Kutaragi Comments on PSP Pricing

We set a price that's just right, says Ken.

With the Japanese launch details for the PSP now firmly a reality, Sony has commented on its reasoning behind the surprisingly low launch price.

In an interview reported by the Associated Press, Sony's deputy vice-president Ken Kutaragi denied rumours that the ¥19,800 (£101) price was decided on to counter that of the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo previously announced that it will release the Nintendo DS in Japan for ¥15,000 (£77). Prior to Wednesday's announcement, industry analysts had predicted that the PSP might come in at anything up to ¥39,800 (£205).

Kutaragi said that part of process of choosing the PSP's price was polling the staff at Sony to find out how much they would be willing to pay for the handheld. But a bigger issue was how the price positions the handheld relative to other high-tech gadgets.

"The iPod is selling for ¥30,000 (£154) and ¥40,000 (£206), and all it does is play music," Kutaragi said. "We set a price that's just right to hit a sweet spot."

In addition to being a platform for videogames, the PSP will also allow music and movie playback. Movies will be tied to the proprietary UMD disc format, though, and an official announcement of support from movie studios is still "months away".

Taking into account the new retail price, Sony is expecting to sell 200,000 units at launch on 12 December, 500,000 by year's end and one million by March 2005.

Sony has yet to announce details regarding the launches of the PSP in either North America or Europe.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games