Sonys PSP shipping amounts, why?

[gizmo1990]

I find this topic absolutely fasinating. Its like watching a massively slowed down game of chess between two big gorillas.

This latest information here which admitably isnt that new to anyone whos been following the whole saga, is extremely intriging. I'd like to hear peoples opinions on why they think Sony are playing things so cautiously? I have my own thoughts, of course, but it would be interesting to hear others.

I myself believe Sony to be in a bit of a quandry. They've designed and built a massively powerful machine with the intention to conquer the portable gaming sector. Blah blah multimedia this and that but its the games sector where the psp is primarily targeted.

Anyway they now have this machine ready and have built up many peoples and the industrys expectations. The stage is set to conquer the world but wait they're only targeting a meagre shipping forecast? Is this just a simple matter of Sony playing things safe or of having to gradually ramp up lcd production?

Or are there more things behind their decision? Regardless of what the cvg website says, no dev/publishers will be happy about this news. Less units available mean less to buy mean less people to buy their games!

Then we have a quote that the psp 'may not be profitable for years' well I never, who'd have thought that! Could this be a faint hint of damage limitation..?

Anyway what do others think?

[g-funk]

Simple, they initially planned on a price point of between $250-300, but after the DS announcement had to cut the price, so now they are releasing less machines to try and cut the loss they make this fiscal year.

By the next fiscal year they will probably be able to make them slightly cheaper, and will be launching in more countries. I also think that they had never planned to release just now, it was probably going to be held back until next year, but the DS made them enter the market a bit earlier.

The line up surely says that the machine isn't ready for launch.

IMO of course.

[gossi the dog]

Well I think Sony are struggling to manufacture enough units. A similar thing happened with the DC's Japanese launch where in the end approximately only 150,000 units made it for release after Sega had initially targeted 1 million. In reality it would probably make sense to delay the launch until early next year, but I guess it's too short notice now and they don't want to give Nintendo too much of a headstart.

As regards the console not being profitable for years I can see that being true. At best Sony will be selling the PSP at cost at worst they could be losing as much as $100 per unit. Take into account the huge sunk R&D and manufacturing (ie setting up plants to produce the machine) costs and it could take a fair bit of time for Sony to break even.

[Ginza]

Didnt they do the same thing with the PS2. I dont know entirely but I think they didnt ship an awful lot to the UK which meant that every man and his dog wanted one due to word of mouth and hype. Thats what they are probably trying to do with the PSP.

Its not going to work though this time TBH.

[DjSatansfury]

Its currently working with the PSTwo's though

[Ginza]

I laugh at that because it costs something hideously funny like ?10 to produce.

[mid]

The latest on Slashdot was that they are cutting the PSP shipping amounts to devote more manufacturing capacity to the PS2 (just like they did with the PS2 and PSOne when they launched together).

Which makes sense to me; PSP sales are far more likely to still be made post-Christmas than PS2 ones.

[Paul3704]

Battery problems.

SERIOUS battery problems.