually got. They were really quite fine with it. They see it as a way of getting people into the store because it's new interest, a new product. And they've had such strong sales as well of PSP 3000 almost off the back of it. If you bring out a new product, people aspire to that but they might not buy it, they might buy the PSP 3000 instead. Especially if they're part of a family - dad might buy the PSPgo but the kids might get PSP 3000s. I think that works quite well for us.
The lack of backwards compatibility - it could be a reason for existing PSP owners who perhaps own more than four UMD games not to upgrade. Was there ever a chance that it was going to be possible to offer a UMD to digital exchange?
Claire Backhouse: I'm not really sure because I don't know what the development team was working on. But I know that this is what they've offered us at the moment. I don't know whether there are any plans for the future for them to do it. We'll announce it if something comes about.