Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will lower the price of its PlayStation Portable gaming device by $30 to $170 amid intense competition among game console rivals, particularly Nintendo Co.
It's the first time Sony has officially lowered suggested retail prices on the PSP since its debut in March 2005. Video game publishers and financial analysts have been urging Sony to slash hardware prices in recent quarters.
The cuts come two months after Sony's gaming unit posted a third-quarter operating loss of $443 million, largely due to hefty costs for the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console.
Although Sony promised business at the gaming unit would improve by the latter half of the fiscal year, the company said declining sales during the October-December period of Sony's predecessor console, PlayStation 2, as well as the handheld PlayStation Portable and PSP game software, hurt quarterly profits at the gaming unit.
Sony's PSP competes mainly against Nintendo's Game Boy and DS. Despite being launched in 2004, the DS -- which some retailers sell for as little as $130 -- outsold every other console in the United States in February, registering 485,000 units sold, according to market researcher NPD Group.
Nintendo has also been a formidable player in next-generation consoles, traditionally a Sony stronghold.
The Nintendo Wii, released in November, sold 335,000 units during the month, followed by Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 with 228,000 units and Sony's PlayStation 3 with 127,000 units.
With its diminutive "Wiimote" -- a motion-sensitive, wrist-mounted remote control -- Nintendo's Wii has been a surprise hit among kids, women and older players, catching on far beyond the "hardcore" gamer niche of young men. The Wii sells for $250, far less than the PS3, which starts at $500.
Jack Tretton, president and chief executive of Foster City-based Sony Computer Entertainment America, said Sony's price cuts were an effort to make the game more affordable to young gamers.
"We have recently seen a steady rise in the number of teens adopting PSP as their primary handheld entertainment system, and we expect the new price will accelerate that trend," Tretton said in a statement.
Sony, which also lowered the price of its higher-end PSP Entertainment Pack 20 percent to $200, will launch a print and online advertising campaign targeted at teenagers.
In late November, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. slashed prices on the PSP to $170. Although world's largest retailer didn't release sales numbers, analysts said the promotion was a success, and they were encouraged about Sony's official new prices.
"We expect a modest step-up in PSP unit sales during an otherwise seasonally slower period for the video game industry," Colin Sebastian, senior research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco, wrote in an investor note.
Yes, that light pink rectangle you're looking at is an official shot of the Pink Zune, in all its magnenta-ish glory. We all knew it was coming -- and we've seen the rather more garish 100-unit hot pink Zune before -- so this isn't exactly the biggest news 'round these parts. No, if Microsoft really wanted to impress us, they'd take their minds off planning a targeted, 100,000 unit production run of pink cases and set their mind to really fixing the Zune. One of the fixes is sorta down already, but there's at least four more things that we think need to change in order for the social to get more members. Last time we checked, a Zune in a lighter shade of pink wasn't one of them, and neither was one in red.
