Sony's PSP Go Failure

News came out today that Sony's upper management has conceded that the PSP Go has not been very successful. This shouldn't come as any surprise as the PSP platform was never the mega-hit that Sony was hoping for, instead playing second fiddle to Nintendo's DS (half fiddle actually, with a little less than 50% the sales volume of the DS), and the PSP Go did nothing to change that competitive landscape. In fact I think it could be pretty well argued that the PSP Go hurt the brand.

The main difference between the Go and the standard PSP is the exclusion of the UMD optical drive; in its place is a relatively large capacity memory stick capable of holding at least a handful of games. On paper that sounds very forward looking; by ditching physical media Sony should have been able to leverage the strength of modern digital distribution to create a platform with a winning combination of superb hardware and App-Store like access to stunning video games. Except it didn't, and instead Sony lost a golden opportunity to change their fortunes in the portable gaming marketplace. With digital games being released days or weeks after their physical counterparts, full-retail prices for all games (including older games which were widely discounted elsewhere), and a user-unfriendly purchasing system (compared to the App Store), the downloadable dream crumbled away into mediocre sales and upset customers. I didn't even mention the redacted promise of old PSP owners being able to get downloadable copies of games they already purchased.

The previously mentioned Sony execs noted that they had learned much from the Go debacle, but I doubt that they've learned enough. When a company is so notoriously bad at creating user-friendly software and platforms (see PS3's Home and current system update mechanism), and continues to make bone-headed decisions, it's apparent they're probably missing a few things. In no particular order:

1.   Day and date releases are a must, and every piece of software must be made available digitally. I chalk this up to narrow-thinking and strong, deeply bred feelings amongst the Japanese gaming industry, but that's no excuse. Sony should have strong-armed their partners into this.

2.  Value. Not only were brand-new digital games selling for the exact same as their physical counterparts, but older, discounted titles were selling for much more than street. Game prices need to be tied to street prices and need to update in lockstep. Sense a theme? Co-ordination between both sides of the platform is very important.

3.  Promotion and backwards compatibility. Sony should have stuck through with their claim to allow upgrades to get digital copies of their game plain and simple. Sony also should have offered a $5 rebate for the first 5 games bought on the PSP Go during the first wave of sales. That would stimulate sales and show Sony's commitment to the platform.

The thing to keep in mind is that these lessons will become increasingly important. The next generation of video game consoles will be moving towards direct download alongside the existing physical media. Playstation fans should hope that Sony won't screw it up this time too.