Sony's PSPgo bribes PSP upgraders

Updated:An upgrade deal, but is it selling your soul?

The PSPgo is Sony's answer to the touch-sensitive iPod and iPhone ranges, as well as hopefully reinvigorating their games department in the face of booming Nintendo DS sales.

The strange feature about the console is that it doesn't have the UMD disc drive that the standard PSP models have, relying instead on 16GB of built-in flash (expandable with memory cards) and a direct-download game store.

A problem lies in the motivation to upgrade to the PSPgo for owners of the current PSP - any games currently owned are unplayable on the PSPgo, and the most popular choice when upgrading is to turn in the older model for a discount on the newer one.

What Sony has done to combat this move is strangely to bribe the upgraders into purchasing the PSPgo without trading in their old console, perhaps to keep them with both consoles and tempt them into purchasing physical UMD games as well as downloadable content.

Tom's Guide have got the process summarised thusly:

(1) Purchase a new PSPgo and connect it to the PlayStation Network
(2) Load up a UMD in the older PSP unit and then connect it to the PSN as well, registering the UMD
(3) Download a new PSPgo theme and wait for the UMD voucher offering 3 free games.

So sure you get three free-ish games, but it also means that you're stuck with two handheld consoles with the list of free games limited to sixteen titles that are now quite ancient.

The PSPgo has a lot to prove with its online store, but restricting current owners of games to move to the new console seems slightly backwards.

Update: It seems that one of the biggest gaming retailers in the country, EB Games, is not going to stock the PSPgo at all - which makes plenty of sense considering once they've sold you the console they can't sell any games to you. However, JBHIFI and GAME will be stocking the console.

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8 Comments

thesorehead Sep 25, 2009 11:00 AM	Depends on the discount you'd get if you traded in your existing PSP, and what the games are really. If there were classic games you've meant to pick up but haven't got around to; as well as a way to use your existing PSP to load your current games onto your PSPgo; then it's worthwhile.
brissietex Sep 25, 2009 11:19 AM	Can we all say "Typical Sony"? Getting us to again buy older games on a newer console be it the PSPgo or the PS3 if we want to go to a newer platform. Why couldn't they just include some kind of convertor either hardware or utility to load our existing UMDs into the memory of the PSP as a image? I am pretty sure this could be done but hey that isn't a revenue earner for Sony so they would never do it.
SquallStrife Sep 25, 2009 12:54 PM	Typical Sony. Not stocking this piece of junk is probably one of the smarter decisions EB Games has made.
meniac Sep 25, 2009 1:26 PM	I think that that is a bluetooth logo I see on the top right? No mention of it in the spec's :( http://www.us.playstation.com/psp/systems/pspgo.html Will it have 3G support? Doubt it :( I think I will keep my current glorified MP3 player :p Modified PSP 2000 ;) lol
TheFrunj Sep 25, 2009 2:02 PM	meniac, that Bluetooth is probably to help sync with the PS3 and other Sony devices, and it does look like the logo. I'll have to wait until we get a review unit to confirm though! -JR
Mademan Sep 26, 2009 11:28 AM	Even EA or Valve will let you reinstall without the original disc electronicly, to the registered account.
12345 Sep 26, 2009 3:50 PM	I recently bought a console and having just gone to eb and game and all those places. I've just realised how poor the customer sales people really are. they really are bad and its amazing that these stores are still making any money. I guess it comes down to ripping people off with trade-ins. I guess thats what happens when you put people who have no social life in customer service roles. I guess it wont be any similar to harvey norman who use to not give a shit about nintendo. whats not to stop sony from selling games via the upgradeable memory? EB Games is a waste of time anyways. PSPgo is going to be a hard sell at least for now.
Ruspar Oct 6, 2009 8:16 PM	Hrmmm... I guess it's too bad that EB Games actually does Stock the PSPgo.

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