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DAILY MANIFESTO

The People Speak: Price Wars

Posted on Sunday, March 6 @ 11:15:55 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Last week we found out that the PSP-3000 was getting a price drop to what seemed like quite the sweet spot. Is $130 the right price with years and years of great games to play?

Every time a console gets a price cut, it immediately starts the speculation: what will the DS drop to? Which console will drop in price next? How much should I spend on my PC every year? These questions and more were supposed to be answered in this week's edition of The People Speak. Instead, UghRochester and Longo_2_guns decided to argue about supply and demand instead. What about the money?

De-Ting addressed the topic when he said "I'm disappointed that they didn't drop it to $100 like they did with the PS2." I think we'd all like to see the PSP-3000 at that price but De-Ting explained "Not just because it's cheaper, but the number looks prettier. Noticeably more people would buy if they made it more appealing."

SpitefulSerpent5 spoke about the effect the used game market has on the price of games themsevles. "Gaming companies seem to have two real solutions to this problem that I can see from the admittedly limited time I've put to thinking on the problem: focus on making games with real quality that they know fans will want to buy new and encourage buying in that manner through use of DLC."

cyberjim2000 revealed his love of cereal box prizes when he wrote that "In my perfect world the PSP and the DS would be like prizes you get from a cereal. Like you pour cereal into your bowl and a PSP drops."

Addressing the question in reality, cyberjim2000 said that "$130 USD is a very sweet spot for the PSP. It's the same price as a new DS Lite and relatively cheaper than a new DSi and DSiXL. For the 3DS, the price does seem a bit pricey for a handheld but the PSP was $200 USD when it was first released so that seems fair. Although, I'd probably wait until there's more games out before buying one. I don't know about the consoles, I'm out of touch in that area. Like most PC gamers, I'd usually assemble the PC myself so it's a little cheaper than buying it whole from whomever."

LinksOcarina also addressed the PSP-3000 price drop when he wrote that "My guess though is the reason is to bring in the new, more expensive system. As for the price itself, I have no interest anyway since I bought a first generation PSP for $60.00 over a year ago. So I personally think it's too little, too late because either everyone in the core audience has a PSP already, or that the lack of games actually coming out for it will deter new customers for the system. Plus most of the games coming out now are pretty much niche titles, like Tactics Ogre."

Niche titles like those are exactly the kind of games people like me would finally drop the cash on a PSP for.

Thanks to everyone who spoke this week. Got a suggestion for next week's topic? Leave it in the comments or send an e-mail to daniel@gamerevolution.com. If you want to be featured in The People Speak (which normally runs on Saturdays), you can register and hop into our forums. Find yourself on the front page after participating in this week's discussion: "If you haven't already read the Battlefield 3 preview I wrote, you should probably check it out here. You see, the last time I bothered to upgrade my computer was for Battlefield 2. That game was fucking awesome. With Battlefield 3 shaping up to be awesome, it's probably time to look at building a new computer. I need your help though. What components are needed for the latest PC games? Think about processors, motherboards, RAM, graphics cards, sound cards, EVERYTHING. Here's the curveball: All of these components have to fit into an $800 budget. Go!"

Tags: The People Speak