This business model of digital only has worked somewhat for the mobile phones and media players, but IMHO, it's offering less and asking more of the PSP adopters, and a bit too risky a move for a handheld platform that is already trailing the DS by miles. This could very well be the next N-Gage or Virtual Boy.

Like the PS3 slim, it should have a cheaper pricepoint than the current model (PSP-3000), to reflect the stripped-down features and smaller frame. Then it would be ideal. The $249 price, $50 less than the PS3 slim, is still mind-boggling to me. Maybe if it had touch-screen...phone. I dunno. End rant!

This will not stand. Hackers will unite.

And Sony seems to be hedging bets with a soft launch --- a week out and not a peep of hype or PR, and this annoucement seems 180 degrees from earlier notes of a 'way would be found', which sadly will lead to the comment above mine. The price point makes no sense as the adopter audience the Go targets gets the same features with their Touches and smartphones.

The 'free' games seems some last minute rush to cover someone's ass or so Sony can make some BS claim of 'XXX number of titles' available for dl at launch.

Never underestimate the homebrewers, Sony always does thank goodness. They'll find a way within a few months to break the shell off those things and break the encryption, and piss off $ony.

The PSP isn't doing as hot as the DS, but it's actually a pretty solid platform with very respectable numbers. Topping Nintendo is not a realistic expectation, but the PSP is far from anemic.

Yes the PSP is a solid plattform, but why should anybody buy a PSP Go, when it is so inferior to the original PSP (no UMD support) at a much higher price point. If I had to choose which PSP I should buy I would never go for the PSP Go, cause this platform has a userbase of 0 right now and even if it will grow, it will never get as many users as the original PSP.

The main reason any of the existing fanbase would upgrade would be for the internal storage. Running games from memstick is far more enjoyable than UMD and it has faster load times and better battery life. Also, GO has 16gb of flash memory. With a Photofast microSD to memstick converter you can add an addition 32GBs of storage to the GO (or any PSP for that matter.) If 48GBs isn't enough storage then that's just a personal problem with some of the fanbase. Generally, I'd be happy with that if the GO didn't cost $250 (Pachter's original comments were accurate. That IS a rip off.) and if Sony at least sold digital copies of PSP games at a more competitive price point. As an example, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow is still $22 in the PSN store if memory serves, but I can get it on UMD for as low as $14 retail. Not cool.

Ultimately, I think the GO is going to be a failure. I'm most likely going to just get a Photofast adapter and us it in my PSP Slim. Oh well. I guess Sony doesn't like money. I'd surely fork over $180 for a GO.

So lets compare the Go vs. the regular PSP

(-) No UMD support. Better chuck those old games.
(-) Smaller screen
(-) $80 price increase
(?) Arguably worse form factor
(?) No way to swap out the battery. This will likely move over to the minus category, but it is possible they've done something to substantially increase the battery life. I have a spare battery and they both died one way on a flight from Chicago to Paris (I'd estimate about three hours each) while playing games off a memory stick. So this is a pretty huge flaw if the battery life isn't substantially better.
(?) Bluetooth support. I'm not sure what this is useful for.
(+) 16 GB internal flash memory
(+) Built in microphone

I've got to be missing something here because this thing really seems like the most ill conceived product to actually see launch in recent memory. It is worse in a number of obvious ways, and this is supposed to be made up for by some subtle improvements. Requiring all games to be available on PSN also makes them available to fat owners. I can't see this thing ever outselling the PSP3000 unless they just stop making the older unit, or disallow newer games from running on older units.

It is extremely clear that the PSP Go is just Sony's experiment to prove the digital market. However, how expensive is that "experiment" going to be for Sony's profit?

Moreover, the digital market has proven to be a successful model regarding the iPhone. So, it is not surprising that Sony is developing a true follower for the PSP that will benefit itself from the digital platform on which the Playstation Network is based on. It is just a matter of time, market research, and innovation.

"Don't worry, my friend.. we'll make a solution.." then when it's contract time, WHAM

It looks to me like Sony is trying to get rid of the trade-in market for the PSP by getting rid of UMDs. I don't know if anyone else noticed this.

