Everyone’s all abuzz about the NGP, Sony’s touch-tastic, dual-joystick successor to the PSP. No one knows how much it costs yet and the PlayStation powers-that-be will probably be keeping that under wraps until E3 comes up in June. (Sony Unveils the NGP, the Next Evolution of Portable PlayStation Hardware)
That said, there’s still the current version of Sony’s handheld to think about, and if you want to get one for your God of War–on–the–bus needs, it’s going to cost you less. The new price is $129.99, forty bucks off of the current MSRP. The price drop is effective Feb. 27 and only affects the PSP-3000 model, not the terrible-selling, digital-only PSPGo.
The real intrigue here is how much room this leaves for Sony to play around with pricing for the NGP. Sony’s never minded asking consumers to back up the money truck for their gaming wares. Recall that the original launch price of the PSP back in March 2005 was $249. In an era where loads of powerful devices running iOS and Android cost less than $250, it’d be hard to see Sony debuting the NGP at the same price. Also, Nintendo’s already said what the 3DS will cost. If Sony’s going to have any hope of closing the gap between themselves and Nintendo in the portable gaming market–not to mention compete with gaming-enabled smartphones–it makes sense for them to come in at about $200 for the NGP. Of course, that could be just so much wishful thinking. Hopefully, we’ll find out come E3. (Nintendo 3DS Launching on March 27th for $250)