PSPgo Clings to Life in North America

[Tom Goldman]

PSPgo Clings to Life in North America

The PSPgo might be dead in Japan and Europe, but it'll still be manufactured for the North American market.

It was a sad day for the confirmed [http://www.amazon.com/PSPgo-Piano-Black-Sony-PSP/dp/B002BSC55M] that the system would no longer continue to be shipped to retailers. Apparently, reports of the digital download-only handheld's demise were somewhat region specific, as it may continue to live on in North America alone.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America evidently told Joystiq that the PSPgo will continue to be manufactured for the North American market. "We are continuing production of PSPgo for North America," SCEA specifically said.

This would mean that North America, and only North America will eventually become the only place to pick up a new PSPgo if they sell out in Europe and Japan, where Sony has revealed that the PSPgo is done. The PSPgo's discontinuation likely stems from its difficulty at catching on in the market, and the future release of Sony's next-gen NGP handheld [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107394-Sony-Uploads-Entire-PSP2-Conference-Online-in-HD].

What I'm wondering is: Why? One can only guess that the PSPgo is somehow earning Sony a profit in North America, even though it doesn't seem to be a very popular device.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/21/sony-continuing-production-of-psp-go-in-america/]


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[Onyx Oblivion]

It's not THAT bad...thanks to frequent PSN sales on PSP game downloads.

But it's mostly inferior to having a regular PSP, assuming you have a decent memory stick.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, I think the digital download thing just took a major hit with the PSP-go going down, by showing many customers in general are somewhat resistant to being totally at the mercy of having someone to continue providing what they pay for.

That said, if I had to made an educated guess, I'd imagine the reason why it's going to live on in North America is because Sony doesn't want to risk getting reamed by ginormous lawsuits.

It's been a good question for a while what would happen if a major digital content provider went out of business and disappeared entirely, taking the digital content people paid for with them. Whether the EULAs and download agreements would protect them from legal action is a debatable issue, because there are some rights a person can't sign away. Most fights against EULAs and such have been relatively small scale, and ultimatly puesued from rather ineffective angles to begin with.

I'm guessing that there is probably paid content for the PSPGo that won't be accessible on any other kind of system, and if they stop producing the hardware, people will be unable to access what they paid for if their system breaks and they can't get another one. As a result they are having to weigh the potential legal battles, against the cost of continueing to produce a smattering of units for what little market they were able to acheive.

I could be wrong about that, but it's my guess. The USA tends to give customers and citizens a lot more rights in civil court than other countries do, hence why we're viewed as "sue crazy". I'd imagine Sony is probably more concerned over the possibilities for losses in the US, than throughout Europe, or in Japan.

I'm kind of interested in seeing what happens down the road when a major Digital content distributer DOES go down in a way that will cause a lot of people to lose access to material they paid for. I hope it's not one I'm invested in of course, but to be honst it's going to be interesting and bring a lot of issues to a head.

 

[Eri]

I love how Nintendo is discontinuing what is, in my mind, a very popular device. And here we have Sony, who is not discontinuing, a very unpopular device. Both of them are just retarded. /facepalm

 

[Eri]

I love how Nintendo is discontinuing what is, in my mind, a very popular device.

What is the Big N discontinuing?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/04/new-ds-lite-systems-have-been-discontinued.jpg

 

[New Troll]

Every place I know here in the U.S. stopped selling PSPgos several months ago. My store still has a couple of accessories for it clearanced way, way down just trying to get rid of them, but no one owns one to desire any of it.

 

[thedeathscythe]

It's not THAT bad...thanks to frequent PSN sales on PSP game downloads.

But it's mostly inferior to having a regular PSP, assuming you have a decent memory stick.

I agree, I got one for my birthday (I have the psp 1000 and there were some games I wanted to play so I got one to sort of inspire me to play it more), and I didn't expect much, I love having all the tech I can, good or bad, but I liked it. I like that it's more portable than my old psp. I can close this one and fit it into most of my jeans or sweater pockets, my old psp couldn't do that, I usually needed a big sweater pocket to hold it. I also liked having games saved onto the harddrive. There are things I don't agree with, like only one analog stick, but it's just a remake of the psp, not a sequel to it.

It came out too expensive I must say, though, but I am surprised 1. That they are cancelling it at all, no matter how well it's selling. And 2. That they are cancelling it only for certain regions. Stranger things have happened I suppose.

 

[z3rostr1fe]

What the... Be dead already! *shoots gun*

Seriously, I think what they are doing is the science-y way: Build and Recycle!