Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has called on Sony to lower the price of its PSP handheld console so that it can more effectively compete against Nintendo’s DS and Apple’s iPhone.
“I think Sony is running into a brick wall, trying to compete in the handheld sector,” Pachter told GameTrailers in the latest video edition of Pach-Attack.
“With that said, I don’t think they’re giving up. I think we’re going to have a PSP-4000, 5000 and 6000. I’m hopeful they come down in price. I’m hopeful games come down in cost for the consumer and they can be competitive.”
However, Pachter opined that the PSP was “probably” destined to be in second place to Nintendo on the “pure game front” and third place “overall” with the iPod “thrown in.”
“What they did with the PSP, which I thought was brilliant at the time, was they positioned it older. They said the DS has a bunch of cartoony games – Pokemon and Yoshi – games that are skewed a little bit younger.
“[But Sony said] ‘we’re going to have the PSP and we’re going to have Grand Theft Auto and we’re going to capture that older audience’. [Still], it didn’t work.”
