Retail: 'Surprisingly' Excited' by PSP Go

According to Sony, retailers are "surprisingly" excited by the UMD-less PSP Go. We're surprised as well given that once you've sold a PSP Go, well, as a retailer you can't sell any games to go with it... accessories, yes; games vouchers, surely; games themselves? Nope.

"[Feedback] has actually been quite positive", PSN operations director Eric Lempel told IndustryGamers. "Some of the retailers were brought in early on this, and we said, 'Hey, here's the direction we're going with this.' As you know, there are lots of other devices on the market that just don't have a software component at retail. So surprisingly, they're excited", he said.

"So I definitely understand where the question's coming from and I also thought it would be interesting to see what happens when you say [to them], 'Sell this but there's not going to be a software component.' But there's still an accessory component and we've got a pretty strong accessory line; there will be new accessories planned for Go at some point. So retailers were embracing it and it seems like they're happy with the product", Lempel went on.

SCEE's new president and CEO, Andrew House, has also said that retail may well still get a look in on software sales through in-store card and voucher sales.

Still, the download-only PSP Go! is definitely a warning shot at traditional retail. They may still get a sniff of new software sales through card and voucher sales, but pre-owned sales - a huge revenue component for high street games sellers - are a goner under the digital delivery model.

Thankfully for retail, Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has said that the PS3 won't go the digital-only route of the PSP Go!.