Killing the used games market is the exact purpose of digital downloads. Developers have been so bold as to say it to our faces.

Ford can't generate revenue from used car sales (unless it's selling them), yet video game developers want an exception to the first sale rule and force GameStop to pay them royalties on used game sales.

Sorry, but no. There's a reason a few retailers have refused to carry the PSP Go.

Introducing a brand new purely digital platform is a good strategy, but trying to switch an existing platform to pure digital without giving current owners and easy way to digitize their existing game collections for free is a stupid move. However, I think the next generation sony portable (the PSP2 or whatever they decide to call it) will be purely digital based, and it will be successful because they won't have an existing customer base with physical game collections to worry about.

I think digital is the future for mobile platforms. I love being able to search for a game on my iphone or steam, download it, and play it. Granted, people like being able to recoup some of the cost of something after they've gotten tired of it by selling it and you can't do that when everything is digital, but it's so damn convenient to not have to worry about keeping track of a physical media collection. It's also much better for the current populace, which loves instant gratification. You don't have to go to the store or order a retail box from an online retailer and wait for it to come in the mail. You just pay, download, and play. This is the future. Sony's delivery of this concept in the PSP go may fail, but the concept of pure-digital content delivery is here to stay in the gaming industry.

@ John Hahn

Completely agree with you. Why make the switch in midstream? Given the age of the PSP (4.5yrs old), why not brand the Go as a completely new platform that is somewhat backwards compatible? Quite a misfire/missed opportunity on Sony's part to release a followup to the PSP. The Go may succeed if Sony phases out the delivery of UMD packaged goods altogether.

@John

But the industry had better not overestimate the size of the wired 4 life, digital til I die audience. While the adopters may be prevalent and obvious to the industry, there are plenty of reasons such excludes a majority of spending $$$. One should not use the downloads of iphone or mobile phone games as categorical evidence that mainline console games wil sell that way or even that the network backbone is even there. The average consumer is angry enough they can no longer find new product for their Xboxes and PS2s, simply dropping UMDs will sit no better.

Very bad and potentially damaging move by not having any service for current UMD users.

Personally, I own about 20-30 UMD's and would love to send them back to sony for free e-versions of those titles. I am unwilling to buy a $250 device that will force me to re-purchase what I consider to be the essential psp titles (about half the ones I own UMD's for), AND (more importantly - please take note Sony) - I am unwilling to buy any more UMD's for my current PSP as I (along with most consumers) have an issue with purchasing something on an obsolete (or soon to be) format.

This move puts current PSP users between a rock and a hard place. Thanks Sony for supporting those of us who supported you (*sarc). Time to pay a bit more attention to iPhone games and DS I guess :(
Very bad and potentially damaging move by not having any service for current UMD users.

Personally, I own about 20-30 UMD's and would love to send them back to sony for free e-versions of those titles. I am unwilling to buy a $250 device that will force me to re-purchase what I consider to be the essential psp titles (about half the ones I own UMD's for), AND (more importantly - please take note Sony) - I am unwilling to buy any more UMD's for my current PSP as I (along with most consumers) have an issue with purchasing something on an obsolete (or soon to be) format.

This move puts current PSP users between a rock and a hard place. Thanks Sony for supporting those of us who supported you (*sarc). Time to pay a bit more attention to iPhone games and DS I guess :(

I probably won't be buying the PSP go, but I will continue to buy PSP UMD discs as well as downloadable titles for my current PSP. After all, there are still games being released for the PSP that are UMD only such as Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days. The best thing they could do though is to release a UMD PSP that has some of the added features of the PSP Go so we'll know we aren't being left behind. (Internal memory, Bluetooth controller support, etc.) I'm still not buying any downloadable titles that cost more than $20 though.

The $250 price point was just insane though. Nintendo dropped the ball when they released the DSi at $170, and Sony instead of picking it up and running with it grabbed it and politely handed it back to Nintendo with their new price point.