Cut by 50%
In a bid to encourage designers to create new games for the PSP, SN Systems, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, has cut the price for all of its PSP development tools by half.SN Systems say that their support fees will also benefit from the same 50% reduction in price. The reduction in support fees will also apply to developers seeking to renew their annual support on existing PSP products.
Andy Beveridge, Director of SN Systems, commented, "SN Systems development tools for PSP are well-established and mature, having been on sale since the end of 2004. Since then, the tools have grown extensively as a result of direct feedback from PSP game title developers. Significantly reducing the cost of the tools will help to ensure that PSP game title developers have everything they need to continue creating great titles. This price reduction, coupled with the recent addition of Tuner (performance optimizer) to ProDG for PSP, makes the core development tool a very attractive package.”
Sony benefited greatly from a similar move last year when they reduced the cost of a PS3 development kit by 50%, which they then followed with a reduction in the console price to consumers. The move saw sales of the PS3 almost double during that period.
So, will Sony do the same with the PSP and cut the price to consumers? Although software sales were down by 3 million units, Sony’s last quarter results show PSP hardware sales are still going strong thanks to the introduction of the PSP slim, with 5.76 million units sold worldwide. It seems unlikely that they’ll make such a drastic move in the first quarter of 2008.
