Sony announce a price cut, a whole bunch of cheaper games, and a music service for their original portable gaming device.
What with all the recent news surrounding the Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play and the not-so-imminent arrival of the NGP, the humble PSP has fallen off our radar over the past while. To be honest, we were actually a little surprised that Sony’s original entrant into the portable gaming market was still being sold anywhere other than Ebay.
But it is, and maybe because of the predicted delay of the NGP Launch, today Sony have announced that you can pick one up for the rather sweet new recommended retail price of $189.95. And that’s not all, Sony have also re-launched a range of games as ‘PSP Essentials’ – retailing at just $14.95 – and ‘PSP Platinum’, which includes some of the format’s most popular titles now selling for $29.95.
Sony are also sweetening the pot by giving PSP users access to Qriocity’s Music Unilimted, a subscription service that gives users access to millions of major and independent label releases and features a channel tailoring process that sounds similar to Apple’s iTunes Genius tool. The service comes online on the 14th of this month, and all you’ll need to9 access it (aside from the PSP, of course) is your PSN ID and Wi-Fi access.
In short, Sony are trying very hard to convince us that not only is the PSP not dead, but it’s also better value than ever, and if you pick one up now, you’re still going to get plenty of use from it. At least until the NGP finally arrives…
Issue: 137 | June, 2012