Sony has issued a statement that neither confirms nor denies the reported demise of the PSPgo, saying only that it will continue to “meet the demand” for the current generation of PSPs.
Andriasang reported earlier today on a blog post written by a Japanese Sony Shop employee [“or at the very least a super-hardcore Sony fanatic”] claiming that his store had been told that it will receive no more shipments of the PSPgo because Sony has halted production of the device. Furthermore, the link to the PSPgo was removed from the Sony Store page and although the product listing is still available, it’s not orderable because no stock is available.
Sony, perhaps not surprisingly, doesn’t appear to be in too much of a hurry to clarify the situation. “It is a very exciting time for PlayStation portable devices,” the company said in a statement to Eurogamer. “Before the end of the year we are launching NGP, our next generation portable device, which we believe will revolutionize portable gaming. In the meantime, the current generation of PSPs continue to be in demand, especially since the introduction of our value for money, Essentials range of games and we will continue to meet that demand.”
The problem for Sony is that demand for the PSPgo has never been terribly high, thanks in large part to the lack of a UMD drive, a design choice which rendered existing PSP libraries useless. Various giveaway promotions, including an offer for ten free games with every new PSPgo, failed to make much of an impression on gamers, as did a fairly substantial price cut in October of last year. If it turns out that this report is correct and that Sony has actually pulled the plug on the PSPgo, I don’t think anyone will be terribly surprised.
