I was somewhat surprised with the PSP Go’s launch. It was not the device that was unexpected but rather its price and form factor. Usually, when a portable gaming machine (or a console) has been out for years, a company improves it while lowering prices. Instead, Sony went an unconventional route and radically altered the PSP’s functionality by releasing the PSP Go, which removed the ability to play hundreds of existing UMD-only games that millions of PSP owners already have in their collection. In addition to this bizarre move, Sony also made the PSP Go a “premium” PSP and decided to sell it for substantially more than the standard unit.

In some ways, the PSP Go is a good idea because it caters to PSP fanboys who can afford to spend for it, yet the Go is a poor strategy for convincing potential new buyers. Sales figures have demonstrated that the product is a failure thus far, especially in Australia. Stateside and in Japan, the Go had a modestly successful debut, but the November sales figures from NPD are in, and they are alarmingly scary for Sony:

1. 1.7 million DS
2. 1.2 million Wii
3. 820,000 Xbox 360
4. 710,000 PlayStation 3
5. 293,000 PSP (PSP-3000 and Go combined)

I personally believe that if Sony had given the Go more significant upgrades over the PSP-3000, that many gamers would pay the extra for it, even without UMD support. However, the Go is a minor upgrade over the 3000 and is a downgrade in its lack of UMD support. Look at those DS numbers. Does Sony actually think that it can compete with Nintendo here?